The 2018 ACC baseball tournament will begin on May 22 at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, North Carolina.
The conference is headlined by five RPI top-25 teams, with North Carolina and Clemson leading the Atlanta and Coastal divisions, respectively.
It will be the top 12 teams in the conference that will battle it out in the tournament, which follows a pool-play format with four pools of three teams each. Below should be all the information you need ahead of next week's action.
Bracket
An official tournament bracket is available at TheACC.com.
Standings
There are still important games to be played before the regular season comes to a close, but for now, here's a look at the current standings.
Team | Conference | Overall | RPI |
Clemson | 19-8 | 38-13 | 11 |
NC State | 18-9 | 39-12 | 19 |
Louisville | 15-12 | 37-15 | 37 |
Florida State | 14-12 | 35-16 | 8 |
Notre Dame | 12-15 | 23-25 | 89 |
Wake Forest | 11-16 | 22-29 | 71 |
Boston College | 7-20 | 16-30 | 156 |
Team | Conference | Overall | RPI |
North Carolina | 19-8 | 34-16 | 4 |
Duke | 17-9 | 38-12 | 18 |
Miami | 14-13 | 25-25 | 66 |
Georgia Tech | 12-14 | 28-23 | 48 |
Pittsburgh | 11-16 | 27-22 | 97 |
Virginia | 10-16 | 26-21 | 77 |
Virginia Tech | 8-19 | 20-30 | 112 |
The upcoming weekend's top matchups include Duke at Georgia Tech and NC State at Florida State.
That said, the Virginia at Wake Forest matchup also carries some intrigue. Those two teams will be battling to avoid the No. 12 seed, which would bring with it a tougher pool-play draw.
Virginia Tech would need to sweep North Carolina and Wake Forest do the same to Virginia in order for the 12-team field to be shaken up. Otherwise, it will be the Hokies and Boston College on the outside looking in when the conference tournament begins.
Schedule
With the seeding not yet decided, we can highlight when each seed is projected to be in action when the tournament begins and what time each of the games will start.
Pool Play Group A | No. 1 Seed | No. 8 Seed | No. 12 Seed |
Pool Play Group B | No. 2 Seed | No. 7 Seed | No. 11 Seed |
Pool Play Group C | No. 3 Seed | No. 6 Seed | No. 10 Seed |
Pool Play Group D | No. 4 Seed | No. 5 Seed | No. 9 Seed |
Date | Matchup | Time (ET) | Watch |
May 22 | Pool Play 1 | 11 a.m. | RSN/ACCN Extra |
May 22 | Pool Play 2 | 3 p.m. | RSN/ACCN Extra |
May 22 | Pool Play 3 | 7 p.m. | RSN/ACCN Extra |
May 23 | Pool Play 4 | 11 a.m. | RSN/ACCN Extra |
May 23 | Pool Play 5 | 3 p.m. | RSN/ACCN Extra |
May 23 | Pool Play 6 | 7 p.m. | RSN/ACCN Extra |
May 24 | Pool Play 7 | 11 a.m. | RSN/ACCN Extra |
May 24 | Pool Play 8 | 3 p.m. | RSN/ACCN Extra |
May 24 | Pool Play 9 | 7 p.m. | RSN/ACCN Extra |
May 25 | Pool Play 10 | 11 a.m. | RSN/ACCN Extra |
May 25 | Pool Play 11 | 3 p.m. | RSN/ACCN Extra |
May 25 | Pool Play 12 | 7 p.m. | RSN/ACCN Extra |
May 26 | Pool A Winner vs. Pool D Winner | 1 p.m. | RSN/ACCN Extra |
May 26 | Pool B Winner vs. Pool C Winner | 5 p.m. | RSN/ACCN Extra |
May 27 | Championship | 12 p.m. | ESPN2 |
Rosters
Full rosters for each team can be found on TheACC.com's baseball page.
There are a number of players worth looking out for with next month's MLB draft in mind.
Here's a quick rundown of the ACC players who rank among the Top 100 on Baseball America's Top 500 draft prospects in this year's class:
8. C Joey Bart, Georgia Tech
33. OF Jake McCarthy, Virginia
46. RHP Griffin Roberts, Wake Forest
49. OF Griffin Conine, Duke
57. 1B/OF Seth Beer, Clemson
73. RHP Cole Sands, Florida State
96. C Cal Raleigh, Florida State
Format
The ACC used a pool-play format for the first time last season, and it will do the same here in 2018.
After four days of pool play, the winners of each pool will square off in the semifinals Saturday, before a conference tournament champion is crowned on Sunday afternoon.
In their latest bracket projection on May 9, Teddy Cahill and Michael Lananna of Baseball America had six ACC teams among their projected field.
North Carolina (3), Clemson (4), Florida State (10) and NC State (13) were seeded and hosting a regional, while Duke and Louisville were also part of the field. Georgia Tech was one of the First Four Out.
With no clear-cut No. 1 team this year in a deep field of talented ACC schools, this year's conference tournament looks like a wide-open battle.
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