College baseball notebook: Georgia Tech, Oregon, West Virginia, Texas top seeds in power conferences
The NCAA logo is seen on a baseball during an NCAA college baseball tournament regional game between Louisiana-Lafayette and Mississippi State in Lafayette, La., Monday, June 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Jonathan Bachman, file)
Jockeying for NCAA Tournament bids ramps up in college baseball this week with conference tournaments taking center stage.
Tournament champions in 29 conferences will be automatic qualifiers in the 64-team national tournament, which opens with regional play May 30.
Regional hosts will be announced Sunday and the rest of the field next Monday. The College World Series is June 13 through June 22 or 23 in Omaha, Nebraska.
A look at the tournaments in the power conferences:
Atlantic Coast Conference
Site: Durham Bulls Athletic Park; Durham, North Carolina.
Days: Tuesday to Sunday.
2024 champion: Duke.
Top seed: Georgia Tech.
Short hops: The Yellow Jackets won their first outright regular-season title since 2005, and it came in 32-year coach Danny Hall’s final season. ... Six ACC teams won at least 17 conference games. ... Florida State LHP Jamie Arnold (6-2, 2.59 ERA) is the No. 3 MLB draft prospect by MLB.com. ... Jake Knapp’s 2.14 ERA for North Carolina ranks second in the nation among pitchers with at least 80 innings pitched. ... This is the 51st ACC Tournament and 27th played in the state of North Carolina. Only Virginia and Clemson have participated in all of them. FSU’s Alex Lodise is batting an ACC- and power conference-leading .422.
Big Ten
Site: Charles Schwab Field; Omaha, Nebraska.
Days: Tuesday to Sunday.
2024 champion: Nebraska.
Top seed: Oregon.
Short hops: The Ducks shared the regular-season title with UCLA after sweeping Iowa on the road, outscoring the Hawkeyes 32-10 with 11 homers in the three games. ... The four former Pac-12 teams that entered the conference this season are all top-five seeds: No. 1 Oregon, No. 2 UCLA, No. 4 Southern California and No. 5 Washington. Iowa is No. 3. ... Oregon’s Mason Neville leads the nation with 26 homers. ... UCLA’s Michael Barnett (10-1) leads the Big Ten in wins. ... Benny Casillas of Michigan is batting a Big Ten-best .406.
Big 12
Site: Globe Life Field; Arlington, Texas.
Days: Wednesday to Saturday.
2024 champion: Oklahoma State.
Top seed: West Virginia.
Short hops: The 12-team tournament will be played in a single-elimination format for the first time. ... West Virginia comes in off four straight losses after getting swept by Kansas. The Mountaineers finished percentage points ahead of the Jayhawks for their first outright regular-season title in baseball since joining the Big 12 in 2012-13. ... Kansas earned the second seed, its highest Big 12 seeding in program history. ... Arizona’s 34 triples are most in the nation since New Mexico State had the same number in 2019. ... Cincinnati’s Kennington Cross is batting a Big 12-best .414.
Southeastern Conference
Site: Metropolitan Complex; Hoover, Alabama.
Days: Tuesday through Sunday.
2024 champion: Tennessee.
Top seed: Texas.
Short hops: Texas is the first team to win the SEC regular-season title in its first season since the league’s inaugural campaign in 1933. ... The Longhorns’ 42-11 regular-season record was its best since 2010. ... Tennessee’s Andrew Fischer leads the SEC in homers (22), slugging (.779), on-base percentage (.502), on-base plus slugging (1.281) and walks (56). ... Arkansas’ .983 fielding percentage is second nationally. ... Dylan Volantis’ 11 saves in SEC play for Texas are a freshman conference record.
In the polls
LSU (42-13) won two of three at South Carolina and remains No. 1 in the D1Baseball.com and Baseball America polls.
D1Baseball.com ranks Texas (42-11) second and North Carolina (39-12) third. Baseball America has North Carolina second and Georgia (42-14) third.
The Longhorns won two of three at Oklahoma, the Tar Heels took two of three at Florida State and the Bulldogs won two of three at home against Georgia.
Cleanup spot
Columbia tied its program record with seven home runs in a 14-6 win over Harvard in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, making the Lions the first team to clinch an NCAA Tournament bid. ... East Tennessee State won its first Southern Conference regular-season title since 1980 with an 11-2 win over the Citadel on Saturday. ... Louisville scored at least one run in every inning of a 14-9 win over Wake Forest on Saturday. ... Charleston Southern’s Kaden Smith tied the NCAA single-game record with five doubles in a 14-4 win over Gardner-Webb on Thursday. Smith became the ninth player to do it and first since Appalachian State’s Luke Drumheller against Furman in 2019.
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