Tough Path Awaits Notre Dame Baseball In ACC Tournament

Notre Dame baseball draws Wake Forest and Pittsburgh in ACC Tournament pool play with NCAA hopes on the line

Notre Dame’s path to the NCAA Tournament won’t be easy. The Fighting Irish (30-22, 15-15) are the No. 8 seed in this week’s ACC Baseball Tournament and find themselves on the NCAA Tournament entering pool play with No. 1 overall seed Wake Forest (45-9 overall, 22-7 ACC) and No. 12 seed Pittsburgh (23-30, 10-18) in Pool A in Durham, North Carolina.

The ACC Tournament features four pools with three teams in each pool in the opening rounds of play. Each team in the four pools plays one game against each of the other two opponents in its pool Tuesday through Friday (May 23-26). The four teams with the best records in their respective pools then advance to Saturday’s semifinals. The two semifinal winners then play in the May 28 ACC Championship Game. All games take place at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

Notre Dame’s opening round game is against Pittsburgh at 11 am Wednesday morning. They have Thursday off and then face Wake Forest at 7 pm Friday night. If the teams are tied at the completion of pool play, the team with the highest seed in the respective pool will advance.

The Fighting Irish enter the tournament with the No. 48 RPI in the nation after losing two of three games at Boston College to close the regular season. The Eagles are the No. 6 seed in the tournament and have the No. 14 RPI in the nation.

Wake Forest is not only the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament. The Demon Deacons are also the No. 1 team in the nation in every major poll entering this week’s tournament. The Irish lost two of three games to Wake in Winston-Salem back in March. The Demon Deacons won all 10 of their ACC series during the regular season. The Irish took two out of three games against Pittsburgh in early April.

Here’s what pool pairings look like:

Pool A: Wake Forest (45-9 overall, 22-7 ACC), No. 8 Notre Dame (30-22, 15-15) and No. 12 Pittsburgh (23-30, 10-18).

Pool B: No. 2 Virginia (44-11, 19-11), No. 7 North Carolina (33-21, 14-14) and No. 11 Georgia Tech (30-25, 12-18)

Pool C: No. 3 Clemson (39-17, 20-10), No. 6 Boston College (34-17, 16-14) and No. 10 Virginia Tech (30-21, 12-17).

Pool D: No. 4 Miami (37-18, 18-12), No. 5 Duke (35-19, 16-13) and No. 9 NC State (34-18, 13-16).

ACC Network will carry each of the pool play games Tuesday through Friday, in addition to both of Saturday’s semifinals. Sunday’s championship is scheduled for a noon start and will be carried nationally by ESPN2.

Notre Dame earned at-large NCAA Tournament berths in each of the last two seasons. The Fighting advanced to the College World Series for the first time in 20 years last year. The program is looking to earn a third consecutive NCAA bid for the first time since the 2004-2006 seasons, which ended a run of eight straight NCAA appearances. 

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