Charlotte 49ers make NCAA baseball tournament for first time in 10 years
The Charlotte 49ers fell short of hosting an NCAA tournament regional this week, but their season isn’t over.
Charlotte’s baseball team will head to the Greenville (NC) Regional at 6 p.m. Friday (ESPN3) as a No. 2 seed and will face No. 3 seed Maryland. Host team East Carolina opens up at noon Friday against Norfolk State. The regional is a double-elimination tournament.
“Seeing our players react (Monday) and seeing how excited they were to be announced as one of the 64 teams is tremendous,” Charlotte coach Robert Woodard said through a school news release. “Teams around the country were crushed last March when the College World Series was canceled. Since that moment, we took it upon ourselves to come together, worked really hard to communicate to our players, follow protocols and do whatever we could for the best case scenario. All of those efforts have led to (Monday) and it’s exciting.”
The 49ers (39-19), ranked No. 16 in the country, won the Conference USA regular-season championship before stumbling in the league tournament in Ruston, Louisiana last week with back-to-back losses. Under the direction of coach Robert Woodard, a Charlotte native in his first full season at the helm, they’ve put together the best season in program history.
This will be Charlotte’s sixth trip to the NCAA tournament (1993, 1998, 2007, 2008, 2011).
Elsewhere in the Carolinas:
▪ N.C. State will head to the Rustin Regional (Louisiana) as a No. 2 seed and play Alabama; host team Louisiana Tech opens against Rider in the regional.
▪ Duke, fresh off its ACC tournament championship Sunday afternoon at Truist Field in Charlotte, will head to the Knoxville (Tennessee) regional as the No. 2 seed and meet Liberty at noon Friday (ACC Network). The host Vols open up against Wright State.
▪ North Carolina will be in the Lubbock Regional (Texas) and will open up at 7 p.m. Friday against UCLA. Host team Texas Tech opens against Army.
▪ In the Columbia (SC) Regional, the Gamecocks are the No. 2 seed and will open at noon Friday (ESPN2) against No. 3 Virginia. Old Dominion is the No. 1 seed there and opens against Jacksonville.
Greenville NC Regional schedule
Friday
Game 1 — Noon, (1) East Carolina vs. (4) Norfolk State, ESPN3
Game 2 — 6 p.m.: (2) Charlotte vs. (3) Maryland, ESPN3
Saturday
Game 3 — Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser
Game 4 — Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner
Sunday
Game 5 — Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser
Game 6 — Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner
Monday
Game 7 — Rematch of Game 6 (if necessary)
This story was originally published May 31, 2021 at 12:20 PM.
