Wolfpack Baseball Picked To Finish Third in Atlantic

State is one of nine ACC baseball teams to be included in the preseason national rankings

 The NC State baseball team has been picked ot finish third in the Atlantic Division in a preseason poll conducted among the league’s 14 coaches.

Coach Elliot Avent’s Wolfpack received 68 points to place behind defending league champion Louisville with 97 and Florida State with 79. The Cardinals are the overwhelming favorite to win both the division and the conference again, receiving all 13 possible votes (since coaches aren’t allowed to pick their own teams).

Led by catcher Patrick Bailey, a consensus preseason All-American, State returns 20 players (11 hitters and nine pitchers) that were either starters or key contributors last season to a team that won 42 games last season on the way to an NCAA regional tournament berth.

Lining up behind the Wolfpack in the Atlantic Division are Wake Forest and Clemson tied for fourth with 52 points each, Boston College (27) and Notre Dame (27). Clemson got the other first place vote.

Miami is the favorite to win the Coastal Division with 93 points and 12 first place votes. North Carolina came in second in the balloting with 68 points and one first place vote, followed by defending division champion Georgia Tech (66, 1 first place vote), Duke (65), Virginia (55), Virginia Tech (27) and Pittsburgh (18).

Nine ACC teams have been ranked in at least one major poll during the 2020 preseason, including eight in the NCBWA rankings released earlier this week.

The conference has placed at least one team in the College World Series for 14 consecutive years and at least six teams in the NCAA tournament each of the past 16 years. Sixty-nine league players were selected in the 2019 Major League Baseball Draft, and at least one ACC player has been picked in the first round for 29 straight years.

State will open its 2020 schedule at home on Friday, Feb. 14 against James Madison.

Full results of the 2020 ACC Baseball Coaches Preseason Poll, with first-place votes in parenthesis:

Overall Champion

Louisville

Atlantic Division

1. Louisville (13) - 97

2. Florida State - 79

3. NC State - 68

4t. Clemson (1) - 52

4t. Wake Forest - 52

6. Boston College - 27

7. Notre Dame - 17

Coastal Division

1. Miami (12) - 93

2. North Carolina (1) - 68

3. Georgia Tech (1) - 66

4. Duke - 65

5. Virginia - 55

6. Virginia Tech - 24

7. Pitt - 18