The UC Santa Barbara baseball team is headed back to the postseason for the third time in the last four years, as the Gauchos have been selected as the No. 2 seed in the Nashville Regional hosted by Vanderbilt of the SEC.
UCSB, which finished the season with a 37-18-1 record and an RPI of 24 that ranked second among all West region teams, will open up the regional tournament against three-seed Washington (32-21). Rounding out the field is fourth-seeded Xavier (30-28).
“We’re very excited to be a part of this Regional,” said UCSB head coach Andrew Checketts. “Nashville is a great baseball town and it will be a good experience for the guys.”
Each and every UCSB postseason game will be broadcasted live on UCSBGauchos.com, with Voice of the Gauchos Gerry Fall on play-by-play and Kevin Cannon on color. In additional, all NCAA Tournament games will be televised by the ESPN famiy of networks, with the majority of games appearing on WatchESPN (ESPN3).
This is the first time in program history that UCSB has earned a postseason berth three times in four years.
“Our guys did a fantastic job and so did our coaches working with a group that had a lot of inexperience,” said Checketts. “We’ve had to overcome some injuries so our guys have done a good job hanging in there and getting to this point. This group has a lot of self belief and we’re going to be taking that with us to Nashville.”
The Gauchos have never faced Vanderbilt or Xavier, but are 8-6 all-time against Washington. Their last meeting with the Huskies came back in 2009, with UCSB winning 8-2 in a midweek matchup in Seattle.
“Vandy” went 43-17 overall this year and had a 31-5 record at Hawkins Field. The third place finisher in the SEC East, this is the Commodores’ fourth straight year hosting a Regional.
Washington finished second in the Pac-12 and posted an overall record of 32-21.
Xavier enters the postseason with a 30-28 record, but the Musketeers are 16-2 in their last 18 games and captured both the Big East regular season and tournament titles.
The winner of the Nashville Regional will go on to face the winner of the Louisville Regional, which includes (2) Ohio State, (3) Wright State, and (4) Western Michigan in addition to the host Cardinals.
Each of the 16 regionals features four teams, playing a double-elimination format. The regionals are scheduled to be conducted from Friday, June 3, to Monday, June 6 (if necessary). The 70th Men’s College World Series begins play Saturday, June 18, at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska.
To view the entire 64-team field for the NCAA Tournament, click here.