Conference tournaments to set stage for NCAA baseball regionals
By ERIC OLSON
AP Sports Writer
Most of the 30 automatic qualifiers and 34 at-large picks for the NCAA baseball tournament will be determined in this week’s conference tournaments.
Penn and Army became the first two qualifiers Monday. The Quakers won the Ivy League with a 16-3 victory over Princeton and Army beat Bucknell 21-6 to win the Patriot League.
The 16 NCAA regional hosts will be announced Sunday and the rest of the 64-team field next Monday. The College World Series is June 16 through June 25 or 26 in Omaha, Nebraska.
A look at the tournaments in the power conferences:
ACC
Site: Durham, North Carolina.
Days: Tuesday to Sunday.
2022 champion: North Carolina.
Top seed: Wake Forest.
Short hops: The Demon Deacons clinched their first ACC regular-season title since 1963 and finished the regular season with the most overall wins (45) and conference wins (22) in program history. … Clemson’s 12-game win streak is the longest among Power Five teams. … Eight ACC teams are in the top 29 of the RPI. … Virginia’s .334 batting average and Wake Forest’s 2.72 ERA lead the nation. … Wake Forest RHP Rhett Lowder (12-0) is ACC pitcher for the second straight year and league’s top 2023 MLB draft prospect.
BIG TEN
Site: Omaha, Nebraska.
Days: Tuesday to Sunday.
2022 champion: Michigan.
Top seed: Maryland.
Short hops: Maryland is the first team to win back-to-back regular-season championships since Indiana in 2013-14. … Nick Lorusso’s 96 RBIs for the Terrapins are most in the nation since New Mexico State’s Billy Becher had 118 in 2003. … Iowa’s Brody Brecht is allowing 4.27 hits per nine innings to rank first nationally. … Indiana has won 40 regular-season games for the first time since 2013. The Hoosiers have eight one-run wins. … Nebraska’s 95 home runs are its most since 2003 and two shy of the school single-season record set in 1985.
BIG 12
Site: Arlington, Texas.
Days: Wednesday to Sunday.
2022 champion: Oklahoma.
Top seed: Texas.
Short hops: Oklahoma State, Texas and West Virginia shared the regular-season championship, the first three-way tie in conference history. … Texas swept West Virginia over the weekend and has won seven of its last nine Big 12 games, including five in a row. … West Virginia’s JJ Wetherholt is second nationally with a .447 batting average. … Oklahoma State reliever Isaac Stebens leads the conference with a 2.44 ERA and .198 opponent batting average. … OSU’s 99 homers are most in coach Josh Holliday’s 11 seasons.
PAC-12
Site: Scottsdale, Arizona.
Days: Tuesday to Saturday.
2022 champion: Stanford.
Top seed: Stanford.
Short hops: The tournament expands from eight to nine teams and goes to pool play for the first three days. … Stanford’s 23 conference wins were its most since 1990. … Washington’s third-place finish was its highest since 2018. … Freshman Austin Overn’s 13 triples for Southern California are most in the nation since 2010. … Tommy Troy’s .404 average gave Stanford the Pac-12 batting champion for the second straight year. Brett Barrera won it in 2022.
SEC
Site: Hoover, Alabama.
Days: Tuesday through Sunday.
2022 champion: Tennessee.
Top seed: Florida.
Short hops: LSU swept top SEC honors. Dylan Crews, batting .423 and on a 59-game on-base streak, is player of the year. Paul Skenes, averaging better than 17 strikeouts per nine innings and the only SEC pitcher with an ERA under 2.00, is pitcher of the year. MLB.com projects them as the top two overall picks in the July draft. … Florida’s Jac Caglianone leads the nation with 28 homers. … Vanderbilt’s Enrique Bradfield is the Division I active career leader in stolen bases with 127. … Alabama is 8-2 since coach Brad Bohannon was fired in the wake of a sports wagering scandal.
IN THE POLLS
Wake Forest (45-9) closed the regular season as the consensus No. 1 and the only team in the nation with fewer than 10 losses.
D1Baseball.com ranks Florida (42-13) second and Stanford (37-14) third. Baseball America has Florida second and Arkansas (39-15) third. Stanford and Florida are 2-3 by Collegiate Baseball.
S MISS PROMOTES OSTRANDER
Christian Ostrander has been promoted to head coach at Southern Mississippi following Scott Berry’s decision to retire after the season. Ostrander has been associate head coach for two and the pitching coach for six.
Ostrander, the Conference USA assistant coach of the year in 2021 and 2022, has helped the Golden Eagles to 37 wins with a staff that lost 12 pitchers from last season. Berry is 519-272-1 in 14 seasons at Southern Miss.
AROUND THE HORN
Danny Lynch celebrated his senior day by hitting two grand slams and driving in eight runs in Southern Miss’ 11-9 win over Louisiana on Saturday. … Oral Roberts takes a nation-leading 15-game win streak into the Summit League Tournament. … Florida’s 42 regular-season wins were second most in program history; the 2018 Gators won 44. … Billy Amick is batting .500 (23 of 46) and slugging .913 with seven doubles, four homers and 18 RBIs during Clemson’s 12-game win streak. He’s batting .632 with runners on base during the streak, according to Synergy Baseball. … TCU center fielder Elijah Nunez’s leaping catch at the wall robbed Kyan Lodice of the game-tying home run in the top of the ninth inning Saturday and gave the Horned Frogs a 4-3 win over Kansas State.
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