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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 8:40 a.m., Monday, May 28, 2007

Vanderbilt No. 1 seed for NCAA baseball tournament

By Dennis Waszak Jr.
Associated Press

Vanderbilt was selected as the top seed for the 64-team Division I college baseball tournament today.

The Commodores (51-11), the Southeastern Conference regular-season and tournament champions, will host one of 16 four-team, double-elimination regionals that begin Friday.

Vanderbilt, led by star left-hander David Price and slugging third baseman Pedro Alvarez, was ranked No. 1 in various polls for the majority of the season and opens up against Austin Peay (39-20).

The other national seeds, in order, are: Rice (49-12), North Carolina (48-12), Texas (44-15), Arizona State (43-13), Florida State (47-11), Arkansas (41-19) and San Diego (43-16).

All 16 of the host schools selected yesterday are No. 1 seeds in their regionals. The winners of each regional will advance to the super regionals, played June 8-11. The eight winners of the super regionals will play in the College World Series, which starts June 15 in Omaha, Neb.

The Atlantic Coast Conference led the tournament field with seven berths. Joining North Carolina and Florida State are Clemson, Miami, North Carolina State, Virginia and Wake Forest.

The Big 12 got six teams in, with Baylor, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M joining Texas.

After getting eight berths last season and nine in 2005 and 2004, the SEC got just five teams in. It's the fewest for the conference since getting four teams got in in 1994 — five years before the NCAA expanded the tournament from 48 to 64 teams.

Miami (36-22) is making its 35th straight tournament appearance to extend its NCAA record.

Defending national champion Oregon State (38-17) received an at-large bid, and looks to join Texas (1949-50), Southern California (1970-74), Stanford (1987-88) and Louisiana State (1996-97) as repeat winners. The Beavers are the No. 3 seed in the Charlottesville, Va., regional, and will open with Big East tournament champion Rutgers (41-19).

Two schools that played in last year's College World Series failed to make the field of 64: Georgia and Georgia Tech.