Texas will host one of 16 NCAA regionals
| • | UH denied WAC title |
By DENNIS WASZAK Jr.
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Defending national champion Texas was selected yesterday as one of the 16 regional tournament hosts by the NCAA Division I baseball committee.
Texas (40-19), led by ace right-hander Kyle McCulloch and slugging outfielder Drew Stubbs, will play host for the 22nd time since the NCAA went to the current regional format in 1975.
The Southeastern Conference leads the field with five regional hosts: Alabama (41-19), Arkansas (38-19), Georgia (41-19), Kentucky (42-15) and Mississippi (39-20). The Atlantic Coast Conference will have four hosts: Clemson (46-14), Georgia Tech (45-16), North Carolina (45-13) and Virginia (46-13).
The other regional hosts are: Cal State Fullerton (41-13), Nebraska (42-14), Oklahoma (40-19), Oregon State (39-13), Pepperdine (39-19) and Rice (49-10).
The University of Hawai'i had submitted a bid to host a regional, but did not receive one.
"We just had a lot of tough decisions and we did our best to geographically put sites at different places," committee chairman Larry Templeton said.
Each of the 16 host schools are guaranteed berths in the 64-team tournament, which starts Friday. The rest of the field will be announced today.
Each of the four-team, double-elimination regionals will be played on campus sites from June 2-5. The winners of each regional will advance to the super regionals, played June 9-12.
The eight winners of the super regionals will play in the College World Series, which starts June 16 in Omaha, Neb.
Seven sites — Cal State Fullerton, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oregon State and Texas — also hosted regionals last year.
Kentucky, the SEC co-champion, and Pepperdine, the West Coast Conference champ, are hosting for the first time. Pepperdine's Eddy D. Field Stadium was selected despite not having any lights.
There will be no regionals played in the state of Florida for the first time since 1975. National runner-up Florida failed to make the SEC tournament, while Florida State, which has hosted 24 times, and Miami, which has played host 21 times, will likely get at-large berths but will both have to hit the road.
