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The ACC has been a very competitive baseball conference this year. Many teams have been ranked nationally, including the number one team in the country, Florida State. ACC teams are reaching their primes this year in terms of talent, and the ACC tournament has certainly been exciting so far.
In case you don’t know, the ACC Baseball Tournament is a round-robin system. There are two pools; Pool A and Pool B. The ACC Championship Game is played between the winner of Pool A and the winner of Pool B. Every team that makes the tournament is guaranteed to play three games. The team in each pool with the best record over three games will win the pool and advance to the championship game.
First, I’ll cover Pool A which consisted of number one seed Florida State, number four seed Virginia, number five seed Clemson, and number eight seed Georgia Tech. Florida State really dropped the ball when it came to the ACC Tournament. They lost three straight games to Georgia Tech, Clemson, and Virginia. FSU finished last in Pool A with an 0-3 record. Clemson beat out FSU, but dropped games to Virginia and Georgia Tech. They finished third in the pool with a 1-2 record. Virginia managed to sneak out a cl0se game against Clemson, followed by two blowouts; both good and bad. UVA was completely demolished in their second game, losing 17-5 against Georgia Tech. UVA then bounced back to serve Florida State a 7-0 loss. This was FSU’s first time being shut out in 67 games. Virginia finished second in the pool with a 2-1 record. This leaves, of course, Georgia Tech, who won against not only number 1 seed FSU, but also Virginia and Clemson. GT has won Pool A with a 3-0 record and will advance to the championship game.
Pool B was a much closer race. The pool consisted of number two seed North Carolina, number three seed North Carolina State, number six seed Miami, and number seven seed Wake Forest. Wake Forest opened with a 6-0 loss against North Carolina before beating NC State. They lost their final game, however, to Miami and finished last in the pool with a 1-2 record. NC State also finished with a 1-2 record, with losses against rival North Carolina in a close game decided in the 12th and Wake Forest. They did manage to beat Miami, however, 3-2. NC State finished third in the pool. North Carolina put up a 2-1 record and came out second in the pool with wins over NC State and Wake Forest, and a loss to Miami. While Miami also finished with a 2-1 record, they finished first in the pool because they previously won a game against UNC. Miami also beat Wake Forest and lost to NC State.
So, two very unlikely teams will face off in the final game. I don’t think that anyone could have predicted this before the tournament. On Sunday, May 27 at noon, number eight seed Georgia Tech will play number six seed Miami.
UPDATE: GEORGIA TECH IS THE 2012 ACC BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP WINNER WITH AN 8-5 WIN OVER MIAMI
-Hoos Voice
