Georgia baseball will host an NCAA Regional for the first time since 2008, and now the Bulldogs know who they will match up with at Foley Field.
The Bulldogs are hosting a regional for a fifth time, having earned the No. 8 overall seed. Their regional also includes No. 2 Duke, No. 3 Troy and No. 4 Campbell. The regional begins on Friday.
If chalk holds, Georgia would host No. 9-overall seed Texas Tech in a Super Regional in Athens.
Georgia went 18-12 in SEC play, which was tied for second behind Florida (20-10), which earned the No. 1 overall seed. UGA went 37-19 overall and boasted an impressive home record (23-6), which should inspire confidence for the Athens Regional.
“We are excited to be in the NCAA Tournament, and having an opportunity to host is a credit to how the team has performed this year, along with the support of our fans and administration,” coach Scott Stricklin said. “We look forward to playing again at Foley Field in front of our fans as they’ve done an outstanding job cheering us on all season.”
Duke presents the toughest challenge for Georgia in the Athens Regional. The Blue Devils finished third in the ACC and earned an at-large bid after putting up a 40-15 record during the regular season. Troy also received an at-large bid after finishing second in the Sun Belt to Coastal Carolina and was one of the last four teams in the field of 64. Campbell received an automatic bid after winning the Big South Tournament.
Duke and Troy will start things off at 2 p.m. ET on Friday. Georgia will take on Campbell at 7:30 p.m. the same night.
The NCAA seeded 16 teams for the first time. There had been eight seeds previously.
Stanford (44-10) is the No. 2 seed, followed by Oregon State (44-10-1), Mississippi (46-15), Arkansas (39-18), North Carolina (38-18), Florida State (43-17) and Georgia (37-19).
Seeds nine through 16 are Texas Tech (39-17), Clemson (45-14), Stetson (45-11), East Carolina (43-16), Texas (37-20), Minnesota (41-13), Coastal Carolina (42-17) and North Carolina State (40-16).
Florida is the only team to earn a national seed in each of the last five seasons. The SEC tied the tournament record with 10 teams in the field, including four top-eight seeds.
Florida State, at 41 appearances in a row, has the longest active streak, but no national championships to show for them.
Notable teams not in the field are Rice (26-31-2), which had made 23 straight appearances, and Virginia (29-25), which had made 14 in a row. TCU (33-23), which lost to Baylor in the Big 12 final, also will stay home after reaching the College World Series the last four years.
