Miami Selected As Top Seed In College Baseball Tournament

Indianapolis, IN (AHN) -- The Atlantic Coast Conference champion Miami Hurricanes were selected as the top seed in the 64-team Division I college baseball tournament on Monday while the Southeastern Conference landed nine teams in the double-elimination regionals which begin on Friday.

The Hurricanes (47-8), making their NCAA-record 36th straight appearance in the tournament, will host one of 16 four-team double-elimination regionals that will be played Friday through Sunday. They will open play against Bethune Cookman (36-20).

The last No. 1 seed to win the NCAA championship was the Hurricanes in 1999.

North Carolina (46-12) was selected the overall No. 2 seed, followed by Arizona State (45-11), Florida State (48-10), Cal State Fullerton (37-19), Rice (42-13), LSU (43-16-1) and Georgia (35-21-1).

LSU and Georgia will be joined in the field by SEC rivals Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. LSU is riding a 20-game winning streak into its first-round game against Texas Southern (16-32).

The ACC (Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Virginia) and the Big 12 (Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas A&M) each had six teams selected.

The Pac-10 (Arizona, Arizona State, California, Stanford, UCLA) and Conference USA (East Carolina, Houston, Rice, Southern Mississippi and Tulane) were next with five choices apiece while the Big West (UC Davis, UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State) had four selections.

UC Davis, Dallas Baptist, Lipscomb and Mount St. Mary's earned their first-ever tournament selections while Columbia is the field for the first time since 1976.

Two-time defending NCAA champion Oregon State (28-24) was left out of the tournament, the first time the defending champion was left out since Georgia in 1991.

The 16 Regional winners advance to the Super Regionals to be played June 6-9. Those eight winners advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., beginning June 14.