Rice to host NCAA regional at Reckling Park; Other CUSA teams await destinations

The 16 host sites for the 2008 NCAA Baseball Tournament were unveiled on Sunday evening and for the seventh time in the past eight seasons Reckling Park was included.

Despite going two and out in this week’s Conference USA Tournament, the fifth-ranked Owls (42-13, 21-3) had done more than enough prior to their short-lived tourney appearance to ensure themselves of hosting. While hosting was a certainty, a top eight national seed isn’t set in stone after the short stay in the conference tourney in New Orleans. However, with Rice’s resume’ that includes a top eight RPI, they are still likely to be rewarded one of those spots.

Houston (39-22, 14-10), which was on the bubble when it went to the Big Easy, removed all doubt by winning four straight games to battle out of the loser’s bracket and win the title—claiming Conference USA’s automatic bid. The Cougars may have also played their way into a two-seed by winning the tournament, but they’re probably on the two-three seed fence.

Three more Conference USA teams—Tulane, Southern Miss and East Carolina—are pretty safe bets to be included in the 64-team field when it is announced at 12:30 p.m. on ESPN today. The Pirates (40-19) and Southern Miss (40-19) will likely be second seeds while Rick Jones’ Tulane club probably dropped to a three-seed after going 1-2 in the conference tourney on its home field.

Stay tuned to CUSA-Fans.com as we’ll have more coverage following today’s pairings show. We’ll not only inform you as to who is going where, but we’ll talk about the regionals and preview the match-ups involving Conference USA teams.

Rice to host regional at Reckling Park; Other CUSA teams await destinations

Owls will be hosting for the seventh time in the last eight seasons