The North Carolina baseball team didn’t win the ACC championship Sunday, falling victim to a five-run eighth-inning in a 7-3 loss to Florida State in the conference tournament final at Louisville Slugger Park. But the second-ranked Tar Heels did get a nice consolation prize a few hours later when they were selected as one of 16 regional hosts for the upcoming NCAA tournament. It’s the ninth time UNC has served as a regional host and eighth time since 2006. The Tar Heels (47-12) have advanced to the Super Regionals on six of those previous occasions, including the most recent in 2013 on the way to the College World Series. Wake Forest, by contrast, hasn’t hosted an NCAA regional since 2002. That streak will end this year, however, now that the Deacons have been selected to join UNC among the top 16 seeds in this year’s tournament. Coach Tom Walter’s was ousted by Miami in pool play at the ACC tournament on Friday, but with a 39-18 overall record and a school-record 19 conference wins, they earned the right to host three other teams at David F. Couch Ballpark next weekend. The Deacons are 21-7 at home and have won all six series played there this season. Other ACC teams selected as regional hosts are newly crowned tournament champions Florida State, Louisville and Clemson. LSU, Oregon State, Arkansas, TCU, Florida, Southern Miss, Houston, Kentucky, Long Beach State, Texas Tech and Stanford were also selected to host regionals. Each regional will feature four teams in a double-elimination format. All but one of the regionals will start on Friday and run through Monday, June 5 (if necessary) with the winners matching up in eight Super Regionals. UNC and Wake Forest will learn which teams will join them at their respective regionals when the remainder of the 64-team NCAA tournament field is announced Monday afternoon.
