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The 2011 NCAA Baseball Tournament begins on June 3, but first the field of 64 was just set. TCU hosts a regional and plays Oral Roberts. New Mexico heads to Tempe.
We're just a few hours away from learning the field of 64 for the 2011 NCAA Baseball Tournament, which means there's still plenty of time for some bracketology predictions. Baseball America released its projected field of 64 on Sunday night. TCU's Fort Worth regional is projected just the same as ESPN's as Oklahoma, Dallas Baptist and Oral Roberts pay a visit there.
New Mexico's destination, though, is different in Baseball America's. Here the Lobos visit the Los Angeles regional, hosted by UCLA. While there are some question if UCLA will be the No. 1 seed in their own regional, Aaron Fitt projects that to be so. And with the Lobos, 20-39, being the No. 4 seed in the regional they draw UCLA to start the double-elimination round. That will be a tough matchup for New Mexico because they will face either of UCLA's two stud pitchers: Gerrit Cole or Trevor Bauer.
However, New Mexico did upset TCU to win the Mountain West Conference tournament. Don't count them out, but don't bet the farm on them either.
On Monday, May 30, the field of 64 for the 2011 NCAA College Baseball Tournament will be announced. We already know the 16 regional host sites: Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Oregon State, North Carolina, Rice, South Carolina, Texas, Texas A&M, TCU, Vanderbilt, Virginia and UCLA.
Eight host teams come from the southeastern section of the United States, four from Texas and four from the West. Just like in college basketball and football, the Southeast is a hotbed of powerful teams.
TCU will host the Fort Worth regional and be the No. 1 seed there. ESPN's Jeremy Mills predicts his field of 64 and has Oklahoma, Dallas Baptist and Oral Roberts to fill out that portion of the bracket. With the way the NCAA selects its field, travel distances are tried to be kept at a minimum. The Atlanta regional needed to fit in Manhattan, but Georgia, Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern are all projected together there.
New Mexico gained the Mountain West Conference's automatic bid with its victory over TCU in the tournament championship game on Friday. At 20-39, the Lobos will be the No. 4 seed in whichever regional they are placed. Mills projects them to the Arizona State/Tempe regional where they would play the Sun Devils in the opening game.
During the regional phase of the tournament, it is a double-elimination round. That round takes place June 3-6 and will be followed by the Super Regionals on June 10-13 in a best-of-three series. After that, the College World Series begins with eight teams and goes through double-elimination until two teams emerge for a best-of-three championship series.
Tune into ESPN at 10:30 a.m. MT for the NCAA Division I Road to Omaha Selection Show.
For more college baseball, browse SB Nation's list of college blogs. For more on the Mountain West, visit Mountain West Connection.
NCAA College Baseball Tournament 2011 Sets Field Of 64
The TCU Horned Frogs will indeed play fourth-seeded Oral Roberts in the Fort Worth Regional of the 2011 NCAA Baseball Tournament. No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 3 Dallas Baptist completed that section of the bracket, as expected.
The New Mexico Lobos, as expected, wound up as a No. 4 seed in the field of 64, but they will not head to Los Angeles for regional play. They will, as Jeremy Mills projected, head to Tempe and play the No. 1 Arizona State Sun Devils. The Arkansas Razorbacks and the Charlotte 49ers filled out the regional as the No. 2 and the No.3 teams.
Surprisingly, the St. John's Red Storm made the tournament over the LSU Tigers, though finishing second in the Big East helped (LSU finished ninth in the SEC).
The top eight seeds in the tournament are (in descending order): Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida State, Vanderbilt, Texas and Rice. During the show the head of the selection committee said Texas A&M was not a No. 1 national seed because of the loss of pitcher John Stilson.
Should TCU advance from the Fort Worth Regional, they will play the winner of the Houston Regional (Rice, Baylor, Cal, Alcorn State). If New Mexico pulls the upset, they will advanced to face the winner of the Austin Regional (Texas, Texas State, Kent State, Princeton).
Visit SBNation.com for the full field of 64.
May 30 11:08a by Russ Oates