• Fayetteville Observer Articles (Monica Holland/James Moore Jr)
  The NCHSAA has released its 2026 baseball playoff brackets for this year's state championships and seven Fayetteville teams are in the mix. Terry Sanford and South View earned outright conference titles in the Tri-County and Eastern Sandhills leagues, and earned first-round byes in the 6A East bracket. Gray's Creek earned a first-round bye, while Cape Fear earned a No. 12 seed to begin the postseason. (May 4, 2026)

6A East
First round — Tuesday, May 5

• No. 9 Triton 14, No. 24 E.E. Smith 4 — The Golden Bulls finish the season 5-13 with all five wins coming in Eastern Sandhills 5A/6A Conference games for a third-place league finish and the program's first state playoff appearance in 25 years behind senior Jammari Roscoe.
  
• No. 13 Middle Creek 14, No. 20 Seventy-First 4 — The Falcons had their best season of this century, going 9-13 to snap a 25-year state playoff drought along with league-mate E.E. Smith, led by senior Nasir Nelson's ability to get on base and across the plate with a .641 on-base percentage and a pair of home runs this year.

7A East
First round — Tuesday, May 5

• No. 12 Cape Fear 9, No. 21 East Wake 1 — The Colts (16-7) put up five runs in the first two innings of a dominant NCHSAA opener to set up a Round 2 matchup at No. 5-seeded Holly Springs (19-5), the Triangle Six 6A/7A Conference champion.
  
• No. 15 North Brunswick 7, No. 18 Jack Britt 3 — The Bucs (13-10) made their first playoff appearance since 2019 and hit their highest win mark in eight years with a third-place finish in the Mid-South 7A/8A Conference with a young squad led by hard-hitting junior infielder Cameron Byers and an all-junior pitching rotation.

Second round — Friday, May 8

• No. 5 Holly Springs 7, No. 12 Cape Fear 0 — The Colts finish with a 16-9 record and a second-place finish in the new Tri-County 6A/7A Conference at 8-2, led by Landon Underwood's .449 batting average, Parker Wallace's 22 RBIs, Brycen Talley's four home runs, Jayden Brewington's 1.49 ERA, and Eason Turner's six wins on the mound.

6A East
Third round — Tuesday, May 12

• No. 3 Terry Sanford 4, No. 11 Harnett Central 0 — Jack Reaves pitched a complete-game shutout for his eighth win of the season to send Terry Sanford (19-7) into Round 4. The senior ace held Harnett Central (15-11) to four hits, striking out four and walking only one while averaging a very efficient 12 pitches per inning. ... Chance Stroup drove a pinch-hit double down the third-base line to lead off bottom of the fifth inning for the Bulldogs, Reaves followed with an infield single on a bunt to move Stroup to third, and then the leading hitter in state history, Josh Mozingo, stepped up and delivered an RBI rip to left-center to put the Bulldogs on the board. Later in the inning, with Mozingo on third and Mason Walker on first after drawing a walk, Hunter Hedgecoe's grounder skipped past the third baseman to score both runners and put Terry Sanford up 3-0. ... The Bulldogs got their last run in the sixth as Reaves took a walk, Mozingo bunted for an infield single, Jacob Moore drew a walk and Walker delivered a bases-loaded sacrifice fly. ... Terry Sanford next plays at No. 2 Southern Lee on Friday with the winner going to the 6A East Regional championship.