Texas Tech was given a No. 3 seed and will play No. 2 seed Notre Dame in the first round of the NCA A baseball tournament’s Statesboro Regional.
The Red Raiders (37-20) and the Fighting Irish (35-14) will play Friday at a time to be determined. Georgia Southern (40-18) is the No. 1 seed and the regional host, doing so for the first time, and will play UNC Greensboro (34-28) in the other first-round game.
Column:Andrew Morris’ misplaced fastball proves costly in Red Raiders’ loss to Sooners
The bracket was announced Monday with 64 teams divided into four-team regionals at 16 sites. The winners will advance to best-of-three super regionals, and the eight super-regional champions go to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
Georgia Southern is the No. 16 overall seed in the field. The winner of the Statesboro Regional will play the winner of the Knoxville Regional hosted by No. 1 overall seed Tennessee (53-7).
Tech has been a regional host in the past five NCAA tournaments. The last time the Red Raiders started on the road was in 2014 at Miami, and they made the College World Series for the first time that year. Tech missed the tournament in 2015, and the 2020 postseason was canceled on account of the COVID outbreak.
The Red Raiders went 15-9 in the Big 12, tying for second and one game back of TCU.
Tech pulled off a three-game sweep at Oklahoma State in mid-May, but has lost four of six games since.
Notre Dame ace John Michael Bertrand, 8-2 with a 2.39 earned-run average, is a first-team all-Atlantic Coast Conference for the second year in a row. Austin Temple (4-1, 3.19, two saves) is second on the staff in starts and innings pitched.
Fighting Irish outfielder Ryan Cole is a third-team all-ACC honoree. He’s batting .303 with nine home runs, 31 runs batted in and 19 stolen bases. Normally the team’s leadoff batter, Cole didn’t play in the first two games of the ACC tournament and then was the designated hitter in the third game.
Other big bats for the Fighting Irish are first baseman Carter Putz (.350-6-42), corner outfielders Jack Zyska (.297-10-32) and Brooks Coetzee (.286-11-42) and third baseman Jack Brannigan (.289-9-41).
Notre Dame went 16-11 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Fighting Irish swept three-game series from Florida State, Clemson and Wake Forest and won two games in a three-game series that had a game canceled on account of weather.
Notre Dame won two of three from Boston College and Pittsburgh. The Fighting Irish got swept in three-game series by Louisville and Duke and dropped two of three to in their last regular-season series to Miami, a regional host.
NCAA TOURNAMENT
First-round games
Seeds, records in parentheses
Note: Teams are listed in bracket order. Each regional is a four-team, double-elimination bracket.
Knoxville Regional
No. 1 Tennessee (1) (53-7) vs. Alabama State (4) (34-23)
Georgia Tech (2) (34-22) vs. Campbell (3) (40-17)
Statesboro Regional
No. 16 Georgia Southern (1) (40-18) vs. UNC Greensboro (4) (34-28)
Notre Dame (2) (35-14) vs. Texas Tech (3) (37-20)
Austin Regional
No. 9 Texas (1) (42-19) vs. Air Force (4) (30-27)
Louisiana Tech (2) (42-19) vs. Dallas Baptist (3) (34-22-1)
Greenville Regional
No. 8 East Carolina (1) (42-18) vs. Coppin State (4) (24-28)
Virginia (2) (38-17) vs. Coastal Carolina (3) (36-18-1)
College Station Regional
No. 5 Texas A&M (1) (37-18) vs. Oral Roberts (4) (38-18)
TCU (2) (36-20) vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (3) (36-21)
Louisville Regional
No. 12 Louisville (1) (38-18-1) vs. Southeast Missouri State (4) (37-20)
Oregon (2) (35-23) vs. Michigan (3) (32-26)
Gainesville Regional
No. 13 Florida (1) (39-22) vs. Central Michigan (4) (42-17)
Oklahoma (2) (37-20) vs. Liberty (3) (37-21)
Blacksburg Regional
No. 4 Virginia Tech (1) (41-12) vs. Wright State (4) (30-25)
Gonzaga (2) (36-17) vs. Columbia (3) (30-16)
Stanford Regional
No. 2 Stanford (1) (41-14) vs. Binghamton (4) (22-28)
Texas State (2) (45-12) vs. UC Santa Barbara (3) (43-12)
College Park Regional
No. 15 Maryland (1) (45-12) vs. Long Island (4) (37-19)
Wake Forest (2) (40-17-1) vs. Connecticut (3) (46-13)
Chapel Hill Regional
No. 10 North Carolina (1) (38-19) vs. Hofstra (4) (30-21)
Georgia (2) (35-21) vs. Virginia Commonwealth (3) (40-18)
Stillwater Regional
No. 7 Oklahoma State (1) (39-20) vs. Missouri State (4) (30-27)
Arkansas (2) (38-18) vs. Grand Canyon (3) (41-19)
Coral Gables Regional
No. 6 Miami (1) (39-18) vs. Canisius (4) (29-23)
Arizona (2) (37-23) vs. Mississippi (3) (32-22)
Hattiesburg Regional
No. 11 Southern Mississippi (1) (43-16) vs. Army (4) (31-23)
LSU (2) (38-20) vs. Kennesaw State (3) (35-26)
Auburn Regional
No. 14 Auburn (1) (37-19) vs. Southeastern Louisiana (4) (30-29)
UCLA (2) (38-22) vs. Florida State (3) (33-23)
Corvallis Regional
No. 3 Oregon State (1) (44-15) vs. New Mexico State (4) (24-32)
Vanderbilt (2) (36-21) vs. San Diego (3) (36-18)
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism