The Confidential

The Road to Omaha Begins

Baseballs post season was set Monday afternoon and North Carolina incredible season was rewarded with the #1 national seed. The other national seeds in order are Vanderbilt, Oregon St, LSU, Cal St Fullerton, Virginia, Florida St and Oregon.

North Carolina (52-8) won its first regular season champion since 1990 and it’s coach Mike Fox’s program first #1 seed. They have been a top 8 seed 6 of the last 7 years. They are the only team in the nation that hasn’t lost consecutive games this season. They will open their bid to be the first top seeded team to win the championship since the 1999 Miami team against Canisius (42-15), who is making their first appearance in the tournament.

The Louisville Cardinals (46-12) will begin their quest to make it to Omaha for the first time since 2007 against Bowling Green (24-29) on Friday at 6pm. They missed out on a national seed but they will host the regional. Also in their region is future ACC foe Miami (36-23) who has made the tournament for a record 41st straight year.

The SEC led all conferences with a record-tying 9 bids. The ACC received 8 while the Pac 12 and Sun Belt received 4 bids each. The committee snubbed the Big East by handing out only 2 bids, to Louisville and UConn. Although the SEC received more bids, the ACC has the upper hand with 5 teams playing host, not including Louisville, while the SEC has only 4 teams hosting a regional. Also the ACC received more national seeds than the SEC, 3-2.

The tournament opens this Friday with 16 four team double-elimination regionals. Those winners will advance to next weeks best of 3 super regionals. The remaining 8 teams will then be broken down into 2 double-elimination brackets in the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Here is a look at the regionals and super regional line up.

(1) 1 North Carolina
4 Canisius
2 Fla Atlantic
3 Towson
Winners meet in Super Regional
1 South Carolina
4 St Louis
2 Clemson
3 Liberty

1 NC State
4 Binghamton
2 Ole Miss
3 William & Mary
Winners Meet in Super Regional
(8) 1 Oregon
4 South Dakota St
2 Rice
3 San Francisco

(5) 1 Cal St Fullerton
4 Columbia
2 Arizona St
3 New Mexico
Winners Meet in Super Regional
1 UCLA
4 San Diego St
2 Cal Poly
3 San Diego

1 Virginia Tech
4 UConn
2 Oklahoma
3 Coastal Car.
Winners Meet in Super Regional
(4) 1 LSU
4 Jackson St
2 La-Lafayette
3 Sam Houston St

(2) 1 Vanderbilt
4 East Tenn St
2 Georgia Tech
3 Illinois
Winners Meet in Super Regional
1 Louisville
4 Bowling Green
2 Miami (Fl)
3 Oklahoma St

1 Indiana
4 Valparaiso
2 Austin Peay
3 Florida
Winners Meet in Super Regional
(7) 1 Florida St
4 Savannah St
2 Alabama
3 Troy

(6) 1 Virginia
4 Army
2 UNC Wilmington
3 Elon
Winners Meet in Super Regional
1 Mississippi St
4 Central Ark
2 South Ala
3 Mercer

1 Kansas St
4 Wichita St
2 Arkansas
3 Bryant
Winners Meet in Super Regional
(3) 1 Oregon St
4 UTSA
2 Texas A&M
3 UC Santa Barbara