Tulane receives top seed for NCAA tournament

Tulane is heading into the NCAA baseball tournament with the No. 1 national seed and plenty of confidence.

The Green Wave (50-9), ranked No. 1 in at least one of the major national polls for all but three weeks this season, were selected as the top seed for the 64-team Division I college baseball tournament Monday.

"This is a credit to our kids," coach Rick Jones said. "They performed all year, had preseason accolades and it's not easy to go out every day when you know you're going to get the 'A' game of every other team you play."

Tulane, with Brian Bogusevic and Micah Owings both starring on the mound and at the plate, opens against Southern as one of the hosts for the 16 four-team, double-elimination regionals that begin Friday. Louisiana-Lafayette and Alabama are also in Tulane's bracket.

"You can't get the No. 1 seed in the country unless you do a lot of things right," Jones said.

The other national seeds, in order, are: Georgia Tech (42-16), Nebraska (51-13), Baylor (39-21), Mississippi (44-18), defending champion Cal State Fullerton (41-15), Florida (40-20) and Oregon State (41-9). Those schools can only face each other if they advance to the College World Series.

"As long as you're one of the top eight seeds, you have a tremendous advantage to move ahead," NCAA Division I baseball committee chairman Charlie Carr said.

Cal State Fullerton is trying to join Texas (1949-50), Southern California (1970-74), Stanford (1987-88) and Louisiana State (1996-97) as repeat national champions. The Titans open against Harvard, with Missouri and Arizona the other teams playing in their regional.

Teams that received top seeds in their regionals are: Clemson (39-21), Coastal Carolina (48-14), Florida State (50-18), Long Beach State (36-20), Louisiana State (38-20), Miami (38-17-1), Tennessee (41-19) and Texas (45-14). Each is hosting a regional, except for Coastal Carolina; Arizona State is hosting that one.

The winners of each regional will advance to the super regionals, played June 10-13. The eight winners of the super regionals will play in the College World Series, which starts June 17 in Omaha, Neb.

The Southeastern Conference received nine berths, tying the record it set last year. Joining Florida, LSU, Mississippi and Tennessee are Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Mississippi State and South Carolina.

"We try very hard to look at it strictly as each team, not by conference or section of the country," said Carr, the senior associate athletic director at Florida State.

Auburn became the third SEC team in as many years to make the field of 64 despite not making the conference tournament. Mississippi State did the same last year, and Florida in 2003.

"Our guys had a lot of confidence that things were really going to work out," Tigers coach Tom Slater said. "To see our name on the board gave us a great feeling."

The Atlantic Coast Conference sent seven teams to the tournament. Joining Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Miami are North Carolina, North Carolina State and Virginia.

"We have an equal number of teams across the country that were competitive and deserved to be in," Carr said.

Each of the four-team, double-elimination regionals will be played on campus sites from June 3-6.

Carr said the selection committee uses a number of factors in deciding which at-large teams make the cut, including overall record, RPI, non-conference schedule, strength of schedule, how a team has played in its last 10 or 15 games, and performance in conference tournaments and against Top 25 teams.

"There were a ton of bubble teams this year," Carr said. "Sometimes you have two or three. This year you had about 25 or 30. It was hard to disseminate differences between any of them."

Among the top teams left out of the tournament were California (34-23), Cal Poly (36-20), Central Florida (42-18), North Carolina-Wilmington (40-19) and Oklahoma State (34-25).

"This was the most difficult group to try to separate," Carr said. "You don't feel good about any you don't allow in. I could argue a case for each one of them."

The Hurricanes, despite losing their last six games, are in the tournament for the 33rd straight year to extend their NCAA record. Florida State is making its 28th consecutive appearance.

Three teams are making their first tournament appearances: North Carolina A&T (27-25), Quinnipiac (26-22) and Rhode Island (34-19). Each won their conference tournaments to make the field of 64.

"As exciting as you think it would be when you dream of something like this, it's even better to actually go through it," Rhode Island coach Frank Leoni said. "We're excited to have the opportunity to take on some of the nation's top teams and show them what we can do."

Oregon State is in the field for the first time since 1986, while Furman won the Southern Conference tournament to earn its first berth since 1991. Texas-San Antonio (27-32) got in for the first time since 1994 despite a losing record by winning the Southland Conference tournament.