SEC sends six to super regionals
Six of the record-tying 10 Southeastern Conference teams in the NCAA Tournament will take the next step on the “Road to Omaha.”
No. 2 national seed Florida, No. 5 LSU and No. 12 Kentucky wrapped up regionals Monday and join fellow SEC members No. 15 South Carolina, No. 16 Alabama and Tennessee in super regionals beginning Friday.
The number matches a record previously set by the SEC in 2004 and 2018. The conference had a shot at breaking that record late Monday, but Stanford eliminated Texas A& M with a 7-1 win to claim its regional.
TCU, Duke and Southern Mississippi also won regionals Monday.
Florida advanced with a 6- 0 victory over Texas Tech. The Gators had been knocked out of three straight regionals on their home field and this time had to win three straight elimination games to reach super regionals for the first time since 2018.
Ryan Slater and two relievers combined on the four-hit shutout and BT Riopelle, who had been 0 for 15 with eight strikeouts in the regional, hit a pair of two-run homers.
“Last year left a bad taste in our mouths and we didn’t want to overlook any team in this regional no matter what, and that’s exactly what we did,” Gators shortstop Josh Rivera said.
Winners of the best- ofthree super regionals will go to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, beginning June 16.
Top- eight nat ional seeds are assured of hosting super regionals if they win their regionals. The NCAA will announce other sites on Tuesday.
The matchups: Alabama (43-19) at No. 1 Wake Forest (50-10); South Carolina (42-19) at Florida (48-15); TCU (40-22) vs. No. 14 Indiana State (45-15); Southern Mississippi (45-18) vs. Tennessee (41-19); Oral Roberts (49-11) vs. Oregon (40-20); Texas (41-20) at Stanford (41-17); Duke (3822) at No. 7 Virginia (4812); and Kentucky (40-19) at LSU (46-15).
Around the horn
Indiana State announced Monday it would be unable to host its super regional because of a prior commitment to host the Indiana Special Olympics for the 51st straight year. Indiana State, as a national seed, would have been in line to host against an unseeded TCU. ... LSU is in supers for the eighth time since 2012 and 16th time overall, second-most to Florida State’s 17. ... TCU is in supers for the first time since 2018.