From an Ohio State release. Photo courtesy OhioStateBuckeyes.com.
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OMAHA, Neb. – The Ohio State baseball team secured its 22nd NCAA Tournament appearance and third in four years Monday afternoon as the No. 4 seed in the Nashville Regional at Hawkins Field in Nashville, Tenn.
The Buckeyes are joined by No. 1 seed and host Vanderbilt, No. 2 seed Indiana State and No. 3 seed McNeese. Ohio State (35-25) earned an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament after winning the 2019 Big Ten Tournament on Sunday. The Buckeyes will represent the Big Ten Conference along with Indiana, Nebraska, Michigan and Illinois.
NASHVILLE REGIONAL❗️ pic.twitter.com/MywCIABJQs
— Ohio State Baseball (@OhioStateBASE) May 27, 2019
“We’re going to go to Vanderbilt and be ready to play,” head coach Greg Beals said. “Our guys have faced some really good pitching over the past few weeks and are battle-tested. We’ve won a championship in front of more than 17,000 fans. My biggest thing right now is that we have a good week of training so that we are able to physically recover and prepare for a national tournament. What’s happened in the last few weeks has created some believing. That’s ultimate for anybody in competition.
“My message to the guys today was the same message I told back on the very first day. Let’s play in a Super Regional to see who goes to Omaha. We have to win a four-team tournament first but we are now in a position to do that. We’ve been in the national tournament several years now. The next evolution is to get to a three-game series and I hope we are going to make a push at that this year.”
Ohio State opens regional play against Vanderbilt at 7 p.m. ET Friday. The contest between the Buckeyes and Commodores will be televised on ESPN2.
Vanderbilt is hosting a regional for the seventh time in program history as the No. 2 overall seed in the field. Vanderbilt led the nation with 49 victories and captured the SEC championship and SEC Tournament title. The Buckeyes are 4-0 all-time vs. Vanderbilt. This will be first meeting between the two schools since 1975.
The #RoadToOmaha starts now. #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/97GXHEixey
— Ohio State Baseball (@OhioStateBASE) May 27, 2019
The Buckeyes and Commodores are joined by No. 2 seed Indiana State (41-16) and No. 3 seed McNeese (35-24), who will meet in the regional opener at 1 p.m. ET Friday. Ohio State is 0-2 all-time vs. Indiana State and 2-3 vs. McNeese.
The winner of the Nashville Regional will move on to a Super Regional next weekend against the winner of the Morgantown Regional, which consists of West Virginia, Texas A&M, Duke and Fordham.
The Super Regional is a best two-of-three format with the winner advancing to the eight-team College World Series, scheduled for June 15-June 26 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb.
Go Baseball Bucks!