Noting #ACCBaseball: College World Series Edition #CWS
No. 1 Virginia, No. 3 North Carolina punch tickets to Omaha.



June 15, 2011

ACColades

Nationally No. 1-seeded Virginia and No. 3 seed North Carolina will represent the ACC in the 65th Men’s College World Series, which gets under way Saturday at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha in Omaha, Neb. ... UNC (50-14) opens Saturday at 2 p.m. vs. No. 6 seed Vanderbilt (52-10), while the Cavaliers see their first action in Sunday’s 2 p.m. game vs. California (37-21) ... Both ACC teams will be the designated “home” squads for their opening games of the eight-team series, which is scheduled to run through June 28 or 29 ... North Carolina is making its fifth CWS appearance in six years and its ninth overall ... Virginia will be making its second appearance, both of which have come in the last three seasons ... In addition to national live coverage on ESPN and ESPN2, all games of the 2011 CWS will be broadcast nationwide on SiriusXM ... All weekend and evening games will be on SiriusXM College Sports Nation, Channel 91 ... Weekday 2 p.m. ET games will air on Sirius 94 and XM 190. 

By The Numbers

3 - Three ACC teams were among the top five national seeds of the 2011 NCAA Division I Championship field (Virginia No. 1, North Carolina No. 3 and Florida State No. 5).

4 - ACC players selected in the first round of the 2011 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. At least one student-athlete from an ACC program has been taken in the first round of each of the last 20 MLB Drafts, and the conference has boasted multiple first-round selections in 10 of the  last 11 years. At least 50 total ACC players have been taken in each of the last six drafts.

5 - Coach Mike Fox’s North Carolina team is returning to the College World Series for the fifth time in six years. This also marks the fifth year that the Tar Heels have won at least 50 games in a season.


 

 

14 - Since 2006, the ACC has placed 14 teams in the College World Series and has sent multiple teams to Omaha in five of those six seasons.

16 - Virginia’s pitching staff has posted an NCAA-leading and ACC-record 16 shutouts in 2011, including Will Roberts’ perfect game -- the eighth in NCAA history -- vs. George Washington on March 29.

32 - In his three years at Virginia, ACC Pitcher of the Year Danny Hultzen is 32-5 with a 2.14 ERA – tops among current ACC pitchers with 100 or more career innings pitched.

54 - With 54 wins thus far, ACC Coach of the Year Brian O’Connor’s  Virginia team owns the school record for wins in a season, topping the previous mark of 51 set last season.

70 - ACC Freshman of the Year Colin Moran of North Carolina leads the ACC in RBI and needs just one more to join former Tar Heel All-American Dustin Ackley as the only first-year player to drive in 70 runs in a season.

Teams in the NCAA Men's College World Series

Virginia
The Cavaliers (54-10) have advanced to the College World Series for the second time in program history (2009 & 2011) ... Virginia enters this year’s CWS as the winningest single-season team in program history, surpassing the 51 wins it posted last season ... Virginia has scored 33 of its 42 runs in the 2011 NCAA Tournament after two outs had been recorded ... That included the tying and winning runs in the bottom of the ninth inning of the Super Regional finale vs. UC Irvine ... ACC Pitcher of the Year Danny Hultzen, the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s MLB Draft, is a finalist for the 2011 Golden Spikes Award and a Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist.

North Carolina
The Tar Heels (50-14) will compete in their fifth College World Series in six seasons and their ninth overall when they open play against Vanderbilt in Omaha ... The 2011 Tar Heels are the fifth squad in program history to reach 50 wins, joining the 1990 and 2006-08 teams ... UNC has 37 wins in the NCAA tournament since 2006, leading the nation ... Included in that stretch is a 27-3 mark in Regional and Super Regional play and a 23-1 record in those rounds at home ... The Tar Heels have allowed only 10 runs through five games in this year’s NCAA tournament ... UNC has led after 39 of the 45 innings it has played in the tournament (trailed 4, tied 2).