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GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – The Atlantic Coast Conference will comprise a quarter of this year’s Men's College World Series field as top-seeded Wake Forest and No. 7 Virginia punched their tickets to Omaha in emphatic fashion Sunday afternoon.
Virginia (50-13) downed ACC Coastal Division rival Duke 12-2 in Sunday’s decisive game three of their Super Regional series in Charlottesville, while the Demon Deacons (52-10) steamrolled visiting Alabama 22-5 to complete a sweep of their two-game series while making a bit of history in the process.
The Cavaliers will face No. 2 seed Florida (50-15) in their opening game of the College World Series, which opens Friday at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska. The Demon Deacons will draw an opening date versus the winner of the Texas-Stanford Super Regional. The Longhorns (39-20) held a 1-0 edge over the Cardinal (38-17) heading into today’s game two action.
The determination of the Men’s College World Series order of first-round games both Friday (June 16) and Saturday (June 17) will be announced Monday. The ESPN family of networks and
ncaa.com/mcws will release the MCWS game dates and times as soon as they are available.
Interestingly, the ACC will be represented at this year’s CWS by the two programs that own the conference’s two previous NCAA titles. Wake Forest will return to Omaha for the first time since winning the CWS in 1955 and for the third time overall. Virginia will represent the ACC for the sixth time. All the Cavaliers’ CWS appearances have come since 2009, including the national championship year of 2015.
Wake Forest put up record offensive numbers – individually and team-wise – in Sunday’s romp past the Crimson Tide. Demon Deacon third baseman Brock Wilken hit three home runs to become the ACC’s all-time leader with 70. Wilken surpassed previous league co-record holders Anthony Maisano (Georgia Tech/Wake Forest, 1986-90) and J.D. Drew (Florida State, 1995-97), who each finished their collegiate careers with 69 home runs.
Additionally, Wilken’s 30 home runs this season are one shy of the ACC single-season record of 31 set by Drew in 1997.
The Demon Deacons’ nine home runs versus Alabama on Sunday tied the NCAA tournament single-game record and were two shy of the ACC single-game mark. The Demon Deacons’ 22 runs scored were the second-most in a single game in NCAA tournament history.
After dropping the opening game of its Super Regional versus Duke by a 5-4 score on Friday, Virginia roared back to score a total of 26 runs in its next two games. The Cavaliers’ Jake Gelof will head to Omaha as the school’s single-season record holder in home runs (23 in 2023) and career leader in RBI (185).
Starting pitcher Brian Edgington went the distance on the mound for the Cavaliers on Sunday, striking out a season-high 11 batters while allowing just two earned runs.
The ACC has placed at least one team in each of the last 17 College World Series (no CWS was held in 2020 due to the pandemic), and multiple conference teams have made the trip to Omaha 11 years during that span. A total of 31 ACC teams – nearly a quarter of the total field – have earned CWS berths since 2006.
A total of 107 ACC teams have earned NCAA bids in the last 14 tournament years. The 14 current ACC teams have a combined 101 College World Series appearances.
Eight ACC teams were selected to compete in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. The ACC has placed at least six teams in the NCAA tournament for 19 straight years. This marked the seventh year since 2010 at least eight ACC teams landed spots in the field.