The Road to Omaha 2009 - Week 2

Week 2 - On to the Super-Regionals

Regional play for the 2009 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship was completed on Monday, June 1, 2009, narrowing the field of sixty four teams down to sixteen. These sixteen teams will meet in eight Super-Regional best-of-three game tournaments from Friday, May 5 through Monday, May 8, 2009. The eight winners of the Super-Regional match-ups will advance to the College World Series starting June 13, 2009 in Omaha, Nebraska.

Six of the eight National Seeds named on May 25, 2009 won their respective Regional tournaments to beome the host site for their Super-Regionals. The two National Seeds to be eliminated were No. 6 seed UC-Irvine, who were defeated by Virginia, and No. 7 seed Oklahoma who lost to Arkansas.

A total of 102 games were played by the sixty four teams in Regional play. Thirteen of the regional No. 1 seeds advanced to the Super-Regional round. In addition to the two National Seeds that failed to advance, No. 3 seed Southern Mississippi defeated Georgia Tech to win the Atlanta Regional. No. 2 seeds Virginia and Arkansas were the other two teams to advance. No number 4 seeds advanced to the Super-Regionals this year, thus eliminating the possibility of a repeat of Fresno State's Cinderella performance in winning the 2008 College World Series after starting as a No. 4 regional seed.

Perhaps the most dramatic performance during the Regionals was in game three of the Austin, Texas Regional in a winner's bracket match between No. 1 seed (and No. 1 National Seed) Texas and No. 3 seed Boston College. The game went 25 innings, the longest game in NCAA history, when Texas finally won by scoring a run in the top of the 25th and held on in the bottom of the inning. During the game, Texas only used three pitchers. Austin Wood relieved starter Chance Ruffin with one out in the seventh inning and the score tied at 2-2. Wood proceeded to pitch twelve innings without giving up a hit, and threw a total of 169 pitches in thirteen innings of shut-out baseball before surrendering the mound to Austin Dicharry in the 20th inning. Dicharry held on for another 5-2/3 innings to earn the win at 3-2 after the 25th inning.

Florida State's 37-6 victory over Ohio State to win their regional is also notable. Florida State scored a total of 61 runs in the three games they played in the Regional Tournament.

The sites and match-ups for the eight Super-Regional Tournaments are as follows:

Austin, Texas Super-Regional, University of Texas Host (No. 1 National Seed)

Texas vs. TCU

Gainesville, Florida Super-Regional, University of Florida Host (No. 8 National Seed)

Florida vs. Southern Miss.

Tempe, Arizona Super-Regional, Arizona State University Host (No. 5 National Seed)

Arizona St. vs. Clemson

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Super-Regional, University of North Carolina Host (No. 4 National Seed)

UNC vs. Eastern Carolina

The winners of the above four Super-Regionals will make up Bracket A at the College World Series

Fullerton, California Super-Regional, Cal St. Fullerton Host (No. 2 National Seed)

Cal St. Fullerton vs. Louisville

Tallahassee, Florida Super-Regional, Florida State University Host

Florida St. vs. Arkansas

Oxford. Mississippi Super-Regional, University of Mississippi Host

Mississippi vs. Virginia

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Super-Regional, Louisiana State University Host (No. 3 National Seed)

LSU vs. Rice

The winners of the above four Super-Regionals will make up Bracket B at the College World Series.

Brackets A and B will each play a double elimination tournament, with the two winners playing a best of three tournament to determine the National Champion.

An interactive .PDF display of the entire Tournament Bracket my be found at NCAA.com.