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OMAHA, Nebraska – After completing one of the most dominant courses in SEC history, the top-ranked Tennessee was named to the NCAA Baseball Tournament on Monday.
The Volunteers (53-7) have won 31 of their first 32 matches, swept the regular season Premier League and Championship titles and have the best batting and batting statistics in the country.
They’ve been the #1 team agreed in all but one polls since March 28 and entered the Regionals with eight wins in a row and 12 out of 13.
The 64-team tournament opened Friday in 16 regional regions. The winners advance to eight of the top three regional regions. These winners move on to the College World Series in Omaha.
The top eight National Seeds are guaranteed to host the Super Regency if they win their regional spots.
The following national seeds are for Tennessee: Stanford (41-14), Oregon (44-15), Virginia Tech (41-12), Texas A&M (37-18), Miami (39-18), Oklahoma State (39 -20)) and East Carolina (42-18).
Stanford, who won the Pac-12 regular-season and championships, is the national seed for the first time since he was No. 2 in 2018. The Oregon State Pac12 awards two of the top three leaders for the first time.
Virginia Tech, selected to finish second to last in the ACC Coastal Division, has earned the highest rating in program history and will play in a regional for the first time since 2013.
Texas A&M won their last seven SEC series under Year One coach Jim Schlossnagel to lock up the National seed after missing out on the tournament last year.
East Carolina will play in the tournament for the 32nd time. The hacker made the most appearances in this event without access to the CWS.
Seeds nine through 16: Texas (42-19), North Carolina (38-19), Southern Mississippi (43-16), Louisville (38-18-1), Florida (39-22), Auburn (37-19) ), Maryland (45-12) and South Georgia (40-18).
The ACC and SEC had the largest number of teams selected, with nine each. The Big 12 and Pac-12 have five teams each, and the Sun Belt has four teams in the field.
Tennessee opens regional play against Alabama State (34-23). Other teams playing in Knoxville are Campbell (40-17) and Georgia Tech (34-22).
The last four teams were in Florida, Grand Canyon, Liberty and Mississippi. The first four are from NC State, Old Dominion, Rutgers and Wofford.
Mike Boddy, the selection committee chair and Army Athletic Director, said the Ole Miss was approved by NC State because he had a slightly stronger performance in the regular season conference series.
NC State and Ole Miss have won four of the 10 Conference Series, but only one of Wolfpack was against a team in the NCAA field (Georgia Tech) while the Rebels won the series over LSU and Auburn.
“That was brutal,” Boddy said. “When it comes to the last three or four teams, you have to really section your hair. Baseball is a game that is played in series. We wouldn’t look at single game scenarios unless that was the only data point.”
Other notes about the tournament:
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Florida has the longest running streak with 44 consecutive appearances. Other notable running streaks include Vanderbilt (16) and Florida (14).
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State Cobain (24-28) and Hofstra (30-21) make their debuts. The Air Force (30-27) performs its first since 1969.
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The best regional story could be the second day encounter between Texas A&M and TCU at College Station. Schlossnagel left the TCU for the Aggies job after last season. The TCU coach is Kirk Saarloos, who has been an assistant under Schlossnagle for 10 years.
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Michigan (32-26) was one of the biggest bid thieves, overtaking the Big Ten automatic berth by winning the conference session as the fifth seed and denying Rutgers a place.
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Cobain State is among three teams with losing records. The others are Binghamton (22-28) and New Mexico State (24-32).
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