NC State baseball will be the last team to have a first pitch at this year's ACC baseball tournament, which will be held in Charlotte. The Pack makes their event debut on Thursday in the finale of the day, a scheduled 7 p.m. start against Pittsburgh, depending on how games unfold ahead of them.

Yet that does not mean there is not an interest in the games until then. Specifically, Tuesday night's Pitt-UNC showdown carries significant implications for the Wolfpack's tournament plans.

The way the ACC Tournament is configured, 12 teams are divided into four pods of three for round-robin play. If anyone goes undefeated in the pod, they advance to the semifinals. If the teams split all the games, the highest seed wins the tiebreaker.

NC State is the three seed in this year's ACC Tournament and thus the highest in Pod C, which also features sixth-seeded UNC and 10th seeded Pittsburgh. While it will play both the Panthers and Heels (Friday, 7 p.m.), the only game of the two that has implications on the tournament is the one against the victor Tuesday night between Pittsburgh and UNC.

Whomever wins that game between NC State and the Pitt/UNC winner advances to Saturday's game two semifinals against the winner of Pod B.

The Panthers defeated UNC two of three in Pittsburgh earlier in the season, sweeping a doubleheader on April 17 before losing the finale a day later. Two of the three games, however, were decided by a single run.

Both teams were swept in their respective home parks by NC State. The Wolfpack rolled UNC by a combined score of 23-6 on March 26 and 29, the latter day a doubleheader. On May 14-16, NC State took all three over the Panthers, winning the first two games by a run and then two before rolling 10-3 in the finale.

The Heels have already announced that it is saving All-ACC first team pitcher and staff ace Austin Love for Friday's game against NC State. Although the Pack hit Love hard during the season, he enters the conference tournament coming off back-to-back complete game wins over Louisville and Georgia Tech, respectively.

The following 11 players were honored on Senior Day this past weekend during the regular season finale vs. Florida State:

• RHP Logan Bender

• OF/INF Devonte Brown

• OF Jonny Butler

• RHP Cameron Cotter

• RHP Dalton Feeney

• RHP Reid Johnston

• LHP Evan Justice

• INF Vojtech Mensik

• 1B/OF Austin Murr

• LHP Canaan Silver

• OF Terrell Tatum

Five of those players were among the league-high seven All-ACC mentions NC State baseball received. Butler and Tatum joined freshman shortstop Jose Torres on the first team, while Murr was with sophomore outfielder/infielder Tyler McDonough on second. Johnston and Justice were honorable mention.

All but Mensik are listed on the official roster as juniors. Mensik is a sophomore. But their inclusions in Senior Day may be a strong indication that they are moving on rather than accepting a super senior year. Baseball players had their eligibility frozen last spring but not again this season.

The only juniors not honored were starting second baseman J.T. Jarrett and reserve catcher/infielder Danny Carnazzo, brought in from a junior college this offseason and potentially enticed by the chance to win the catcher's job if sophomore Luca Tresh is drafted as high as expected.

Considering Torres and McDonough are both draft eligible, and analysts rate Torres as a top-100 draft prospect, it's quite possible all seven of NC State's all-conference honorees will be gone after this season.

Hence why this postseason represents a last chance for the core of the Wolfpack roster.

After a 1-8 start in ACC play, it would have been a better question to ask if NC State would be able to make the conference tournament (bottom two teams are left out) rather than be able to get an at-large into the NCAA.

After finishing the regular season with a 28-15 overall record and 19-14 mark in the league, second best in the conference behind Notre Dame, NC State knows it has more games coming after this weekend's tournament in Charlotte.

Because of preparations for hosting during the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA decided to announce 20 teams as candidates to host a regional, but that does not mean schools that host would automatically be the top seed in the region.

The Pack's strong play has NC State potentially on the cusp of being one of the few teams that could be a one seed in a region it is not hosting. D1Baseball.com has NC State as the two seed in a region hosted by Charlotte, the No. 16 overall seed in the field. Since there are 16 one seeds, that means the 49ers received their lost top regional seed and conceivably that NC State is the first two seed. Georgia and Campbell rounded out that regional.

The downside to that possibility would be the potential Super Regional showdown at the nation's top team, Arkansas.

Baseball America has NC State as the two seed in Greenville, N.C., in a region hosted by No. 9 overall seed East Carolina with Baylor and Wofford also there. The last NCAA Tournament held also sent the Pack to ECU.

——

• Talk about it inside The Wolves' Den

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker

• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker

• Like us on Facebook