Huskies To Face VA Tech In NCAA Tournament 1st Round
The University of Connecticut baseball team was selected to the field of 64 for the 2013 NCAA Championship on Monday afternoon and will play in the Blacksburg, Va., Regional, which is being hosted by Virginia Tech. The Huskies, who are the No. 4 seed in the regional, will open on Friday at 5:30 p.m. against the top-seeded Hokies while No. 2 Oklahoma meets No. 3 Coastal Carolina at 1 p.m.
NCAA opening regionals are four-team double-elimination tournaments with winners advancing to play in a “super-regional” best two-out-of-three series with those winners advancing to the College World Series. The winner of the Blacksburg Regional will play the winner of the Baton Rouge (La.) Regional in a Super Regional.
The UConn vs. Virginia Tech game will be available on ESPN3 and heard on WTIC.com and WHUS-91.7 FM. All game of the NCAA tournament are seen on one of the ESPN family of networks, including ESPN3.
If Connecticut wins on Friday, it would play the winner of the Oklahoma/Coastal Carolina game at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, while the first round losers play an elimination game on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. The regional then continues through double-elimination play through either Sunday or Monday.
The Huskies made the tournament with their emotional run to win the BIG EAST Championship as they entered the event at the No. 8 seed with a 9-15 conference record. UConn strung four wins together of teams that it had a combined record of 1-11 during the regular season and now stand at 34-26 on the season.
The trip to the NCAA tournament is the third in the last four years for UConn as the Huskies earned at-large bids in 2010 and ’11. The Huskies have now made a total of 18 NCAA tournament appearances in school history and five trips to the College World Series – the latest in 1979.
Virginia Tech has an overall record of 38-20 and were 15-14 in the ACC. The Hokies are ranked 22nd in the country and lost to North Carolina in the ACC Championship game by a 4-1 score. Virginia Tech head coach Pete Hughes is in his seventh season at Virginia Tech and the Brockton, Mass., native was the head coach at Boston College for the previous eight years.
Second-seeded Oklahoma has a 40-19 record and were 13-11 in the Big 12 and won the league tournament with a 7-2 win over Kansas in the final.
Third-seeded Coastal Carolina has a 37-21 record and was 18-6 in the Big South and went 2-2 in the Big South tournament. The Huskies split a pair of NCAA games in the 2011 Clemson Regional, which the Huskies went on to win.
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