OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Five Southeastern Conference teams are among the 16 hosts for regionals in the NCAA Division I baseball tournament.
SEC tournament champion LSU and regular-season champion Florida are hosts, along with Mississippi, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.
The 16 regional hosts announced Sunday night are guaranteed spots in the 64-team NCAA tournament. The rest of the field will be announced Monday.
The four-team, double-elimination regionals start Friday. Regional winners advance to the best-of-three super regionals the following week. The remaining eight teams will play in the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, beginning June 14.
Other regional hosts are: Florida State, Miami, Virginia, Oklahoma State, TCU, Oregon State, Indiana, Rice, Louisville, Cal Poly and Louisiana-Lafayette.
Florida State will play in a regional at home for the 31st time since the NCAA went to the regional format in 1975. Miami is hosting for the 24th time and LSU for the 22nd time.
FSU is among eight teams that also were hosts in 2013. The others are Virginia, LSU, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Oregon State, Indiana and Louisville.
Cal Poly is the only first-time host. The Mustangs (45-10) won the Big West championship last week for their first league title since 1994, when they played in Division II.
Sun Belt Conference champion Louisiana-Lafayette is hosting for the first time since 2000, when it reached the College World Series. The Ragin’ Cajuns (53-7) set a Sun Belt record for wins, and their 10-game win streak is the longest in the nation.
Louisville (45-15) will start the NCAA tournament at home despite losing to Houston (44-15) in the American Athletic Conference final and entering Sunday with a lower RPI than the Cougars. The Cardinals also beat out Washington for a regional. The Huskies (39-15-1) finished second in the Pac-12 behind Oregon State, but they lost four of their last five games.
The NCAA uses several criteria to determine regional sites, including trying to reward regular-season performance and geographical distribution.
The Division I Baseball Committee will set the entire 64-team bracket through super regionals and the first round of the CWS. The field will not be re-seeded after play begins.
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