Rutgers left out of NCAA Tournament despite historic season
The best season in Rutgers baseball history has ended with nothing to show for it.
The Scarlet Knights were one of the first four teams out of the NCAA Tournament when the field was announced on Monday afternoon.
As it turned out, the Big Ten championship game that Rutgers lost to Michigan, 10-4, on Sunday night in Omaha, Nebraska, was a de facto NCAA Tournament play-in game as the Wolverines grabbed the automatic berth and joined Maryland, which is hosting a regional as the No. 15 overall seed, as the only two teams from the league to get in.
The Scarlet Knights went 44-15 overall — the 44 victories a new program record — finished second in the Big Ten and had an RPI of 42. However, the selection committee was not high on the Big Ten overall, Rutgers played a weak non-conference schedule — it only beat one team in the NCAA field (VCU) and had a strength of schedule ranked 149th — and went 2-5 against the two Big Ten teams that did get in.
“One of the best teams I’ve ever been apart of during my 18 years of playing this game,” tweeted redshirt junior catcher Nick Cimillo, who batted .385 with 16 HR and 52 RBI. “We worked hard every day and night. Grinded our butts off to win 45 games and somehow wasn’t enough. this team made me love the game of baseball in a whole new way.”
Florida State, Grand Canyon, Liberty and Ole Miss were the last four teams in, while NC State, Old Dominion, Rutgers and Wofford were the first four out.
Chari of the selection committee Mike Buddie was asked about the process of
picking the last four teams.
“When it comes down to those last three or four teams, you really have to split hairs,” said Buddie, the athletic director at Army West Point. “What I liked about the committee’s conversation was is baseball is a game that is played in series, so we weren’t looking at specific one-game scenarios unless that was the only data point that we had. We were scrubbing Ole Miss, NC State, Florida State, Rutgers and others. Some things that stood out was NC State’s resume looked different was the non-conference strength of schedule. NC State won
four of its 10 ACC series, but only one of those was against a team in the field. Ole Miss also won four of 10 series in the SEC, but it had series wins over LSU and Auburn. Miniscule decisions, but when it gets down to that time of the selection, miniscule difference can sometimes make the difference.”
Aiming for its first bid since 2007, Rutgers ripped off three straight victories to reach the Big Ten championship game, but little did it know, the championship against Michigan was essentially an elimination game.
“Not even sue words can
describe what just happened,” graduate student outfielder Garrett Callaghan, a Franklin native, tweeted. “What a group of guys I got to play with @RutgersBaseball. In just one year, I’ve made some relationships that will last a lifetime. Always will be proud for the opportunity to represent the school I grew up next to.”
Rutgers wasn’t the only New Jersey school to narrowly miss out on the NCAA Tournament. Rider was attempting to earn back-toback bids out of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, but lost to Canisius in
the championship round of the league tournament. The Golden Griffins earned a No. 4 seed in the Coral Gables Regional and open against Miami.
After finishing one of the most dominant runs in SEC history, Tennessee was selected the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA baseball tournament Monday.
The Volunteers (53-7) won 31 of their first 32 games, swept the SEC regular-season and tournament titles and have the best pitching and batting statistics in the nation.vThey’ve been the consensus No. 1 team in the polls all but one week since March 28 and enter regionals having won eight straight and 12 of 13.
The 64-team tournament opens Friday in 16 regionals. Winners advance to eight best-of-three super regionals. Those winners move on to the College World Series in Omaha.
The top eight national seeds are assured of hosting super regionals if they win their regionals.
The national seeds following Tennessee: Stanford (4114), Oregon State (44-15), Virginia Tech (41-12), Texas A&M (37-18), Miami (39-18), Oklahoma State (39-20) and East Carolina (42-18).
Stanford, which won the Pac-12 regular-season and tournament titles, is a national seed for the first time since it was No. 2 in 2018. Oregon State gives the Pac-12 two of the top three seeds for the first time.
Virginia Tech, which was picked second to last in the ACC’s Coastal Division, has its highest seed in program history and will be playing in a regional for the first time since 2013.
Texas A&M won its last seven SEC series under firstyear coach Jim Schlossnagle to lock up a national seed after not making the tournament last year.
East Carolina will play in the tournament for a 32nd time. The Pirates hold the distinction of having made the most appearances without reaching a CWS.
Seeds nine through 16: Texas (42-19), North Carolina (38-19), Southern Mississippi (43-16), Louisville (3818-1), Florida (39-22), Auburn (37-19), Maryland (45-12) and Georgia Southern (40-18).
The ACC and SEC had the most teams selected, with nine apiece. The Big 12 and Pac-12 each got five teams in, and the Sun Belt Conference has four teams in the field.