Miami baseball earns 9th NCAA national seed, hosting regional
The Miami baseball team earned the ninth national seed in the NCAA Tournament that begins Friday. After the loss to Clemson in the ACC Championship Game on Sunday Miami is 41-19 entering the NCAA Tournament. Miami will open the regional versus fourth-seeded Maine on Friday.
Second-seeded Texas plays third-seed Louisiana in the other Coral Gables regional game. NCAA regionals are a double-elimination format. The losers and winners will play in the second round. The losers of the first-round games play an elimination game on Saturday. The winner of its first two games is in the regional championship.
The winner of the elimination game plays the loser of the winner’s bracket game. Whoever wins that game plays the winner’s bracket winner and would have to win twice to advance to the Super Regional. The Coral Gables Regional winner plays the winner of the Palo Alto Regional hosted by Stanford in the Super Regional.
Miami is hosting a regional for the 29th time making its 49th NCAA Tournament appearance. The Hurricanes are 130-52 all-time in the NCAA Tournament regionals and 89-19 at Mark Light Field. The NCAA Tournament regionals will conclude on Monday. Monday games will only be played if necessary.
The Coral Gables Regional is set! pic.twitter.com/7bdvRCPeVo
— Miami Hurricanes Baseball (@CanesBaseball) May 29, 2023
Miami enters the NCAA Tournament 12th in the RPI. Texas is 28th in the RPI, Louisiana 47th and Maine 123rd. The Coral Gables Regional is steeped in tradition. Texas with 38 College World Series appearances and Miami with 25 are the top two trips to Omaha all-time. Maine has five College World Series appearances.
Texas enters the NCAA Tournament with a 38-20 record, 10-7 on the road. Louisiana is 40-22, 12-10 on the road. Maine is 31-19, 14-12 on the road. Miami is 28-5 at home. The Hurricanes played four of the top seven national seeds. Wake Forest is the top seed, Florida second, Clemson fourth and Virginia seventh.
The player to watch for Texas is Dylan Campbell who had a 35-game hitting streak this year. Kyle DeBarge who is hitting .370 is the Louisiana player to watch. Jeremiah Jenkins paces Maine with a .378 batting average, 20 home runs and 75 RBIs. Miami has a balanced offense with six players hitting at least 10 HRs.
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The pressure will be on the Miami baseball team and head coach Gino DiMare. Miami was the sixth overall seed in 2022 and failed to advance out of the regional. The depth in the Miami lineup and how well the Hurricanes pitch will ultimately determine its fate in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.