Most likely, Georgia Tech will not have to go too far for its NCAA regional assignment, to be released Monday with the tournament selection show. (Noon, ESPN2). Noted college baseball outlet D1Baseball.com has forecast a most intriguing regional scenario for the Yellow Jackets – sharing a regional with Georgia Southern and Georgia.
Tech and Georgia have played against each other in the NCAA Tournament before, most recently in a 2008 regional in Athens, but the Jackets and Eagles have never played in the postseason. A Georgia Southern-Georgia Tech-Georgia regional (along with interloper Air Force, as projected by D1Baseball.com) would be unprecedented.
In the projection, Georgia Southern is the No. 1 seed (the Eagles were awarded a regional Sunday by virtue of their 40-18 record and No. 11 ranking in RPI), Tech is No. 2, UGA No. 3 and Air Force No. 4. The Jackets and Bulldogs would play on Friday to start the double-elimination event.
Baseball America forecasts Tech to go to Auburn as a No. 2 seed along with another in-state rival – ASUN champion Kennesaw State – as the No. 3 seed and Central Michigan as the No. 4 seed.
Besides Georgia Southern and Auburn, four other regional sites seem most likely for Tech – East Carolina, Florida, Southern Mississippi and Tennessee. Typically, the tournament selection committee attempts to send teams to nearby regionals. Since the NCAA adopted its current format for the tournament – 16 teams hosting four-team regionals – Tech has been a No. 2 or No. 3 seed seven times. Those assignments have been Florida, Georgia and Vanderbilt twice each and Mississippi once.
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