Complete Notes |
Conference Stats |
Full Bracket
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The road to Omaha continues for three American Athletic Conference baseball teams, as Cincinnati, UConn and ECU were among the 64 teams to punch tickets to the NCAA Championship. The American has had at least three NCAA tournament teams in each of the last five years and at least one team host a regional in five of the past six seasons.
The American is one of seven conferences (SEC (10), ACC (8), Big Ten (5), Big 12 (5), Pac-12 (5) and Missouri Valley (3)) to have at least three teams advance to the NCAA Baseball Championship. Each regional field features four teams, playing a double-elimination format. All 16 regionals are scheduled to be conducted from Friday, May 31-Monday, June 3.
For a fifth-straight week, ECU is a top 10 team with its highest ranking coming in at No. 8 on Baseball America’s poll. The Pirates have been ranked as high as sixth nationally and enter the NCAA tournament ranked No. 5 in the latest NCAA RPI report. UConn also made some noise in this week’s national polls, receiving votes in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and USA Today Coaches’ poll for the 10th time this season. The Huskies own the nation’s No. 29 RPI ranking, as seven of the nine American teams are top-100 RPI programs. The American holds the fifth-best RPI ranking among the 31 NCAA Division I conferences.
The Pirates (43-15), are hosting the Greenville Regional for the second year in a row as the No. 10 national seed. Making its 30th NCAA tournament appearance, ECU has qualified for regional competition in 16 of the last 21 seasons. ECU opens tournament play against No. 4 seed Quinnipiac (29-27) on Friday, May 31 at 6 p.m. ET, as the Greenville Regional also features No. 2 seed NC State (42-17) and No. 3 seed Campbell (35-19).
The Pirates own a 12-6 record in 2019 against nine teams in the NCAA field: Campbell (1-1), Cincinnati (3-0), Duke (1-1), Mississippi State (0-1), North Carolina (1-0), Ole Miss (1-0), UConn (3-0), UCLA (0-3) and UNCW (2-0). In addition to hosting in 2018, ECU hosted a regional at Clark-LeClair Stadium in 2009, and also hosted opening round regional tournaments on two occasions at different venues.
ECU, which became the first team in American Athletic Conference history to win 20 league games, clinched its first American regular season title. The Pirates won all eight of their regular season conference series. Alec Burleson (.370), Bryant Packard (.349), Lane Hoover (.341), Spencer Brickhouse (.331) and Jake Washer (.301) are each batting over .300 to enter the national championship. ECU also leads the conference with a 3.70 ERA. The American Pitcher of the Year Jake Agnos (10-2) owns a league-best 2.00 ERA and set a conference record with 131 strikeouts this year. His strikeouts and strikeouts per nine innings (13.10) are both ranked in the top 10 nationally. Jake Kuchmaner (6-2) owns a 2.83 ERA (third in The American) with 73 strikeouts in 82.2 innings pitched.
Cincinnati (30-29) won its first conference championship in 52 years with a 22-5 win against UConn on May 26. The victory gave the Bearcats their first NCAA berth since 1974 and first conference postseason title since 1967, when they won the Missouri Valley Conference crown. Cincinnati will be the No. 4 seed in the Corvallis Regional and will take on the host and No. 16 national seed Oregon State (36-18-1) on Friday at 10 p.m. ET. The other half of the bracket features Big East champion, No. 2 seed Creighton (38-11), and No. 3 seed Michigan (41-18).
Cincinnati, which had been 0-10 all-time in The American Championship and had lost 17-straight conference tournament games since 2008, went 4-0 on the week. The Bearcats had been tabbed eighth of nine teams in The American’s preseason coaches’ poll before finishing second in the regular season.
Cincinnati rewrote the tournament’s record book with 22 runs, 24 hits, four home runs and a 17-run margin of victory, wrapping an impressive offensive showing in which the Bearcats scored a tournament-record 51 runs in their four games. Cincinnati hit a conference-record .390 during the week (60-for-154) after hitting .246 as a team in the regular season. A.J. Bumpass was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after he hit .643 with a double, a triple, two home runs and seven RBIs in the tournament.
UConn earned an at-large bid to its 21st NCAA tournament berth and sixth appearance since 2010. The Huskies are slotted as the No. 2 seed in the Oklahoma City Regional, hosted by Oklahoma State (36-18). UConn will face No. 3 seed Nebraska on Friday, May 31 at 1 p.m. ET. The Huskies went 5-1 against Big Ten opponents this season. The Oklahoma City Regional also features Ivy League champion No. 4 seed Harvard (27-14).
UConn is coming off its third American Championship final appearance. The Huskies have the third-best pitching staff in the conference with All-America southpaw Mason Feole leading the way. Feole owns a 3.75 ERA in 72 innings pitched with 75 strikeouts. Closer Jacob Wallace ranks fourth in the nation with a conference-leading 15 saves and 0.73 ERA in 28 appearances. Michael Woodworth leads three Huskies hitting over .300 with a .323 batting average. John Toppa (.319) and Anthony Prato (.309) join him in pacing UConn at the plate. The Huskies have 13 wins on the road and are 11-3 in neutral-site games this season.
Thirty-one (31) Division I conferences received automatic bids in the field of 64, along with 33 at-large selections. The regional format for the NCAA Championship is a double-elimination with the winning 16 teams advancing to Super Regionals, which will be held from June 7-10. The top eight teams remaining will host the Super Regionals on-campus in a best-of-three series with the eight winners advancing to Omaha. The College World Series begins play Saturday, June 15 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb.
2019 NCAA Baseball Championship | May 31
Greenville Regional | Greenville, N.C.
No. 3 Campbell vs. No. 2 NC State.................Noon (ESPN3)
No. 4 Quinnipiac at No. 1 ECU..........................6 p.m. (ESPN3)
Corvallis Regional | Corvallis, Ore.
No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 2 Creighton..................................4 p.m. (ESPN3)
No. 4 Cincinnati at No. 1 Oregon State.......................10 p.m. (ESPNU)
Oklahoma City Regional | Oklahoma City, Okla.
No. 3 Nebraska vs. No. 2 UConn.........................1 p.m. (ESPN3)
No. 4 Harvard at No. 1 Oklahoma State.....................7 p.m. (ESPN3)
All times Eastern