Gators, Hurricanes among national seeds in NCAA baseball tournament

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- UCLA is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA baseball tournament for the first time.

The Division I Baseball Committee on Monday made the Pac-12 champion Bruins (42-14) the top seed over Southeastern Conference regular-season champion LSU (48-10).

The other six national seeds, in order, are: Louisville, Florida, Miami, Illinois, TCU and Missouri State.

The tournament opens Friday with 16 four-team, double-elimination regionals. Best-of-three super regionals are next week, with those winners moving to the College World Series in Omaha.

This is the third time since 2010 UCLA has earned a national seed. UCLA, which lost two of three at Oregon this past weekend, starts the tournament in Los Angeles against Cal State Bakersfield. Maryland and Mississippi also are in the Bruins' regional.

National seeds that win their regionals play at home in super regionals.

The Atlantic Coast Conference and SEC tied for most qualifiers with seven apiece. The Pac-12 has six teams in the tournament, and the Big Ten set a conference record with five NCAA teams.

Teams making their first appearances are conference tournament champions Radford (Big South) Florida A&M (MEAC), Houston Baptist (Southland) and Cal State Bakersfield (WAC).

Two teams got in with losing records, Northeast Conference champion Sacred Heart (23-30-1) and Patriot League champ Lehigh (25-29).

Twenty-seven of the 64 teams were in the field last year.

Miami is in the tournament for a record 43rd consecutive year. Florida State qualified for a 38th year in a row.

According to the selection committee, the last four teams in the field were Maryland, South Florida, Oregon and Clemson. The first four out were North Carolina, Missouri, Michigan State and Southern Mississippi.