Owls win C-USA postseason championship, will host NCAA regional

By Chuck Pool

The Rice Owls (41-18), who clinched their 20th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Baseball Championship with their 11-5 win over the University of Texas-San Antonio Sunday, will open NCAA action at home for the 11th time in the last 14 years as one of 16 regional hosts. The hosts were announced by the NCAA Sunday evening.

On Monday, the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee announced the complete field of 64 teams for the 68th annual NCAA Division I Baseball Championship. The Texas Longhorns, Texas A&M Aggies and George Mason Patriots will visit Reckling Park to open the Houston regional Friday afternoon. The No. 2-seed Longhorns will face No. 3-seed Aggies at 3 p.m., and then the Owls, the No.1 seed, will play No. 4-seed Patriots at 7 p.m.

“I’m really happy with it and think it’s a great regional,” said Owls head baseball coach Wayne Graham. “It’s a great thing for Houston to get (the Texas teams) all together here. I think they’re beatable; we’re going to need to play great ball to get through them, though. It’s a good regional … solid all the way.”

Each regional location features four teams playing a double-elimination format. All 16 regionals are scheduled from May 30 through June 2.

The losers of the two Friday games will meet Saturday afternoon in an elimination game. The winners from Friday will face off in the second game Saturday evening. The survivor of Saturday’s elimination game will take on the loser of the winner’s bracket game Sunday afternoon, and the winner of that game will play the winner from Saturday night’s game Sunday evening. If a seventh game is needed, it will be played Monday evening.

All-session passes for the Houston (Rice) Regional are $75 each and are available online at http://oss.ticketmaster.com/aps/rice/EN/link/buy/details/14bareg.

Tickets can also be ordered by calling 713-522-OWLS or by visiting the Rice Athletics Ticket Office, which will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

Single-game tickets will go on sale later in the week, pending availability.

–John Sullivan, assistant sports information director, and David Ruth, director of national media relations, contributed to this story.