NC State baseball and softball Friday open thread

This last week has unexpectedly been a lot of fun. The baseball team secured a spot in the NCAA tournament by beating Notre Dame on Thursday; the softball team advanced to the Super Regional round on Sunday. Both teams will play on Friday, with much larger stakes on the table.

If the baseball team beats Miami, it may well be through to the ACC title game--the combination of a State win over Miami and a Notre Dame win over Virginia would make Saturday's games irrelevant. If those two outcomes happen to play out Friday, the Pack can effectively treat Saturday as an off day, resting its important pieces for the ACC title game on Sunday.

The softball team has already made history, having never reached this point in the postseason before. What happens from here is gravy, and they are up against what the NCAA selection committee has deemed the second-best team in the country.

This group has been in a similar situation--last year they almost pulled off a big upset in Athens against Georgia to advance to the round of 16. The Pack's trip into the gravy zone didn't work out then, but it did lead to progress this season. This time the College World Series is a bit closer, with the pressure remaining on the home team.

They're good enough to make this weekend interesting. So is the baseball team. Let's go kick some butts and also here's the schedule for the day:

ACC baseball tournament (pool records in parenthesis)

Notre Dame (0-1) vs. Virginia (0-1)
First pitch: 11 a.m. ET
TV: RSN
Streaming: WatchESPN

Clemson (1-1) vs. UNC (0-2)
First pitch: who cares
TV: somewhere
Streaming: probably

NC State (1-0) vs. Miami (1-0)
First pitch: 7 p.m. ET
TV: RSN
Streaming: WatchESPN

NCAA softball tournament

NC State vs. Oregon -- Game 1
First pitch: 9 p.m. ET
TV: ESPNU
Streaming: WatchESPN