Vandy hosts while UT and Lipscomb hit road for NCAA baseball

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The quest to reach the College World Series begins Friday as the NCAA Baseball Tournament regionals get underway around the country.

But for all intents and purposes, the road to Omaha begins at the corner of 25^th Avenue and Jess Neely Drive on the Vanderbilt campus. The Vandy Boys received a bid to the NCAA Tournament for a nation’s leading 17^th consecutive season Monday and will host a regional for the eighth time in the past 12 tournaments.

Vanderbilt is coming off a thrilling SEC Tournament championship run in which it fought off elimination twice, before beating Texas A&M 10-4 to win the fourth title in program history and third under Tim Corbin.

The reward for the Commodores was the no. 6 national seed and the chance to host both a regional and super regional as it looks to make the College World Series for the sixth time.

Vanderbilt will open against OVC tournament champion Eastern Illinois Friday at 7 p.m. at Hawkins Field in the only regional that will feature four conference tournament champions. PAC-12 tournament champ Oregon will meet Big East Tournament champ Xavier in the first game of the day.

Both the Ducks and Musketeers played in the 2014 Nashville Regional which was won by Vandy on the way to its first national championship.

Wake Forest is the number one overall seed in the NCAA Tournament with the SEC supplying four of the eight national seeds and a record eight of the 16 host sites.

Tennessee was one of the 10 SEC selections to the field of 64, but will not host for the first time since 2019. The Volunteers will instead travel to the Clemson Regional where they will take on Charlotte on Friday at 5 p.m.

There will be plenty of eyeballs from the state of Tennessee on Doug Kingsmore Stadium Friday as ASUN champion Lipscomb will open the Clemson Regional against the fourth-seeded Tigers.

It’s just the third NCAA Tournament appearance in program history for the Bisons who completed the sweep of ASUN regular season and tournament championships with a 12-6 win over Florida Gulf Coast in Sunday’s final.