As NC State baseball begins ACC tournament, here are 4 things to know about Wolfpack

The N.C. State baseball team enters the ACC baseball tournament this week as the No. 10 seed.

The Wolfpack (33-20, 14-15 ACC) will face No. 6 seed Wake Forest (39-16-1, 15-14-1) at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, and will take on No. 3 Miami (39-16, 20-10) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

This week’s matchup will mark the first meeting of the season between the Pack and Hurricanes. The Demon Deacons won three games in Raleigh during the final weekend of the regular season.

The trio of teams are in Pool C. The team with the best record after pool play advances to the weekend. If the teams are tied after the completion of pool play, the team with the highest seed in the pool will advance to the semifinals.

All ACC tournament games will be played at Truist Field, home of the Charlotte Knights. During pool play, the games will be broadcast on Regional Sports Networks and ACC Network Extra.

After appearing in the ACC title game a year ago and advancing to the College World Series, N.C. State didn’t have the bounce-back season many expected. That can all be corrected, though, with a good showing in Charlotte this week.

NCAA tournament hopes

What are the projections for N.C. State to play beyond the ACC tournament?

Currently, D1baseball.com has the Wolfpack as the No. 3 seed in the Eugene Regional. Oregon is the top seed in that regional. The rest of that field includes No. 2 Gonzaga and No. 4 UNLV. N.C. State made five straight trips to the NCAA tournament from 2015-19. There was no tournament in 2020 due to COVID, and N.C. State was back in 2021.

The Wolfpack has not won an ACC tournament since 1992.

Home run king

N.C. State rookie first baseman Tommy White broke the ACC’s freshman home run record, which stood for 24 years, hitting 23 this season.

White, a native of St. Pete Beach, Florida, is two homers away from the Pack single-season record and three away from the NCAA record.

White led the team in hits (80) and RBIs (68).

On Monday, White was named the ACC freshman of the year. He is the fourth N.C. State player to be selected as the league’s freshman of the year and the first since 2018.

In his collegiate debut, White hit three home runs against Evansville. He finished that opening weekend with five home runs. White has five games this season with multiple home runs.

All-ACC trio

N.C. State had three players make all-tournament teams at the end of the regular season.

Along with White (all-ACC freshman team, all-ACC first team), sophomore LuJames Groover (second team) and senior Devonte Brown (third team) were honored.

Groover had 78 hits with a team-leading .431 on-base percentage. He had a .355 batting average, with at least one hit in 44 games.

Brown led the team with a .431 on-base percentage, with 61 runs scored and 13 home runs. Brown, a center fielder, did not commit an error in ACC play this season.

Backing into tournament play

Unfortunately, momentum isn’t on N.C. State’s side as it heads to Charlotte.

Wake Forest swept the Wolfpack over the weekend in Raleigh, shutting out N.C. State, 5-0, in Saturday’s finale.

The Wolfpack is 4-6 in its last 10 games against the Demon Deacons. A loss in pool play would tie N.C. State’s longest losing streak to Wake Forest (four games).

This week will be the first time since 2012 (Greensboro) the two teams will meet at a neutral site. N.C. State won that game, 7-3.