UNC baseball coach takes shot at South Carolina
North Carolina’s baseball team is in danger of missing the NCAA Baseball Tournament.
Perhaps that was the motivation behind UNC head coach Mike Fox taking to Twitter on Friday night to make a case for his team, albeit with a dig toward the South Carolina Gamecocks.
I know we are proud UNC grad @cholbrook2 took high road. Yes, UNC won, but #Gamecocks had 42 wins and won SEC East pic.twitter.com/WGiTs1UG4y
— Spurs & Feathers (@SpursFeathers) May 28, 2016
(Note: Fox’s Twitter account is private, but a screen shot of his comments was being shared across social media.)
The Gamecocks are 9-12 vs. RPI Top 50 teams and 7-3 vs. teams with an RPI of 51-100, according to Warren Nolan’s latest RPI breakdown.
The Heels, meanwhile, are 14-16 and 7-3 in those same stat categories.
In the latest official RPI from the NCAA, South Carolina is No. 8, while North Carolina is 17.
UNC defeated USC 15-0 on April 13 in Charlotte in a showdown of Top 15 teams, but the Tar Heels didn’t finish the season strong. UNC was 10-12 down the stretch to finish 34-21 overall (13-17 ACC). The team dropped out of the D1Baseball and Baseball America rankings and missed the conference tournament for the first time since 2010.
The Gamecocks were 14-9 after the loss to UNC, finishing 42-15 overall and winning the SEC East title. South Carolina has all but officially locked up a postseason hosting opportunity in an NCAA regional.
Head coach Chad Holbrook, a UNC grad who also coached under Fox, was probably referencing the above tweet when Holbrook tweeted this Friday night:
I'll choose to take the high road
— Chad Holbrook (@cholbrook2) May 27, 2016
The two schools have combined for 21 College World Series appearances, six runner-up finishes and USC’s two national titles in 2010 and 2011.
Since 2002, the programs have reached the College World Series 12 times.
South Carolina will host an NCAA regional (but not be a top eight national seed), according to D1Baseball’s latest postseason projections. The Gamecocks would host UNC Wilmington, Duke and Seattle, and be matched opposite national seed No. 6 Texas Tech.
Fox might be happy to know those same projections now have the Tar Heels in the field of 64 as a three seed in national seed No. 4 Florida’s regional.
The 16 regional hosts will be officially announced starting at 8:30 p.m. Sunday on the NCAA Baseball’s social media channels. The regional hosts will also be shown on the BottomLine of the ESPN Networks starting at 9 p.m.
The full tournament field, with regional pairings, will be revealed in a live, one-hour selection show on ESPNU at noon Monday.
This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 10:21 PM with the headline "UNC baseball coach takes shot at South Carolina."