UNC Baseball: Opening Weekend

College baseball is back, and the North Carolina Tar Heels start their season this afternoon in Chapel Hill.

Here is the schedule for the opening weekend:

The experts are predicting the ACC will be one of the top conferences in the nation in 2023.

There are six to seven ACC teams in each of the preseason polls, including Carolina. The other conference teams ranked in the preseason polls are Louisville, Miami, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest.

Here are the current rankings for UNC:

• D1Baseball.com: 12
• Baseball America: 17
• NCBWA: 13
• Collegiate Baseball: 11
• USA Today Coaches Poll: 12
• Perfect Game: 13

After last season’s ACC Championship and Super Regional appearance, expectations are high for the Tar Heels.

Led by Preseason ACC Player of the Year Vance Honeycutt, this team should have enough new and returning talent to fill the holes left by Danny Serretti and Angel Zarate.

In the infield, Mac Horvath will anchor the hot corner, while junior Colby Wilkerson is expected to take over at shortstop.

Junior Tomas Frick, who has started 106 of 114 games at catcher in his first two seasons at UNC, will look to continue his upward progression on offense.

Last season in his first year in Division I, Alberto Osuna was a key contributor on offense. The junior must take the next step this season, especially in batting average and on-base percentage.

Pitching depth was a concern last season, and will be a central factor in Carolina’s success this season.

Righty starter Max Carlson and closer Nik Pry are the veterans on staff. To supplement the young talent, UNC brought in the 2022 Unanimous Ivy League Pitcher of the Year Kevin Eaise from Penn, third-team NJCAA All-American Jake Knapp from Walters State, lefty Nelson Berkwich from Vanderbilt, righty Matt Poston from Florence-Darlington Tech, and righty Ben Peterson from Florida Southwestern State.

For the second year in a row, Seton Hall travels to Chapel Hill to start their season. The Pirates struggled last season, starting with 12 losses in a row and only managing 18 total wins in 2022.

Seton Hall won just two weekend series last season and did not qualify for the Big East baseball tournament.

Follow THB for UNC baseball coverage this season!