UCSB Included in 64-Team NCAA Baseball Playoffs

A solid showing in the last six weeks of the season has propelled UCSB into the NCAA baseball tournament for the first time since 2001. The Gauchos, with a record of 34 wins and 23 losses, will face Texas A&M (32-27) in the opener of a four-team regional at 12 p.m. Friday, May 31, at Corvallis, Oregon.

Oregon State (45-10), the host team, will play UT San Antonio (35-23) in the second game of the day. Oregon State is seeded third nationally in the 64-team tournament.

Andrew Checketts, UCSB’s second-year head coach, is a 1998 graduate of Oregon State. He was an All-American pitcher for the Beavers with an 11-1 record his senior year.

UCSB finished second in the Big West Conference, capping it off with a sweep of last weekend’s three-game series at UC Davis, the sixth consecutive series that the Gauchos have won since mid-April. They went 17-7 in their last 24 games.

Big West champion Cal State Fullerton (48-8), the nation’s fifth-seeded team, was named a regional host. Cal Poly (39-17) will also represent the conference in a regional at UCLA.

The regionals are double-elimination, with the 16 winners advancing to eight super regional series June 6-10.