The UCSB baseball team will open the NCAA Tournament against Texas State University on Friday, June 3 at the Stanford Regional.
Game time is 6 p.m at Sunken Diamond. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+. The brackets were announced Monday morning.
The other teams in the double-elimination regional are Binghamton University and host Stanford, the NCAA Tournament’s No. 2 seed.
In the regional, Texas State is seeded second behind Stanford and the Gauchos third. UCSB played in the Stanford Regional in 2019, the last NCAA appearance.
“We are excited to get going and are looking forward to another chance at that regional,” head coach Andrew Checketts said. “It’s great to be able to stay in state and have our fan base and families in attendance.”
Texas State, the Bobcats, is ranked No. 16 in the country according to Baseball America, ahead of UCSB at No. 23.
The two teams played a three-game series in 2018, beginning with a 4-4 tie and then two wins by the Bobcats.
The Bobcats finished the regular season 45-12 overall and won the Sun Belt Conference regular season title with a 26-4 record. They lost in the semifinals of the conference tournament to eventual champion Louisiana.
During the season, Texas State had wins over three NCAA Tournament teams: a sweep of Louisiana and wins over No. 9 seed Texas and two wins over Arizona.
Against tournament teams, UCSB split a four-game series with Oregon and lost twice to UCLA.
The Gauchos finished the regular season at 43-12 overall and went 27-3 in the Big West Conference.
Stanford won the Pac-12 regular season championship and the Pac-12 Tournament this past weekend. The Cardinal come into the postseason on a 16-game win streak, and are 41-14 overall (21-9 in the Pac-12).
The Gauchos are 20-30 all time against Stanford, with their last game coming in 2010.
The Binghamton Bearcats will make the trip from New York to face Stanford in the regional’s opening game at 1 p.m. on Friday. The Bearcats are 22-28 overall record, with a 15-15 conference mark. They are the automatic bid from the American East Conference, having won the conference tournament this past weekend. Should the Gauchos see the Bearcats this weekend, it would be the first-ever matchup between the two teams.