ACC Tournament picture takes shape
By Eric Turner / Student Publications
The Jackets have a 9-6 conference record this season and lack the success from previous years. They are in danger of missing the ACC tournament for only the second time in nearly 20 years.
Tech's baseball team is now midway through their schedule in ACC play.
To this point, the Jackets have gone through the easiest part of their ACC schedule in facing off against Virginia Tech, Boston College, Duke, Maryland and last weekend against Miami. All of these teams have records below .500 in conference play.
The schedule gets much more difficult from here on with series in Charlottesville against No. 5 ranked Virginia starting tonight, a trip to Chapel Hill, N.C. against No. 2 North Carolina and No. 3 ranked Florida State coming to Atlanta to finish the season.
Right now, the top teams in the ACC that have made themselves known are No. 2 ranked North Carolina, No. 3 Florida State and No. 5 Virginia.
These three teams will be fighting for the top three seeds in the ACC tournament in Jacksonville, as well as National seeds come NCAA Tournament time.
Behind the upper echelon are teams like Clemson, N.C. State and Tech. Clemson and N.C. State should make both the ACC and NCAA tournaments with ease.
As of right now, Clemson and N.C. State would receive the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds in the ACC tournament if it were to start right now, and they would also probably receive No. 2 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.
As mentioned before, the Jackets have an uphill battle to get into both the ACC tournament and NCAA tournament at this point.
While their position should be good enough to get into the ACC tournament, the Jackets are on the bubble for making it into the NCAA tournament.
This is a precarious position that the Jackets have not found themselves in very often.
Since 1985, Tech's baseball team has been out of the postseason just once, and has a current streak of six NCAA bids in a row.
Behind Tech in the No. 7 and No. 8 slots in the ACC are Miami, who took two out of three from the Jackets at home last weekend, and Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons are currently 7-8 in conference after sweeping the Maryland Terrapins on the road last weekend.
Wake Forest is a wild card due to the fact that the Jackets do not play Wake this season. Also, the Hurricanes have the tiebreaker against Tech due to their two come-from-behind victories over the weekend.
On the outside looking in for the ACC tournament are Maryland, Duke, Virginia Tech and Boston College.
Out of these teams, only Maryland and Duke have a realistic chance at breaking into the top eight in conference. Both teams played well early in the season, but have faltered as of late.
In order for Tech to make the ACC Tournament, the Jackets will need to play .500 baseball the rest of the way.
In order to ensure them a bid to the NCAA Tournament, Tech will need to take the Bobby Cox philosophy for getting into postseason play, which is to win two out of three games from every series the rest of the way.
Combined with winning series in ACC play, the Jackets will need good performances against out-of-conference opponents Georgia and South Florida.
Right now, South Florida and Georgia are bubble teams in the hunt for NCAA tournament bids. With wins against these teams, the Jackets can help themselves by hurting their opponents' chances at getting into the NCAA tournament.
