University of North Carolina Athletics
Carolina Baseball Invited to NCAA Tournament
May 22, 2000 | Baseball
May 22, 2000
CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina baseball team has been selected as one of 64 teams to participate in the 2000 NCAA Baseball Tournament, which begins next weekend at 16 different sites across the country. Carolina earned a No. 2 seed and will face third-seeded Penn State on Friday, May 26 at Yogi Berra Park in Upper Montclair, N.J. Rutgers is the host of the Regional and earned the No. 1 seed, while Army is the No. 4 seed.
"We're very excited to have been selected to the NCAA Tournament. It was certainly a goal of ours at the start of the season, and so this is very good news for all of us," head coach Mike Fox said. "This will be a great challenge for our team, and we'll prepare as hard as we can this week to be ready to compete with the best. You always know when you get to this time of the year that you need to be playing your best baseball if you want to be successful."
Carolina, which is ranked No. 21 in the nation by Baseball America and is 44-15 on the season, will be competing in its third consecutive NCAA Tournament for just the second time in school history. The last time the Tar Heels earned three straight NCAA berths was from 1982-84.
Carolina and Penn State met earlier in the year in a doubleheader on Feb. 13 in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels took both of those contests, 21-10 and 3-2 (10 innings), en route to a school-best 21-game winning streak to open the season. After dropping those two games to open the year, Penn State finished 41-16, 18-9 in the Big Ten. Last weekend, Penn State fell 5-3 to Illinois in the Big Ten title game.
Tyrell Godwin, Carolina's starting left fielder and a two-time All-ACC pick, is expected to play this weekend after missing all of last weekend's ACC Tournament with a strained right quadriceps.
Div. I Regional Matchups
National Top Eight Seeds are in parentheses.
| May 26-28 at Columbia, S.C. 1. South Carolina (1) 2. Wake Forest 3. Seton Hall 4. Liberty |
May 26-28 at Lafayette, La. 1. East Carolina 2. Louisiana-Lafayette 3. McNeese State 4. Marist |
| May 26-28 at Minneapolis 1. Nebraska 2. Minnesota 3. Wichita State 4. Butler |
May 26-28 at Palo Alto, Calif. 1. Stanford (8) 2. Alabama 3. Nevada 4. Fresno State |
| May 26-28 at Houston, Texas 1. Houston (5) 2. Rice 3. Texas Tech 4. Princeton |
May 26-28 at Waco, Texas 1. Baylor 2. Florida 3. San Jose State 4. Southwest Texas State |
| May 26-28 at Starkville, Miss. 1. Mississippi State 2. Tulane 3. Notre Dame 4. South Alabama |
May 26-28 at Clemson, S.C. 1. Clemson (4) 2. Old Dominion 3. Illinois 4. Middle Tennessee State |
| May 26-28 at Baton Rouge, La. 1. LSU (2) 2. New Orleans 3. La.-Monroe 4. Jackson State |
May 26-28 at Oklahoma City, Okla. 1. UCLA 2. Oklahoma 3. Oral Roberts 4. Delaware |
| May 26-28 at Upper Montclair, N.J. 1. Rutgers 2. North Carolina 3. Penn State 4. Army |
May 26-28 at Tempe, Ariz. 1. Arizona State (7) 2. Texas 3. Creighton 4. Miami (Ohio) |
| May 26-28 at Tallahassee, Fla. 1. Florida State (6) 2. Central Florida 3. Evansville 4. Bethune-Cookman |
May 26-28 at Coral Gables, Fla. 1. Miami (Fla.) 2. Florida Atlantic 3. Florida International 4. Wagner |
| May 26-28 at Fullerton, Calif. 1. Southern California 2. Cal State Fullerton 3. Loyola Marymount 4. Virginia Tech |
May 26-28 at Atlanta, Ga. 1. Georgia Tech (3) 2. Auburn 3. Stetson 4. Georgia Southern |
