Greenville Regional Preview: UNCW Seahawks

The Seahawks are 37-21 (14-9 CAA) and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by winning the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament. UNCW had a solid schedule this season, facing teams that made the tournament in all of their non-conference midweek games, and earned a pair of nice midweek wins over UNC. UNCW has also already faced two of the three teams in the Greenville Regional this season, losing twice to both Ohio State and East Carolina earlier this year.

UNCW hits .260 as a team with an OBP of .350 and a .393 slugging percentage. That makes them statistically the weakest offensive team in the regional, but they still have a couple of good hitters to watch out for. Ryan Jeffers (.320/.472/.660) leads the team in home runs with 16 and Mason Berne (.335/.425/.561) is right behind him with 12.

The UNCW defense doesn’t really stand out, as they are fielding just .961. The Seahawks pitching has generally been solid, they have a 3.25 ERA and teams are hitting .223 against them. The bullpen in particular has been good for UNCW, with a 2.47 ERA and 19 saves for the relievers.

This is UNCW’s ninth NCAA Tournament appearance and their fifth in the last seven seasons. They missed the postseason last year, but in 2016 they played against fellow 2018 regional opponent South Carolina in the Columbia Regional. The Seahawks have never advanced out of the regional round, but a winning regular season record (9-8) against NCAA Tournament teams means they have the confidence to give whichever teams they have in Greenville this weekend their best shot.