North Carolina finer than Notre Dame in ACC semifinals
The last thing Link Jarrett was worried about locating Saturday after his Notre Dame team’s choppy exit from the ACC Baseball Championship in Charlotte, N.C., was a reset button.
“I think you constantly reset what you’re doing whether you win or whether you lose,” the third-year Irish coach said after No. 8 seed North Carolina bounced fourth-seeded ND, 7-2, in the tourney’s semifinals at Truist Field.
“So today will be no different. Those guys will be in the team room, and we’ll go through our 15-minute talk on what happened and what we did well and what we need to improve on.
“It's just the constant desire to play elite-type baseball every day, every inning. And that’s our constant reset.”
Notre Dame (35-14), seemingly did enough in its tourney pooi-play games — against Florida State and Virginia — to be a lock to exercise that desire at home, at Frank Eck Stadium.
The Irish will find out for sure all the bracket particulars on Monday via the ESPN2 bracket-reveal show at noon EDT. Regional play begins Friday at 16 sites. But the NCAA released the host sites Sunday night, and Notre Dame was not among them.
The gray area should have revolved around whether the Irish were a top eight seed, which would also have given them hosting privileges for the Super Regional round — should they win their regional — once the NCAA field is reduced from 64 to 16.
“Do I think we’re a (top 8) national seed?” Jarrett interjected before the media could ask him again. “I do.”
The Irish certainly look that way when they play in South Bend, Ind. Notre Dame is 17-3 at home this season, and only Gonzaga among the nation’s top 60 teams in the RPI played fewer home games than ND’s 20 this season.
DI Baseball projects 10 ACC teams into the NCAA field, which would tie a record for most teams from any conference.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame surged in both the RPI and DI Baseball’s seeding projections after its 5-3 victory over Florida State on Thursday and its 3-0 blanking of 17th-ranked Virginia on Friday.
The Irish were eighth in the RPI heading into the North Carolina game and the No. 8 national seed after the loss, per DI baseball, after being projected at No. 12 before the 12-team ACC tournament began.
Until the eighth inning Saturday, it looked like they might be able to build on those recent advancements. Instead the Tar Heels (37-19) became the ninth lower-seeded team in the first 13 games of the tourney to come out with a win.
That after drubbing tourney top seed and No. 2 nationally ranked Virginia Tech and its ace Dure Hackenberg, 10-0, on Friday night.
In a 2-2 game Saturday, Jarrett turned to senior lefty Aidan Tyrell to start the top of the eighth on the mound for the Irish. And North Carolina promptly loaded the bases with no outs on a single by Mikey Madej (4-for-4 with four runs scored), an error on a sacrifice bunt, and a walk to a .121 hitter, Patrick Alvarez.
Righty Jackson Dennies came on to record a strikeout of the only batter he faced. Johnny Castagnozzi. Lefty Will Mercer then relieved and struck out Angel Zarate. But Mac Horvath singled in the go-ahead run and Danny Serretti doubled in two more for a 5-2 Carolina lead.
The Tar Heels had been 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position up to that point.
Radek Birkholtz then became the fourth ND pitcher in that inning and got the third out. The Tar Heels, winners of 14 of their past 16 games, tacked on two more runs in the ninth.
North Carolina will look to capture its eighth ACC Championship since the league went to a tourney format, Sunday at noon against 10th-seed NC State (36-20), with Jarrett's son, J.T., its starting second baseman.
The Irish were trying to reach the finals of the ACC Baseball Championship for the first time since joining the league in 2014.
“We never really had the momentum in this game,” Jarrett lamented.
The Irish did have the lead briefly, though. A solo home run by Jack Brannigan in the third tied the game at 1-1, and Carter Putz’s solo shot in the bottom of the fifth put the Irish ahead, 2-1. The Tar Heels got the run back in the top of the sixth on an RBI double by Hunter Stokely off reliever Alex Rao.
“North Carolina played a very good game,” Jarrett said. “It was a well-rounded game. They did a very nice job today. They deserved to win that game. Their relief today was clearly a little more sharp than ours.”
Notre Dame got All-ACC outfielder Ryan Cole back in its lineup Saturday, albeit as a DH, after he missed the first two tourney games with an aggravated hamstring. The Irish hope to get second baseman Jared Miller back as well soon. He’s been out since mid-May with a separated shoulder.
There's no such uncertainly in Jarrett's mind about the team's psyche.
“This didn’t shake the mindset of our team,” Jarrett said of the loss. “We won enough difficult games all over the place.”
ACC BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
May 24-29 at Truist Field, Charlotte, N.C.
POOL A – #1 Virginia Tech, #8 North Carolina, #12 Clemson
POOL B – #2 Louisville, #7 Georgia Tech, #11 Pitt
POOL C – #3 Miami, #6 Wake Forest, #10 NC State
POOL D – #4 Notre Dame, #5 Virginia, #9 Florida State
Tuesday, May 24
No. 11 Pitt 12, No. 7 Georgia Tech 6
No. 10 NC State 11, No. 6 Wake Forest 8
No. 8 North Carolina 9, No. 12 Clemson 2
Wednesday, May 25
No. 11 Pitt 6, No. 2 Louisville 5
No. 9 Florida State 13, No. 5 Virginia 3 (8 innings)
No. 10 NC State 9, No. 3 Miami 6
Thursday, May 26
No. 7 Georgia Tech 9, No. 2 Louisville 4
No. 4 Notre Dame 5, No. 9 Florida State 3
No. 1 Virginia Tech 18, No. 12 Clemson 6
Friday, May 27
No. 4 Notre Dame 3, No. 5 Virginia 0
No. 6 Wake Forest 16, No. 3 Miami 3 (7 innings)
No. 8 North Carolina 10, No. 1 Virginia Tech 0
Saturday, May 28
Semifinals
No. 8 North Carolina 7, No. 4 Notre Dame 2
No. 10 NC State 8, No. 11 Pitt 3
Sunday, May 29
Championship
No. 8 North Carolina (37-19) vs. No. 10 NC State (36-20), Noon (ESPN2/ACCN Extra)
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