Wake Forest No. 1 overall seed for NCAA baseball tournament
OMAHA, Neb. — Wake Forest, which leads the nation in wins and has not lost consecutive games, was named the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament on Monday, and the Southeastern Conference had a record-tying 10 teams picked to play in regionals.
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.
“To be the No. 1 national seed is a tremendous accomplishment for our program,” Wake Forest coach Tom Walter said. “To do that, you have to demonstrate both consistency and toughness. We have battled through four season-ending injuries on the mound, four temporary injuries to key position players and rebounded quickly from tough losses.”
The national seeds following Wake Forest are Florida (44-14), Arkansas (41-16), Clemson (43-17), LSU (43-15), Vanderbilt (41-18), Virginia (45-12) and Stanford (38-16).
Seeds Nos. 9 through 16: Miami (40-19), Coastal Carolina (39-19), Oklahoma State (41-18), Kentucky (36-18), Auburn (34-21-1), Indiana State (42-15), South Carolina (39-19) and Alabama (40-19).
The last four teams to get bids, in alphabetical order, were Arizona (33-24), Louisiana (40-22), Oklahoma (31-26) and Troy (39-20). The first four out were Arizona State (32-23), Kansas State (35-24), Kent State (42-16) and UC Irvine (38-17).
The SEC matched the record it set in 2014 with 10 teams making the tournament. Of those, a record eight will host regionals.
Division I Baseball Committee chairman John Cohen, the Auburn athletic director, acknowledged eight SEC hosts is “a big number” but noted that league teams combined to win 81.1% of their nonconference games.
“There was no discussion about (how) we need this many teams from the SEC or there’s too many or not enough,” Cohen said. “We do not do that with any leagues. No one is keeping a running total because if you are, you’re not picking the best teams.”
NOTES ABOUT THE TOURNAMENT:
• Vanderbilt has the longest active streak with its 17th straight appearance. Texas is in the tournament for a record 62nd time. Florida State (23-31) saw its record-tying streak of regional appearances end at 44.
• Tulane (19-40) has the most losses of any team to ever make the national tournament. The Green Wave’s reward is a spot in the Baton Rouge Regional and an opening game against LSU.
• Arizona, at 12-18 in Pac-12 play, has the worst conference record of any team selected to the field since 2009.
• Summit League champion Oral Roberts is on the longest win streak in the nation, at 18 games.