The 2018 NCAA baseball tournament has found its 64 teams. Florida, Oregon State, and Stanford all chopped away at the top seed spot all season long, but the Gators finally earned top register as the No. 1 overall national seed on Monday afternoon. And rightfully so, because their pitching staff can throw.
NCAA Baseball Tournament bracket 2018: SEC and everyone else
Might should prep up for another SEC CWS.
Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports
Brady Singer, one of three presumptive first-round picks on Florida’s roster in this year’s MLB draft and the Gators’ cussin’ pitcher, has led an impressive club into the postseason with the hope of repeating as national champs. Florida beat out LSU in last year’s College World Series final round, and with five ranked national seeds in the top 16 and eight conference members making the field of the 64, the SEC yet again has sent the most number of teams into this year’s college baseball tourney.
National seed Ole Miss slides in at No. 4 overall after winning 46 games and the SEC tournament over LSU this year. They hammered the Tigers in the conference tournament final, 9-1, after the rest of the conference powerhouses — Florida, Georgia, and Auburn among them — dropped in winnable games despite their observable inroads to the tournament championship.
The college baseball tournament format is perhaps the most egalitarian among college athletics. 64 teams are seeded into 16 regional host sites, and those hosts are paired off eight at a time against their opposites on the bracket. Four teams then play a double-elimination mini-tournament, and the winner of that round goes on to play their pairing across the bracket in a best of three series the following weekend. The eight winners of those super regional rounds travel to Omaha, Neb. for yet another four-team mini-tournament, and the eventual winners of those tilts face off in a best of three series for the whole shebang.
Oh yeah, the Major League Baseball draft always occurs dead smack in the middle of this affair, right before the eight trek to Omaha.
This is the first year in tournament history that the top 16 teams have been ranked as national seeds, which affords one the privilege of hosting in your home ballpark through the first two rounds, should you survive your opening regional.
Under the national seeds, each regional is seeded in its own right, one through four. Below are the regional match-ups paired by national seed rankings, including each team’s first round games. No. 1 plays No. 4, and No. 2 plays No. 3 at every host site. Losers slip into the losers’ bracket to survive, winners go to the winners’ bracket.
2018 College Baseball Tournament field by regional pairings:
Gainesville regional
Florida (No. 1 overall)
No. 4 Columbia
No. 2 Jacksonville
No. 3 Florida Atlantic
Raleigh regional
NC State (No. 16 overall)
No. 4 Army
No. 3 Northeastern
No. 2 Auburn
Stanford regional
Stanford (No. 2 overall)
No. 4 Wright State
No. 3 Cal State Fullerton
No. 2 Baylor
Conway regional
Coastal Carolina (No. 15 overall)
No. 4 LIU Brooklyn
No. 3 Washington
No. 2 UConn
Corvallis regional
Oregon State (No. 3 overall)
No. 4 Northwestern State
No. 3 San Diego
No. 2 LSU
Minneapolis regional
Minnesota (No. 14 overall)
No. 4 Canisius
No. 3 Gonzaga
No. 2 UCLA
Oxford regional
Ole Miss (No. 4 overall)
No. 4 St. Louis
No. 3 Missouri State
No. 2 Tennessee Tech
Austin regional
Texas (No. 13 overall)
No. 4 Texas Southern
No. 3 Texas A&M
No. 2 Indiana
Fayetteville regional
Arkansas (No. 5 overall)
No. 4 Oral Roberts
No. 3 Dallas Baptist
No. 2 Southern Mississippi
Greenville regional
East Carolina (No. 12 overall)
No. 4 UNC-Wilmington
No. 3 Ohio State
No. 2 South Carolina
Chapel Hill regional
North Carolina (No. 6 overall)
No. 4 North Carolina A&T
No. 3 Houston
No. 2 Purdue
Deland regional
Stetson (No. 11 overall)
No. 4 Hartford
No. 3 Oklahoma State
No. 2 South Florida
Clemson regional
Clemson (No. 7 overall)
No. 4 Morehead State
No. 3 St. John’s
No. 2 Vanderbilt
Tallahassee regional
Florida State (No. 10 overall)
No. 4 Samford
No. 3 Oklahoma
No. 2 Mississippi State
Athens regional
Georgia (No. 8 overall)
No. 4 Campbell
No. 2 Duke
No. 3 Troy
Lubbock regional
Texas Tech (No. 9 overall)
No. 4 New Mexico State
No. 3 Kent State
No. 2 Louisville
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