Amazing Dry Spell

The ACC should petition the NCAA to present an annual award to the conference that has the best regular-season performance in baseball.

The ACC would win.

By a wide margin.

Again.

Going into last week's ACC Tournament, the College Baseball Ratings Percentage Index, as compiled at WarrenNolan.com, ranked North Carolina No. 1, Miami No. 2, Florida State No. 3, Georgia Tech No. 5, N.C. State No. 8, Virginia No. 21 and Clemson No. 24.

Having the top three teams in the nation may be atypical, but having five in the Top 10 or seven in the Top 25 is not. No conference plays baseball as well as the ACC.

Until the regular season is over and the NCAA Tournament begins.

But that's another story, one that's become more conspicuous by the season as one conference team after another returns from Omaha and the College World Series empty-handed.

Only one ACC team has ever won the national championship in baseball, and that was Wake Forest. You'd have to be eligible for your AARP card to have a first-hand memory of the occasion. Eisenhower was president, in his first team. Eight of the 12 current ACC coaches weren't born. The year was 1955.

Coach Elliott Avent of N.C. State, who was born 11 months later, has the same reaction as most people to one of the strangest streaks in the history of college athletics.

"It is shocking," Avent said. "As good as the league is, it doesn't make any sense."

One ACC coach who was born, Danny Hall of Georgia Tech, was six months old. And sometimes -- such as every season about this time -- he feels like he has been hearing about the ACC's dry run every since.

"It seems like all the publications and the people in the media, they always seem to bring that up at the ACC Tournament," Hall said. "I'm hoping it's this year that somebody wins it.

"Obviously I hope it's us. And if it's not I hope it's somebody else in the league that goes out there and wins the doggone thing."

The ACC has had its chances. Conference teams have made 32 trips to Omaha. Clemson has made 11. Florida State has made seven since it joined the league in 1992.

ACC teams have lost the championship game four times, Georgia Tech in 1994, Florida State in 1999 and North Carolina in 2006 and 2007.

No team has come closer to bringing home the trophy than the Tar Heels, who two years in a row have lost to Oregon State. The 2006 championship game -- when the Beavers scored the winning run because of North Carolina's inability to convert a routine grounder to second with two out in the eighth -- is an especially painful memory around Chapel Hill.

"I think it is strange, but I also think it just tells you how hard it is to win the daggone thing," Hall said. "I'm sure we, we being the ACC, have had teams good enough to go out there and win it. We had a shot at it my first year here in '94. North Carolina has had a couple of cracks at it.

"Miami has won it, but they haven't won it since they've been in the league. One of these years that streak is going to get broken by somebody because our league is the best it's ever been.

"I think it's just a question of time when somebody is going to break through and win the whole thing."

And if not?

"I'm sure it will be a big topic of conversation if we don't win it this year," Avent said, speaking for conference as a whole.

Trivia: From ACC to Majors

Single -- What Milwaukee Brewers starter led the ACC in saves in 2001 and 2002 while pitching for Wake Forest?

Double -- What Baltimore Orioles second baseman was the ACC's Rookie of the Year in 1997 and Player of the Year in 1998 while playing for North Carolina?

Triple -- What Baltimore Orioles outfielder led the ACC in RBIs in 1994 while playing for Georgia Tech?

Homer -- What Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman led the ACC in RBIs in 1995 while playing for Florida State.

Around and about

It's becoming more and more common for pitchers to be drafted into professional baseball as relievers and spend their whole careers in the bullpen. Two from the ACC following that path are Sam Walls of N.C. State and Andrew Carignan of North Carolina. Walls, a 10th-round pick by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2006, is the closer at Clearwater of the Class A Florida State League, where he is 1-0 with an 0.88 ERA and nine saves. Walls has allowed 16 hits in 302/3 innings, has walked 13 and struck out 29. Carignan, a fifth-round pick by the Oakland A's in 2007, started this season with Stockton of the Class A California League and has been promoted to Midlands of the Class AA Texas League. He is 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA for Midlands, with six saves. He has allowed nine hits in 13 innings, but has walked 17.… Adam Mills, who pitched at UNC Charlotte, began his professional career in more conventional fashion as a starter. Mills, an eighth-round pick by Boston in 2007, is 5-3 with a 4.10 ERA through 10 starts for Lancaster of the Class A California League. Mills has allowed 60 hits and 10 walks in 522/3 innings and has struck out 30.