Conference USA places four teams in NCAA baseball regionals

Rice receives No. 8 national seed

After Rice claimed the league’s automatic berth by winning the tournament, CUSA was expected to collect three at-large berths on Monday and that’s exactly what it did when Southern Miss, East Carolina and UCF were tabbed as two-seeds in their respective regionals.

The Owls (41-19), who received a host site on Sunday, found out they are also the tournament’s No. 8 national seed. Therefore, if Rice is able to advance to the super regional round, it will be hosting the winner of the Fort Worth regional. Wayne Graham’s club will face No. 4 seed Alcorn State (27-28), the SWAC champ, in Friday’s opening round. They will meet either No. 2 Baylor (29-26) or No. 3 Cal (31-20) on Saturday.

Southern Miss (39-17) looked like a probable host a couple weeks ago, but after struggling the last few games, the Golden Eagles will head to Atlanta. They will play in-state rival Mississippi State (34-23) on Friday before facing either host and No. 1 seed Georgia Tech (40-19) or No. 4 Austin Peay (33-22) on Saturday.

Billy Godwin and No. 23 East Carolina certainly received no favors from the committee. The Pirates (39-19) were sent to the Charlottesville Regional, where they will likely get No. 1 national seed Virginia (49-9) if they can top St. John’s (35-20) on Friday. The Cavaliers will meet the Midshipmen of Navy (33-23-1) in their opener.

UCF (38-21) will head up the road to the Tallahassee Regional. The Knights will commence tournament play against No. 3 Alabama (33-26). They will square off with either host Florida State (42-17) or No. 4 Bethune Cookman (36-23) on Saturday.

Check back with cusa-fans.com for previews of each of these regionals.