NCAA Baseball Tournament Field Set

For the 64 teams in the NCAA Division I baseball tournament, all roads lead to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Defending national champion Louisiana State is certainly taking the scenic route.

The SEC Champion Tigers were placed in the Los Angeles Regional on Monday as the entire field was announced by the selection committee. Arizona State (47-8) was selected as the tournament's top seed, followed by Texas (46-11), Florida (42-15), Coastal Carolina (51-7), Virginia (47-11), UCLA (43-13), Louisville (48-12) and Georgia Tech (45-13).

The 16 regional winners move on to the best-of-three super regionals, with those winners advancing to the CWS, which begins June 19 at Rosenblatt Stadium for the final time. Next year's CWS will move to downtown Omaha, three miles away, at the TD Ameritrade Park.

The top-seeded Sun Devils won the Pac-10 title under interim coach Tim Esmay.


Share
Thirty-five of the 64 teams were in the 2009 field. Only one Thirty-five of the 64 teams were in the 2009 field. Only one team is making the field for the first time in the program's history: Mercer.

New Mexico is in the field for the first time since 1962, while Oregon is in the field for the first time since 1964, and only two years after reinstating the baseball program.

Eight teams each from the Pac-10, SEC and ACC were selected.

The Miami Hurricanes are in the field for the 38th consecutive year, extending their own record. They are also the last national top seed to win the CWS, in 1999. Florida State, which was sent to the Connecticut regional as a top seed, is making its 33rd straight appearance, which ranks second all-time.

Other long consecutive streaks include Cal State Fullerton (19), Rice (16), Oral Roberts (13) and Texas (12).

One of the nation's top stories is Florida International's Garrett Wittels.

Wittels got a hit in his 54th straight game and FIU beat Troy 14-10 on Sunday in the championship game of the Sun Belt Conference tournament, clinching a berth in the NCAA field. The Golden Panthers were placed in the UM regional in Coral Gables, Fla., where they will open against Big-12 Tournament champion Texas A&M.

Wittels was 2 for 6 on Sunday, moving within four games of matching Robin Ventura's record of 58 straight games with a hit, set in 1987 for Oklahoma State.

FIU will play a minimum of two and a maximum of five games in regional play. Wittels could conceivably tie or break Ventura's mark in the regional round.

On Sunday, LSU became first team to ever win three consecutive outright Southeastern Conference Championships when the Tigers beat Alabama in 11 innings.

Ace Anthony Ranaudo earned the victory, hurling three shutout innings to close the game, allowing no hits and striking out two. Ranaudo started in LSU's opening victory over Florida, recording his longest outing of the season (7.2 innings). He surrendered eight hits and five earned runs while striking out five.

"I told coach if something weird happened that I'd be ready to pitch," Ranaudo said. "I was just trying to take it pitch by pitch and it worked out for us."

The real work -- reaching the CWS -- begins in California this weekend for the Tigers. LSU will open against UC Irvine, while top seed and host UCLA plays Kent State.