The field for the NCAA baseball tournament will take shape this week with conference tournaments determining most of the 30 automatic qualifiers. Also at stake are 34 at-large bids.
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 14 through June 23 or 24 in Omaha, Nebraska.
A look at the tournaments in the power conferences:
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE
Site: Truist Field; Charlotte, North Carolina.
Days: Tuesday to Sunday.
2023 champion: Clemson.
Top seed: North Carolina.
Short hops: The Tar Heels’ 22 ACC wins match their most since 2018, and they head to Charlotte with wins in 10 of their last 11 overall. … This is the 50th ACC Tournament and 26th played in the state of North Carolina. Only Virginia and Clemson have participated in all of them. … Wake Forest’s Chase Burns leads the nation with 169 strikeouts. … Virginia’s .340 batting average is best among Power Five teams and third overall.
BIG TEN
Site: Charles Schwab Field; Omaha, Nebraska.
Days: Tuesday to Sunday.
2023 champion: Maryland.
Top seed: Illinois.
Short hops: The Illini won their first regular-season title since 2015. … They have a conference-leading 103 home runs, 26 more than the next team, Maryland. … Penn State’s JT Marr is batting a conference-best .419. … Camden Janik of Illinois is the nation’s second-toughest batter to strike out, having fanned 10 times in 200 at-bats. … Nebraska’s Brett Sears (8-0) is among five unbeaten pitchers in the country with at least eight decisions.
BIG 12
Site: Globe Life Field; Arlington, Texas.
Days: Tuesday to Saturday.
2023 champion: TCU.
Top seed: Oklahoma.
Short hops: Sooners won their first regular-season title since 1995 in the old Big Eight. … All 10 participating teams have a top-70 RPI, with seven in the top 50. … Big 12 pitcher of the year Payton Tolle (7-3) of TCU enters with 116 strikeouts and a 2.96 ERA, both league bests. … Conference player of the year Max Belyeu of Texas hit 11 of his 17 home runs in league games and is batting .341 with 14 doubles and 49 RBIs. … Kansas State first baseman David Bishop has no errors in 354 chances after committing three in 178 at TCU last season.
PAC-12
Site: Scottsdale Stadium; Scottsdale, Arizona.
Days: Tuesday to Saturday.
2022 champion: Oregon.
Top seed: Arizona.
Short hops: This will be the final Pac-12 tournament with 10 of the 12 programs heading to different conferences. … Arizona has the best strikeout-to-walk ratio in country (3.42-to-1). … Travis Bazzana’s batting average of .429 for Oregon State is second nationally and his .587 on-base percentage is first. … Arizona State and Southern California enter with six-game win streaks. … Stanford (20-32) has lost 10 straight games and will have to win the tournament to get in a fourth straight NCAA Tournament. The Cardinal played in the last three College World Series. Their next loss would be their program-record 33rd.
SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE
Site: Hoover Metropolitan Stadium; Hoover, Alabama.
Days: Tuesday through Sunday.
2022 champion: Vanderbilt.
Top seed: Tennessee.
Short hops: Charlie Condon’s 35 homers for Georgia are most since Lance Berkman finished with 41 for Rice in 1997. Condon’s .451 batting average leads the nation. … Arkansas’ Hagen Smith is on track to set a Division I record for strikeouts per nine innings. He enters the tournament averaging 17.53. … Tennessee’s 11 grand slams are an SEC record. Arizona State holds the national record with 14 in 2003. … Defending national champion LSU won four of its last five SEC series and 14 of its last 19 games to position itself for an NCAA at-large bid.
IN THE POLLS
Tennessee and co-SEC regular-season champ Kentucky remained Nos. 1 and 2 in the D1Baseball.com and Baseball America polls. Clemson is No. 3 by D1Baseball and North Carolina is No. 3 by Baseball America.
Tennessee (46-10) ended the regular season with four straight wins, including a sweep of South Carolina. Kentucky (39-12) closed with a series win over Vanderbilt.
Clemson (40-13) swept Boston College and won the ACC Atlantic Division.
DOUBLE FIRST BASE IN SEC
The SEC announced Monday it would use a double first base on an experimental basis in its conference tournament. The purpose is to reduce collisions between the defense and the batter-runner at first base. It has been used in several SEC nonconference games this season.
A white base will be to the inside of the base line; a green or orange base will be to the outside. A batted ball is fair if it hits or bounds over the white bag; it is foul if it goes over the colored bag without first touching or bounding over the white bag. When an initial play is being made on the batter-runner at first base, the defense must use the white section of the double base and the batter-runner must use the colored base except in the case of a dropped third strike.
CLEANUP SPOT
The final two days of the Ivy League Tournament were moved from Columbia’s campus stadium to Yogi Berra Stadium at Montclair (N.J.) State. A hole that formed in the artificial surface on the mound caused player safety concerns. … Creighton coach Ed Servais announced Monday he will retire after his 22nd season in 2025. His 678 victories and .627 winning percentage are best in program history. … Big Ten all-time coaching wins leader John Anderson of Minnesota went into retirement with a 4-2 win at Northwestern. The Gophers (25-23, 11-13) failed to qualify for the conference tournament. Anderson, 69, finished with 623 Big Ten wins and an all-time record of 1,390-1,018-3 (.577). He ranks 14th on the national career wins chart. … Air Force (26-26, 18-12) finished one game ahead of New Mexico to win the Mountain West regular-season title for the first time.
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