Virginia Baseball: Bracket Set for UVA’s Side of the College World Series

The bracket is set for Virginia’s side of the 2024 College World Series. No. 12 Virginia baseball (46-15) will take on ACC rival and No. 4 overall seed North Carolina (47-14) in their first game in Omaha on either Friday (June 14) or Saturday (June 15) at either 2pm or 7pm. Also on UVA’s side of the CWS will be another ACC rival and No. 8 overall seed Florida State (47-15), who will take on No. 1 overall seed Tennessee (55-12).

Virginia, North Carolina, Florida State, and Tennessee will play a double-elimination tournament until one team is left standing to advance to the finals of the 2024 College World Series. The dates and start times for the individual games at the College World Series will be announced when the eight-team field is finalized on Monday.

Virginia is making its seventh appearance in the College World Series, third in the last four years, and second in a row. UVA’s first game will come against a very familiar opponent in UNC, as the two old rivals have met 312 times before, but never in the NCAA Tournament. Similarly, Virginia and Florida State have played 94 times, but never in the NCAA Tournament.

On the first weekend of April, then-No. 10 North Carolina came to Charlottesville for a three-game series at Virginia. The Cavaliers took the first two games of the series, winning 14-11 and 7-2 before the Tar Heels salvaged the finale with a 12-7 win. Hosting the Chapel Hill Regional as the No. 4 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, UNC held off LSU in a 4-3 thriller in 10 innings to win the regional title and then outlasted West Virginia in a pair of competitive games in the Super Regional, beating the Mountaineers 8-6 and 2-1 to clinch the program’s 12th College World Series appearance and first since 2018.

See the updated bracket for the 2024 NCAA Baseball Tournament here.

Virginia and Florida State’s lone meeting this season came in the ACC Tournament, with the Seminoles prevailing over the Cavaliers 12-7. Florida State (47-15) is the No. 8 overall seed and, like UVA, has yet to lose a game in this NCAA Tournament. The Seminoles crushed UConn 24-4 and then beat the Huskies 10-8 in 12 innings to secure their 24th trip to Omaha and first since 2019.

Virginia and Tennessee have met just once before, in the opening game of the 2021 College World Series, when Andrew Abbott struck out 10 batters over six scoreless innings to lead the Cavaliers to a 6-0 victory over the Volunteers. Tennessee (55-12) earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament after winning the vaunted SEC Baseball Championship. The Volunteers swept through the Knoxville Regional and then drew a No. 4 seed in the Super Regionals. Evansville managed to take game 2, but Tennessee crushed the Purple Aces 12-1 in game 3 on Sunday night. Identical to Virginia, Tennessee is making its second-consecutive trip to Omaha, third in the last four years, and seventh in program history.