Four SEC teams will play host in baseball regionals
Associated Press
Defending College World Series champion Louisiana State, trying to win one last title under retiring coach Skip Bertman, will join three other Southeastern Conference schools as regional hosts for the NCAA baseball tournament.
Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina also were picked yesterday from the SEC as regional sites.
The host schools, mostly from warm weather locations, were guaranteed berths in the 64-team tournament that starts May 25. The rest of the field will be announced Monday.
"I think the SEC is arguably one of the strongest conferences in baseball," said Wally Groff, chairman of the 10-person Division I baseball committee. "Their teams just played their way into the tournament with good records. And they all have good histories of hosting regionals in the past."
LSU is seeking its sixth national title in the last 11 years under Bertman.
The other regional hosts are Cal State Fullerton, Clemson, East Carolina, Florida State, Miami, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Rice, Southern California, Stanford and Tulane.
Rice must win one of three games in a season-finale series against Texas Christian to win the Western Athletic Conference championship.
East Carolina, Georgia, Nebraska and Tulane are holding regionals for the first time.
Nebraska is adding about 1,000 seats to Buck Beltzer Stadium, and putting in a warning track during the next week.
"We've done a lot of traveling this year," coach Dave Van Horn said. "It's going to be exciting to stay at home next week and practice and get ready for the regional at our own site."
The Cornhuskers are led by pitcher Shane Komine, a 1998 Kalani High School graduate.
The regionals will run from May 25-27, and each will feature four teams in a double-elimination format. The winners of each regional will advance to the super regionals at eight sites to be determined May 28. The eight winners of the super regionals will play in the College World Series, which starts June 8 in Omaha, Neb.
Seven schools, Cal State-Fullerton, Clemson, Florida State, LSU, Miami, South Carolina and Stanford, also hosted regionals last year. Florida State was given its 17th regional in 19 years.
"None of them were no-brainers," Groff said. "Every year, we try to let the teams play themselves into it and each one of these teams earned it."
The committee received a total of 32 bids, ranging from a minimum of $35,000 to as high as $330,000, to host regionals.
The Northeast, which had a regional hosted by Rutgers last year, was the only geographic region not to have a school submit a bid.
All 16 schools hosting regionals also submitted bids for super regionals.
Groff said the committee looked at the teams' records, power ratings, recent performances, the quality of the facilities and revenue potential when deciding on the host schools.
"I didn't think there was much difference from previous years, in that the first 10 schools went pretty easily," said Groff, athletic director at Texas A&M. "As usual, the last two or three were the toughest ones.
"This is my third year on the committee, and the amount of the bid has taken on less importance. The ability to buy the bid is probably less than it was 10 years ago."
All regionals are played on campus sites except at East Carolina, which will use Fleming Stadium in Wilson, N.C.
The tournament expanded from 48 to 64 teams two years ago.
