The Division I selection committee has made their picks for the top seeds in the 2013 NCAA baseball tournament, and North Carolina heads the top of the list.
The North Carolina Tar Heels, who boast a 52-8 record, drew the No.1 seed in the coming tournament after the committee announced their selections on Monday. The selection of the Tar Heels as the No.1 pick comes after an impressive season that saw them go all the way to the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship.
North Carolina certainly has a lot of weapons in its arsenal, as it boasts six players currently with a .300 batting average or better, as well as a shutdown starting rotation that throws for a combined 2.275 ERA. Yet, they're not alone on the list as Vanderbilt, Oregon State, LSU, Cal State Fullerton, Virginia, Florida State and Oregon are also joining the list.
The Sun Belt Conference also has plenty to be proud of in this year's seedings, as Florida Atlantic, Louisiana-Lafayette, South Alabama and Troy all received invitations to the baseball regionals. With four teams receiving invite to the tournament, this marks the highest number of NCAA Regional teams that the conference has yielded since 2004, as AL.com reports.
Meanwhile, the Southeastern Conference generated the most teams in the tourney, with nine colleges receiving tournament bids, while the ACC has eight teams and the Pac-12 conference has four teams heading for the tournament.
In notable absences, defending national champions Arizona, which finished with a 34-21 record, were denied entry into the tournament for the first time in four years after finishing 15-15 in Pac-12 action for the year. Miami, with a 36-23 record, will be playing in the tournament for a staggering 41st consecutive year, breaking their own record.
A little less than half of the field this year--31 out of 64 teams--were invited to the tournament last year. Of the others, several schools will be playing for the top prize in college baseball for the first time, including Bryant--in its first year of eligibility since they jumped from Division II--Canisius, Central Arkansas, Savannah State and South Dakota State.
The tourney begins Friday.
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