Diamond Heels Conclude Regular Season, Turn Page To Postseason
North Carolina fell 7-2 Saturday afternoon in Raleigh, and enters next week's ACC Tournament locked into the No. 2 seed.
Diamond Heels Conclude Regular Season, Turn Page To Postseason
- Thread starter SpencerHaskell
- Start date
It's the third straight year of being a top 8 national seed if memory serves me correctly.
Need to get to Omaha this year. Cant fall short two years in a row with how highly we’ve been ranked.
A little concerned about pitching depth in regional- super format but so is everyone else - need more consistent offense from here on out- been a fun year!
Same here. Can we count on some of the guys that may be forced into action? We will find out.
Since we only trust 4 pitchers, our best chance to win a regional is to go 3-0 but in Forbes’ tenure, the 3 regionals we’ve won have all gone to the winner take all game at the end. 2022 VCU, 2024 LSU and 2025 Oklahoma. To our credit we’ve won all 3.
It would also help if the selection committee doesn't screw us with a 4 seed like Campbell, who both D1 and BA put in Chapel Hill in their latest brackets. Assuming Campbell wins their conference tourney, they are probably the highest ranked 4 seed in the field. You can't justify putting Campbell in Chapel Hill for travel reasons, and then sending Niagara to Austin or Corvallis. Give us a 4 seed commensurate with our overall national seed, and let Forbes at least consider throwing someone other than DeCaro or Lynch in the first regional game.
I agree getting Campbell would be brutal. But Long Island and Holy Cross the last two years haven’t exactly been juggernauts they’ve sent us. And since Long Island was like a whisker away from beating us two years ago, I highly doubt you’ll see us throw Boaz in the opening game of the postseason against anybody.
I was all about throwing off in the first game in 2010 in the Norman regional (Fox didn’t do it), but I’m not sure I have the stomach for it in 2026, even if it’s not Campbell. Maybe if it’s some team who wins the auto bid from the MEAC and is ranked like #300 in the RPI, haha.
A big part of the problem is DeCaro and Lynch tend to throw too many pitches. When your starter is pushing 100 pitches after 5 innings, or worse, like Lynch at 99 after 3.1 IP Friday night, it means bringing in Glauber and McDuffie too early in the game,
I know it's a bit of an exaggeration, but it seems like unless the opposing batter puts the ball in play in the first 1-2 pitches, we seem to get to 3 balls 90% of the time.
Just watched the D1 "Nerdcast" as they call it, discussing their upcoming bracket release. The good news is they have bumped Campbell up to a 3 seed, although I guess they could still end up in Chapel Hill as our 3 seed.
They currently have both VT and the wolpfack as bubble teams.
They currently have both VT and the wolpfack as bubble teams.
Part of the reason i think Decaro and Lynch get such a high pitch count is we don't give in to hitters . Case in point Thu night vs State walk the first two hitters sometimes just go middle/ middle and pitch to contact especially with a good size lead ( i understand that you don't in a tight game) IF we play weak four I am ok with starting DeCaro and if we get a good lead just throw strikes and let them hit keep the pitch count down and win the game and maybe he can go 8 innings. The key to the regional is obviously winning the first two but winning and having Glob and McDuffy available Saturday night fresh.
I would be completely fine with Campbell as our 3 seed. However, will be pretty hot if they end up in any national seeds region as a 4. They’re got to somewhat try and put the hardest 4 seeds in the weakest 1 seed regionals.
A little off topic for this thread but it would be nice if they would go ahead and made the regional ticket request deadline before the brackets are released. I could easily see ECU or someone similar as our 3 seed assuming they make the field and would prefer no one is buying tickets only once the teams are announced.
A little off topic for this thread but it would be nice if they would go ahead and made the regional ticket request deadline before the brackets are released. I could easily see ECU or someone similar as our 3 seed assuming they make the field and would prefer no one is buying tickets only once the teams are announced.
I agree, although that will never happen. In the D1 Nerdcast, Liberty, Campbell, ECU and High Point were all slotted as potential 3 seeds. We don't need Rams Club members ordering extra tickets for their ECU friends / family members / work colleagues, and we have seen that happen more than once. We also don't need to have someone like Tennessee as our 2 seed, encouraging those looking for a quick profit to order extra tickets.
Well between Liberty, Campbell , ECU and high point one will be in Chapel Hill for sure. I would be ok with Campbell as the four seed and high point as the three as long as no SEC teams as the two seed . Place Jax State as the two seed and sign me up.
Baseball America just released their new bracket and they have Carolina as the number 5 national seed and have Tennessee as the two seed , ECU as the three and holy cross as the 4 seed. Tickets for that bracket will be hard to find.
That is a worst case scenario for Rams Club members who don't have many points, and also don't have season tickets. The good news is BA has us paired with the Nebraska regional. I know they are 10 in the RPI, but only 19 in the DSR, which I think is a better metric.
Speaking of the DSR, we are #2 today. In the Nerdcast, they noted that the softball selection committee bracket lined up closer with the DSR than the RPI.
Speaking of the DSR, we are #2 today. In the Nerdcast, they noted that the softball selection committee bracket lined up closer with the DSR than the RPI.
My personal opinion is the committee want send ECU to Chapel Hill as we play that 3 game traveling series each year.i think the 3 is going to be high point or Liberty. ECU probably heads to UGA or GA Tech but it's all a guessing game at this point. The committee can shift two seed numbers around to get certain matchups and every projected bracket seems to have Tennessee coming to Carolina.
Fox rarely held a pitcher for the winner's bracket game, though, right? Certainly Campbell would take the option off the table, but the NCAA still leans on geographical proximity as a key component of regional makeup.
While I understand it, it's also a shame if geographical proximity is a main priority when making up the regions. That could lead to some really unfair situations when compared across the country, as noted with Campbell. A state with several strong teams ends up being a disadvantage for all those teams.
Well I’ll give the ticket office credit. Just got email requests due by this Friday. Should avoid anyone proactively buying for friends of the opponent.
He did in both 2008 and 2009, but our #3 starter both years was a pretty fair pitcher named Matt Harvey. In 2011, he flipped #1 Patrick Johnson and #2 Kent Emanuel. In 2012, he started #3 Hobbs Johnson, but all 3 weekend starters had sub-2 ERAs. In 2013, he started #2 Benton Moss instead of Kent Emanuel.
I don't recall it happening since then, but then again, we haven't had 3 stud starters in those subsequent years. I think Forbes would have considered flipping Knapp and DeCaro last year, except Holy Cross had a very good starter who ultimately was drafted in the 8th round, so he couldn't risk it.
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Depending on who the 4 is, I could see an argument for Lynch starting being based on his fastball. If you think the 4 seed just isn’t going to be able to handle it, and the 2/3 teams could, you maybe let him go Friday and then if his slider isn’t totally on you can still get pretty far on the strength of the FB alone.
They've made the deadline before the bracket was released for at least the last 3 years, from what I remember.
Oklahoma flipped their rotation in last year's regional...got the match up they wanted, and got blasted by the home team. (And maybe I misremembering but the majority of posters were worried sick because of the move by OU....)
Stick with what works and has worked IMO unless there's a rest issue which given how these things are now set up, guys will be on normal (or more) rest going into the regionals anway.
Stick with what works and has worked IMO unless there's a rest issue which given how these things are now set up, guys will be on normal (or more) rest going into the regionals anway.
D1 baseball just released their brackets they have Carolina as the number 4 national seed along with UCF as the 2 seed, high point as the 3 seed and Saint Joes as the 4 seed.I would take that bracket and count my blessings. I am not saying we can't get beat but it also paired with Nebraska.
Now that I think about it. you are correct. I was looking at the bill dates on my credit card statements, and they were after Memorial Day, but then realized they didn't finalize charges until we were officially in the field, and tickets were assigned.
It was hugely important for the LSU series. People would have seen a chance to make a profit if the deadline was after the selection and I doubt I would have gotten tickets given my rank.
I wouldn't say rarely. He did it in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2013 at least. He definitely didn't do it much late in his career.
Of course in most of those games, he could hold a pitcher and still start Robert Woodard, Matt Harvey, or Kent Emmanuel in the first game. That makes it easier to throw off.
I take a better 4 like ST Joe and UCF as the 2 seed and High point as the 3 seed vs Tennessee and ECU any day.