Ole Miss hosts, USM headed to Tallahassee

Mississippi State added another first to its storied baseball history on Monday.

The Bulldogs earned the No. 6 national seed in the NCAA Tournament, guaranteeing that they’ll host a super regional if they make it that far. It’s the first time since the national seeds and super regionals were introduced in 1999 that Mississippi State has been a national seed.

Four of the eight national seeds for this year’s tournament came from the Southeastern Conference. Florida, Texas A&M and LSU were Nos. 1, 4 and 8, respectively. The four SEC national seeds are a record.

The Atlantic Coast Conference has three national seeds in No. 2 Louisville (47-12), No. 3 Miami (45-11) and No. 7 Clemson (42-18). The Big 12 has the other with Texas Tech (41-16).

Mississippi State (41-16-1) will begin the NCAA Tournament Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Dudy Noble Field against Southeast Missouri State. Also playing in the regional in Starkville are Louisiana Tech (40-18) and Cal State Fullerton (35-16).

If Mississippi State makes it through the regional round, it’ll host the winner of the Lafayette Regional. In addition to the host Louisiana-Lafayette (41-19), the Lafayette Regional includes Arizona, Sam Houston State and Princeton.

Ole Miss missed out on a national seed, but was selected on Sunday to host a regional. The Rebels (43-17) will host Pac-12 champion Utah (25-27) in their opener Friday at 7 p.m.

Boston College (31-20) will play Tulane (39-19) in the other first-round game at the Oxford Regional.

Ole Miss is making its 14th NCAA Tournament appearance in 16 seasons under head coach Mike Bianco. It’ll host a regional for the second time in three years, and seventh time overall.

“Although we knew we were in the tournament having been selected as a host last night, it is always exciting to see your name pop up on the television screen,” Bianco said. “We have three really good teams making the trip to Oxford. We are ready to begin the Road to Omaha.”

The winner of the Oxford Regional will play the winner of the Coral Gables Regional in the super regional round. Long Beach State (36-20) will play Florida Atlantic (38-17) in one first-round game at Miami, while the host Miami Hurricanes (45-11) will take on Stetson (29-29) in the other.

Southern Miss will head to Tallahassee, Fla., for one of the toughest regionals in the bracket. The Golden Eagles (40-18) are the No. 2 seed and will take on South Alabama (40-20) in their opener Friday at 11 a.m. Regional host Florida State (37-20) will play Southwestern Athletic Conference champion Alabama State (38-15) in the other first-round game.

Southern Miss earned an NCAA regional berth for 13th time in the program’s history, but the first since 2011. Coach Scott Berry said being omitted from the field in 2015 provided plenty of motivation for the players this spring. The Tallahassee Regional was the first unveiled on Monday’s selection show, so the Golden Eagles didn’t have to wait long to end the drought.

“Last year left a bad taste in our mouths, and we played with a chip on our shoulder all year,” Berry said. “That’s the quickest that I’ve ever seen our name come up, but it was exciting to see Southern Miss’ name up there and brought back a lot of good memories. I’m very, very proud of our guys and our coaching staff to have this opportunity.”

South Alabama swept a two-game series from Southern Miss in early March. Southern Miss won the Conference USA tournament championship, while Alabama State split two midweek games with South Alabama and went 24-0 in the SWAC.

Florida State is hosting a regional for the 33rd time and is making its 39th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.

“If you look at a team you’re maybe not familiar with and take them lightly, you’re going to get beat,” Florida State coach Mike Martin said in a school release. “Alabama State, coached by Mervyl (Hernandez) is a good coach and they’ve beaten some good teams this year. Then you have South Alabama and Southern Miss, I am telling you, it is very competitive. We know that, we approach it with the same approach that we have if we have any of the league members because they can all get after it.”

The winner of the Tallahassee Regional will play the winner of the Gainesville Regional in the super regional round. The Gainesville Regional includes host Florida (47-13), Georgia Tech (36-23), Connecticut (37-23) and Bethune-Cookman (29-25).

Friday afternoon in Baton Rouge, LSU (42-18) will open its regional at Alex Box Stadium against Utah Valley (37-21). Rice (35-22) will play Southeastern Louisiana (39-19) on Friday night.

The winner of the regional in Baton Rouge will play the winner of the Raleigh Regional — either host North Carolina State (35-20), Navy (42-14), Saint Mary’s (33-23) or Coastal Carolina (44-15).