North Carolina is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA baseball tournament, according to ESPN.com. The Division I selection committee rewarded the Tar Heels (52-8) on Monday for a season that included an exhausting run to the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship.
The 64-team tournament opens Friday with 16 four-team, double-elimination regionals. Best-of-three super regionals will be held next week, with those winners moving to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
The other national seeds are, in order: Vanderbilt, Oregon State, LSU, Cal State Fullerton, Virginia, Florida State and Oregon.
The 1999 Miami Hurricanes are the only top-seeded team to go on to win the national title, and that was in the first year of the current tournament format.
The Southeastern Conference led all leagues with nine bids. The ACC has eight, and the Pac-12 and Sun Belt have four apiece.
Arizona (34-21) won't get a chance to defend its national title after missing the tournament for the first time in four years. The Wildcats won five of their last six games, finished 15-15 in Pac-12 play.
Miami (36-23) is in the tournament field for the 41st consecutive year, extending their record. Florida State (44-15) is making an appearance for the 36th straight year.
First-time participants include Bryant, Canisius, Central Arkansas, Savannah State and South Dakota State. Bryant (44-16-1), from Smithfield, R.I., made it in its first year of eligibility since moving from Division II.
Thirty-one of the 64 teams made an appearance in the tournament field last season.
Colonial Athletic Association postseason champion Towson (29-28) is sure to be one of the tournament's top stories. The Towson baseball men's soccer programs were destined to be cut because of athletic department financial problems and gender-equity imbalance.
The baseball program was given a reprieve thanks to an injection of $300,000 a year for two years in state funding approved in April. Soccer was not saved.
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