West Virginia vs North Carolina Predictions, Picks & Odds (Game 1)

• West Virginia and North Carolina meet in Game 1 of the Chapel Hill Super Regional on Friday, June 7
• UNC is the #4 overall seed in the 2024 college baseball tournament while WVU isn’t in the top-16
• Below, see the West Virginia vs North Carolina odds, predictions, and props for Game 1 of the best-of-three series

The North Carolina Tar Heels (45-14) are back in the Super Regional for the second straight season. On Friday, the 2024 team can do something the 2023 edition failed to: win a game at Super Regionals. The Tar Heels get a favorable draw, facing the West Virginia Mountaineers (33-22), who won their regional as the three-seed, beating #2 Dallas Baptist and #4 Grand Canyon (who did them the favor of taking out #1 Arizona).

The best-of-three Super Regional in Chapel Hill starts Friday night at 6:00 pm ET and the Tar Heels are heavy favorites to win Game 1.

West Virginia vs North Carolina Game 1 Odds

North Carolina is a -270 favorite to win Game 1 and -120 on the runline to win by at least three runs. The Mountaineers come back at +200 to win and -110 to keep the score within two runs. The over/under is sitting at 11 with -115 odds both ways.

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WVU vs UNC Starting Pitchers for Game 1

The starting-pitcher matchup for Game 1 features a pair of lefties with Derek Clark going for WVU opposite Shea Sprague for the Heels. Sprague, a 21-year-old transfer from Elon, is getting the nod largely due to his immaculate showing in Game 1 against LSU in the regional. Sprague pitched 4.1 scoreless innings against reigning national-champion Tigers en route to a 6-2 UNC victory. North Carolina went onto win the series in three games. For the season, he has a 3.76 ERA and 1.212 WHIP in 69.1 innings.

Clark is indisputably the ace of the Mountaineers’ staff. He leads the team in innings (89.1), ERA (2.82), and strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.15-to-1). Like Sprague, Clark also dazzled for his team in the regional, pitching a complete-game four hitter in a 4-1 victory over Dallas Baptist. He struck out eight hitters without issuing a single walk, though he did bean a pair.

Derek Clark vs Shea Sprague

West Virginia vs North Carolina Predictions

The North Carolina offense is undoubtedly a step up in competition from what Clark faced against DBU in the regional but the odds for Game 1 aren’t giving the West Virginia lefty enough credit. He’s been one of the best pitchers in the nation this year and, despite that, the Mountaineers are still getting 2.5 runs on the runline.

I expect another big outing from WVU’s workhorse in what amounts to a must-win for his team; the WVU rotation thins out very quickly after Clark and if the Mountaineers don’t take Game 1, it’s going to be a near-impossible task to win two straight in hostile territory against the electric UNC offense.

WVU vs UNC Game 1 pick: West Virginia +2.5 (-115)