AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Texas Longhorns are headed to southern Florida to start the NCAA tournament.
The NCAA baseball tournament selection committee named 64 teams Monday for teams to compete for a spot in the Men’s College World Series, and the Longhorns are a No. 2 seed in Coral Gables regional, hosted by the Miami Hurricanes.
“It’s exciting,” said pitcher Lucas Gordon. “The past two years, we’ve been a 1 seed, so [to] go to Miami and try to fight it out with those three teams is going to be fun.”
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Texas will open the 4-team regional at 1 p.m. Friday against the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, an at-large team from the Sun Belt Conference who lost to Southern Mississippi in the SBC tournament championship game. The game will be aired on Longhorn Network.
“Just being able to play on the road makes it a lot easier,” said outfielder Dylan Campbell about having the experience of playing at East Carolina last year. “[It] makes me be able to slow the game down as much as possible playing in a big environment like [Coral Gables].”
Texas will be looking to get back to their winning ways after going 0-2 in the Big 12 Tournament in Arlington this past week.
“The tournament was frustrating,” said Head Coach David Pierce. “You go out and you just don’t play well enough to even really compete in my opinion. They’ve got to use that as a motivator and use it as a lesson.”
The Hurricanes, the No. 9 national seed, and the Maine Black Bears round out the field in Miami.
The Texas A&M Aggies are headed to the West Coast to the Stanford regional as a No. 2 seed to take on Cal State Fullerton in the opening game Friday. San Jose State, who took a game off the Longhorns in a 3-game series earlier this season, made the tournament and is the No. 4 seed playing the Cardinal in their first game.
Top 16 national seeds:
1. Wake Forest, 47-10
2. Florida, 44-14
3. Arkansas, 41-16
4. Clemson, 43-17
5. LSU, 43-15
6. Vanderbilt, 41-18
7. Virginia, 45-12
8. Stanford, 38-16
9. Miami, 40-19
10. Coastal Carolina, 39-19
11. Oklahoma State, 41-18
12. Kentucky, 36-18
13. Auburn, 34-21
14. Indiana State, 42-15
15. South Carolina, 39-19
16. Alabama, 40-19
If this year’s tournament is anything like last year’s, then get ready for another wild ride. Ole Miss, last year’s national champion, didn’t even make the tournament field this year, and only four national seeds made it to Omaha last season. Two of those national seeds that ended up in Omaha were the Longhorns and Aggies.
A record eight teams from the SEC are regional hosts and four teams from the ACC, including Miami, are hosts. Oklahoma State was the only team from the Big 12 to earn a regional host bid as the No. 11 national seed.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Texas Longhorns are headed to southern Florida to start the NCAA tournament.
The NCAA baseball tournament selection committee named 64 teams Monday for teams to compete for a spot in the Men’s College World Series, and the Longhorns are a No. 2 seed in Coral Gables regional, hosted by the Miami Hurricanes.
“It’s exciting,” said pitcher Lucas Gordon. “The past two years, we’ve been a 1 seed, so [to] go to Miami and try to fight it out with those three teams is going to be fun.”
MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and sign up for our More than the Score sports newsletter at kxan.com/newsletters
Texas will open the 4-team regional at 1 p.m. Friday against the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, an at-large team from the Sun Belt Conference who lost to Southern Mississippi in the SBC tournament championship game. The game will be aired on Longhorn Network.
“Just being able to play on the road makes it a lot easier,” said outfielder Dylan Campbell about having the experience of playing at East Carolina last year. “[It] makes me be able to slow the game down as much as possible playing in a big environment like [Coral Gables].”
Texas will be looking to get back to their winning ways after going 0-2 in the Big 12 Tournament in Arlington this past week.
“The tournament was frustrating,” said Head Coach David Pierce. “You go out and you just don’t play well enough to even really compete in my opinion. They’ve got to use that as a motivator and use it as a lesson.”
The Hurricanes, the No. 9 national seed, and the Maine Black Bears round out the field in Miami.
The Texas A&M Aggies are headed to the West Coast to the Stanford regional as a No. 2 seed to take on Cal State Fullerton in the opening game Friday. San Jose State, who took a game off the Longhorns in a 3-game series earlier this season, made the tournament and is the No. 4 seed playing the Cardinal in their first game.
Top 16 national seeds:
1. Wake Forest, 47-10
2. Florida, 44-14
3. Arkansas, 41-16
4. Clemson, 43-17
5. LSU, 43-15
6. Vanderbilt, 41-18
7. Virginia, 45-12
8. Stanford, 38-16
9. Miami, 40-19
10. Coastal Carolina, 39-19
11. Oklahoma State, 41-18
12. Kentucky, 36-18
13. Auburn, 34-21
14. Indiana State, 42-15
15. South Carolina, 39-19
16. Alabama, 40-19
If this year’s tournament is anything like last year’s, then get ready for another wild ride. Ole Miss, last year’s national champion, didn’t even make the tournament field this year, and only four national seeds made it to Omaha last season. Two of those national seeds that ended up in Omaha were the Longhorns and Aggies.
A record eight teams from the SEC are regional hosts and four teams from the ACC, including Miami, are hosts. Oklahoma State was the only team from the Big 12 to earn a regional host bid as the No. 11 national seed.