The Tar Heel baseball team, ranked No. 17 in the preseason, begins another quest for Omaha on Friday, opening a three-game series with the Seton Hall Pirates at 2 p.m. inside Boshamer Stadium.

Junior Landon Lassiter’s transition from third base to the outfield is expected to be a huge key to UNC’s success this season. He says the toughest part about the move is picking up on the small subtleties of the position.

“It’s just different having angles and reads, and reading the ball off the bat of different hitters, lefties and righties,” Lassiter says, adding that “the angles are the biggest thing right now.”

Trent Thornton, the junior right-hander widely regarded as the team’s ace, will take the mound on opening day against the Pirates.

While he may be the alpha dog of the rotation, Thornton has a strong belief in the rest of his peers.

“Our pitching staff is, in our mind, top in the country,” he says,”We brought back a lot of guys, Benton Moss came back, Chris McCue’s back this year, our bullpen’s gonna be really deep, and we’ve got a lot of guys that can start for us.”

Looking to rebound after a disappointing finish to last season, outfielder Tyler Ramirez says the team will need to keep their composure when facing deficits, something that will be paramount to improvement this year.

“Last year, when we went down a couple of runs, we kind of freaked out a little bit and didn’t really play how we should have. I think building off of that, this year will be a lot better,” Ramirez says.

Temperatures are expected to be hovering right around freezing for the series, with Friday’s opener having already been moved to an earlier start time. Sunday’s game has been rescheduled for Saturday as part of a doubleheader, in order to deal with the cold.

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