UConn baseball selected to Gainesville Regional; earn fifth straight NCAA Tournament bid

UConn baseball will be playing June baseball for the fifth straight season and the ninth time since 2010, as the Huskies were placed in the Gainesville Regional, hosted by No. 2 Florida.

Jim Penders’ club is the 2-seed and will be joined by 3-seed Texas Tech out of the Big 12 and 4-seed Florida A&M, the SWAC champion.

The No. 2 overall seed, the Florida Gators are 44-14 overall, including 20-10 in the SEC. That was good enough to win the SEC East and tie for the regular season conference title with Arkansas. The Gators went to the SEC Tournament semifinals before losing to Vanderbilt and are No. 4 in the RPI.

Texas Tech is No. 41 in the RPI and finished with a 39-21 record, including 12-12 in the Big 12, which was a sixth-place finish. The Red Raiders went 2-2 in the Big 12 Tournament, but couldn’t solve Oklahoma State, losing twice to the Cowboys.

Florida A&M earned its bid after winning the SWAC Tournament out of the loser’s bracket, playing six games between Wednesday and Sunday. The Rattlers are No. 151 in the RPI with a 29-28 record, with a 18-12 SWAC record. They finished third in the SWAC East division and fourth overall.

Xavier, which won the Big East over UConn, is the 3-seed in No. 6 Vanderbilt’s Nashville Regional, while CCSU, which took home the Northeast Conference title, is the 4-seed in the Columbia Regional, hosted by No. 15 South Carolina. Boston College also received an at-large bid and will be a 2-seed in No. 16 Alabama’s Tuscaloosa Regional, while Northeastern earned an at-large bid to the Winston-Salem Regional, hosted by No. 1 Wake Forest, as the 3-seed. The Huskies had a 5-5 record against the NCAA field.