Matchup: 2016 NHSI champion Huntington Beach (Huntington Beach, Calif.) will return to Cary, North Carolina, for the fourth time in five years in 2019. The Oilers head into the 2019 season boasting a No. 6 ranking from Baseball America and a No. 30 spot in the MaxPreps preseason rankings. Huntington Beach is led by a pair of UCLA-bound student-athletes, Josh Hahn (2019) and Jake Vogel (2020), and Stanford commit Brett Barrera.

Huntington Beach will face 2019 host-school Northwest Guilford (Greensboro, N.C.) in the first round of the tournament. The Vikings are looking to become the second host team to win an opening round game of the NHSI after Green Hope's (N.C.) made it all the way to the championship game in 2018. The Vikings are coming off an appearance in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) playoffs in 2018 and will be led by North Carolina commit Hayden Summers and East Carolina signee Joey Rezek.

Matchup: The bottom half of the pod features two teams that will make the trek to Cary, North Carolina, for the first time in its history in 2019, Corona Del Sol (Tempe, Ariz.) and Monsignor Pace (Miami Gardens, Fla.). Corona Del Sol is led by Dave Webb, who has guided three USA Baseball national teams, and assistant coach Tanner Vesely, the 2015 12U National Team manager and two-time national team assistant coach. Coming off of an appearance in the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) playoffs in 2018, the squad will be motivated to show the rest of the country their potential in 2019. The Aztecs will be led by Hunter Haas, who has committed to the 2018 College World Series Champions Oregon State, and Brian Kalmer (Arizona State).

The Aztecs face a tough test in the first round in Monsignor Pace, who enters the NHSI ranked No. 16 by Perfect Game and No. 18 by MaxPreps. The Spartans enter the tournament as no strangers of playing in high-pressure situations and coming out on top after winning the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) 5A State Championship in 2018. Pace is led by six players that have signed with major division one college programs, including five players that have committed to the hometown University of Miami.