CHAPEL HILL – The No. 5 UNC baseball team begins round-robin play Thursday as the No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament against Miami.

The Tar Heels finished the season 48-8 and as the ACC regular season and Coastal Division champions at 21-7 in conference play. The Hurricanes were the final team to make it into the tournament at 35-21, 14-16.

However, Miami handed Carolina its first loss of the season in the teams’ conference opener, 4-1 in Chapel Hill. Prior to that, UNC had its second-best start in school history winning its first 16 games. And, one loss in round-robin play—especially early in the tournament—makes it that much harder to make it to Championship Sunday.

The Tar Heels finished the season on a high note defeating Atlantic Division champion Florida State in a one-game, non-conference meeting. However, Carolina dropped its final two conference series, 2-1 to Georgia Tech in Atlanta and 2-1 to Virginia in Chapel Hill.

Georiga Tech, Florida State, and Virginia are all possible opponents—as well as Virginia Tech—for Carolina if it makes it to the one-game championship on Sunday.

First pitch of game one of the tournament for Carolina is 3:00 p.m. Thursday at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. You can hear all three Carolina games as well as the championship if the Tar Heels advance on WCHL and streaming here.

Tune in to the WCHL Morning News Thursday at 8:20 a.m. to hear the head coach of the Tar Heels, Mike Fox, discuss the upcoming tournament with Ron Stutts.