NCAA Baseball: Hogs Draw No. 2 Seed in Rice Regional
By Ryan Wright
Fayetteville, Ark. – The Arkansas Razorbacks (39-19) will return to Houston for the second time this season, this time the Hogs come back as the No. 2 seed in the Rice University regional.
March 2-4 the Razorbacks played in the Houston Baseball Classic against Texas Tech, Houston, and Texas at Minute Maid Park; home of the Houston Astros. Arkansas beat the Red Raiders 3-1, lost to the Cougars 1-4, and rolled past the Longhorns 4-1.
Rice (40-17), the home team during the Houston Classic, was able to avoid the Razorbacks during the three day baseball event. For the Hogs to advance to the Super Regional, it appears that the day of reckoning is finally at hand for the former SWC foes.
Arkansas will play Sam Houston State (38-20) to open regional action on Friday. Rice will host Prairie View A&M (28-23) in game two action on the same day.
Prairie View A&M earned a spot in the NCAA field of 64 by winning the Southwestern Conference Tournament title.
Sam Houston State and Arkansas each earned one of the 19 at-large bids awarded by the NCAA Division-I selection committee.
Sam Houston State, out of the Southland conference, did not win the conference’s automatic bid by winning their tournament. Texas-Arlington won the 2012 Southland tournament and earned a No. 3 seed in the Baylor regional.
Should Arkansas and Rice both win their opening games on Friday June 1 they will face each other in the following round.
All games are scheduled to be played at Reckling Park.
The NCAA Regional is a double-elimination tournament. The winner of the Rice regional will play the winner of the Baylor regional.
NCAA Super Regionals are scheduled to begin June 8-10 with the College World Series starting June 15-25.
All regional games will be available on ESPN3.
Fast Rice Regional Facts:
Rice split the regular season series against Sam Houston State going 1-1; lost 2-1 on April 3 and won 5-0 on May 15 in Huntsville.
Rice opens tournament play well seasoned against the field. The Owls have played eight of the 64 teams in the field posting a record of 13-6- New Mexico State 2-0, Dallas Baptist 3-0, UCF 2-1, Texas A&M 1-0, UAB 2-1, East Carolina 2-1, Stanford 1-2, and Arizona 1-1.
The Razorbacks have played against 10 tournament teams posting a win-loss record of 12-15- Valparaiso 2-1, Mississippi State 2-2, LSU 0-3, Kentucky 1-2, Ole Miss 1-3, Oklahoma 0-1, Oral Roberts 1-0, Florida 2-1, Missouri 2-0, and South Carolina 1-2.
NCAA Tournament Notes:
What happened here?
The Texas Longhorns did not make the 2012 NCAA Baseball Tournament. This is the first time since 1988 the Longhorns did not make the post season.
Power of the power conferences?
Eight SEC teams made the tournament, the most of any conference. Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama did not receive an at-large bid.
SEC Teams with Seeding and Location:
No. 1 LSU
No. 1 Florida
No. 1 USC
No. 2 Arkansas– Rice Regional
No. 2 Kentucky– Purdue Regional
No. 2 Mississippi State–Florida State Regional
No. 2 Vanderbilt –North Carolina State Regional
No. 3 Ole Miss –Texas A&M Regional
NCAA Love
While the SEC was awarded the most teams in the NCAA tournament, the ACC had the most regional hosts with five- Florida State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Miami, and Virginia.
Georgia Tech and Clemson are the other two ACC teams to earn a spot in the field. Tech won their conference tournament and Clemson was an at-large team.
Tech is in the Florida regional while Clemson is in the South Carolina regional.
Least East?
The NCAA must think so. Louisville (39-19, 18-9) and St. John’s (34-21, 18-9) tied for the regular season conference title but neither team won their conference title. That honor went to University of South Florida.
Despite winning the Big East Conference title both teams are No. 3 seeds, St. John’s in the North Carolina regional and Louisville in the Arizona regional.
Worst AQ Baseball Conference:
The Big Ten only got two teams into the NCAA Tournament, Purdue and Michigan State.
Who is the No. 1 seed in that regional?
Purdue’s selection as a regional host is iffy at best especially since Kentucky did not earn hosting honors. But the Wildcats can get revenge as they are the No. 2 seed in Purdue’s regional which will not be played on the Boilermakers’ home field but in Gary, Indiana.
Purdue’s only quality win is a Sunday victory over UCLA. The Bruins took the three-game series 2-1.