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Florida, Miami earn national seeds in NCAA baseball tournament, to host regionals

Second-seeded Gators to host Florida A&M in Gainesville; No. 9 seed Miami to meet Maine in Coral Gables
Florida Gators baseball coach Kevin O'Sullivan and Miami Hurricanes outfielder Edgardo Villegas have their teams playing in 2023 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship
Posted at 2:15 PM, May 29, 2023
and last updated 2023-05-29 14:23:57-04

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida and Miami are both national seeds and will stay home for the opening weekend of the NCAA baseball tournament.

The Gators are the No. 2 national seed and the Hurricanes are the No. 9 overall seed in the 2023 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship.

Florida (44-14) is the top seed in the Gainesville regional and will host No. 2-seed Connecticut, No. 3-seed Texas Tech and No. 4-seed Florida A&M.

Miami (40-19) is the top seed in the Coral Gables regional and will host second-seeded Texas, third-seeded Louisiana and fourth-seeded Maine.

The field of 64 teams was announced Monday.

Florida's 15th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance under head coach Kevin O'Sullivan is the second-longest streak in the nation behind Vanderbilt. The Gators will face Florida A&M at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

The Rattlers are in the NCAA tournament for just the third time in program history after winning the Southwest Athletic Conference championship. All three appearances have come under former longtime Florida State assistant Jamey Shouppe.

Miami is hosting an NCAA regional for the 29th time in school history. The Hurricanes, who lost to Clemson in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title game, will take on Maine at 7 p.m. Friday.

The winner of the four-team, double-elimination regional will play in a best-of-three super regional at the site of the higher-seeded team to earn a trip to the College World Series.

One notable absence in this year's tournament is Florida State, which is missing postseason play for the first time since 1977.

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The Southeastern Conference leads the nation with 10 teams in the tournament (Florida, No. 3 seed Arkansas, No. 5 seed LSU, No. 6 seed Vanderbilt, No. 12 seed Kentucky, No. 13 seed Auburn, No. 15 seed South Carolina, No. 16 seed Alabama, Tennessee and Texas A&M), followed by the ACC with eight teams (No. 1 overall seed Wake Forest, No. 4 seed Clemson, No. 7 Virginia, Miami, Boston College, Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State). The eight regional hosts (all but Tennessee and Texas A&M) are the most ever from a single conference.

Tulane made the NCAA tournament despite finishing with a losing record. The Green Wave (19-40) earned an automatic berth after winning the American Athletic Conference tournament crown. It's the first time a 40-loss team has made the tournament.