NCAA Terre Haute Regional Preview

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Monday brought the announcement of the NCAA Championship field of 64 and, with it, the news that North Carolina would be traveling to the NCAA Terre Haute Regional. Here's a quick look at the three teams the Tar Heels will face this weekend.

No. 1 Indiana State
Location: Terre Haute, Ind.
Record: 42-15, 19-4 MVC
Bid: Automatic

Indiana State is the No. 14 national seed after winning the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title by six games and claiming the conference tournament title. The Sycamores outscored their opponents 39-12 in five games at The Valley championship, and the pitching staff combined to put together two shutouts in ISU's eighth tournament title in program history.

ISU is the NCAA leader in fielding percentage (0.984), third in WHIP (1.23), fifth in ERA (3.80), fifth in shutouts (7), eighth in hit by pitch (114), and seventh in walks allowed per nine innings (3.15). ISU is also top-20 in hits allowed per nine innings (791) and 16th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.73).

Keegan Watson enters the postseason as Indiana State's overall leading hitter on the season with a .308 batting average. The redshirt senior has posted 19 extra-base hits on the year, including five home runs and 25 RBI, while adding 30 runs scored. Mike Sears is the team's leader with 19 home runs and 59 RBIs on the year. Right-handed pitcher Connor Fenlong (13-6, 3.84) was voted The Valley's Pitcher of the Year.

The Tar Heels and Sycamores have never met on the diamond.

No. 2 Iowa
Location: Iowa City, Iowa
Record: 42-14, 15-8 Big Ten
Bid: At-large

Iowa is making its sixth NCAA Tournament appearance and first since 2017. The Hawkeyes finished third in the Big Ten and reached the finals of the conference tournament before losing to Maryland.

Iowa ranks 23rd nationally with 8.3 runs per game, while its pitching staff is one of the premier units in the nation.

The Hawkeye pitchers have a 4.04 ERA, good for 11th in the nation. The Iowa staff ranks second in the country in hits allowed per nine innings (6.68) and fifth in strikeouts per nine (11.0), while its defense has a .981 fielding percentage which ranks 14th in the country. Iowa ranks 14th in the nation in on-base percentage (.418), 20th in the nation in runs scored, 25th in doubles (126), and 27th in base on balls (311).

Friday's game will be the second postseason meeting between the Tar Heels and Hawkeyes. UNC posted a 5-3 victory over Iowa at the 1990 NCAA Northeast Regional in Waterbury, Conn.

No. 4 Wright State
Location: Dayton, Ohio
Record: 39-21, 22-8 Horizon
Bid: Automatic

Wright State clinched its 11th NCAA Division I appearance after winning the Horizon League Baseball Championship for the third consecutive year. After losing to Oakland on the third day of the tournament, the Raiders followed with three-straight elimination games wins, punctuated by a 14-0 victory over the Golden Grizzlies in the title game.

Wright State led the Horizon League with 70 home runs, paced by Andrew Patrick with a team-leading 17 in the category. Jay Luikart and Gehrig Anglin homered nine times.

Wright State's pitching staff sits top-100 nationally and first in the Horizon League in walks allowed per nine innings (29th,3.60), shutouts (31st, 4), strikeout-to-walk ratio (33rd, 2.44),
WHIP (52nd, 1.41), ERA (58th, 4.85), hits allowed per nine innings (80th, 9.14), and strikeouts per nine innings (96th, 8.8).

Dayton, Ohio native Sebastian Gongora was named the 2023 Horizon League Pitcher of the Year, compiling a 10-1 record with a 2.92 ERA and 82 strikeouts in 86.1 innings. Gongora's 10 wins in 2023 are tied for eighth nationally.

In their only previous meetings, UNC swept a three-game series from the Raiders at Boshamer Stadium in 2012.

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