An analysis of how Coastal Carolina was granted a regional from the NCAA committee

Coastal Carolina’s NCAA postseason road will begin in Conway.

Coastal was selected as one of 16 teams to host an NCAA baseball regional, and will welcome Connecticut, Washington and LIU Brooklyn this weekend at Springs Brooks Stadium.

The teams were announced during a selection show on ESPNU on Monday, and the Chanticleers and supporters gathered at Handleys Pub & Grub in Carolina Forest to view the announcement.

The Chants (42-17) learned Sunday night they would be a regional host while returning on sleeper coach buses from the Sun Belt Conference Championship in Lafayette, La., where they went 4-0 and defeated Troy 11-6 in the title game.

Coastal is seeded 15th overall nationally, and would potentially travel to second-seeded Stanford for a best-of-three-games Super Regional if both the Chants and Cardinal win their regionals.

Games are scheduled for noon and 6 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the double-elimination regional in Conway, with an additional game if needed on Monday at an unspecified time. Coastal will face the regional's fourth seed, Long Island University Brooklyn, at 6 p.m. Friday.

“Our confidence is huge right now. We’re rolling on all cylinders and we’re looking to take that into the regional and get after it,” said senior pitcher Zack Hopeck, who started Sunday's Sun Belt title game and was on CCU’s 2016 national championship team. “I think it’s going to be an environment that we have never seen before, because I think if you’ve ever bled teal you’re going to be out there in that stadium and it’s going to be rocking.”

LIU Brooklyn (31-24) claimed the program’s first Northeast Conference championship with an 8-5 victory over Wagner and defeated top-seeded Bryant 13-4 in the semifinals after finishing third in the league with a 16-12 record.

Second-seeded UConn (35-20-1) has already defeated Coastal this season, taking a 12-10 win on March 13 after racing out to an 11-1 lead in the third inning. The Huskies fell 4-3 to East Carolina – a regional host – in the American Athletic Conference title game after finishing third in the conference with a 14-10 record.

"We got their best shot in a mid-week game and I think we came out with a bitter taste in our mouth, too, so I think we want to get a little bit of revenge for that earlier season loss," junior Zach Biermann said. "I think them coming down here is a good thing because it will be two hard-fought teams ready to go at it."

Third-seeded Washington (30-23) was seeking its first Pac-12 title since 1998 and held a 5-3 lead over Stanford in the ninth inning of the championship game, but The Cardinal scored three runs to win. Washington was third in the Pac-12 in the regular season with a 20-10 conference record.

This will be the fourth time Coastal has hosted in its 16 regional appearances.

Coastal hosted regionals in 2007, 2008 and 2010 – though only 2008 was on campus and the others were at Pelicans Ballpark – while hosting two of its three Super Regional appearances in 2008 and 2010. Springs Brooks Stadium, with a capacity of about 5,400, opened in 2015.

Coastal is ranked 20th in the country in the Rating Percentage Index (RPI), which considers a team’s wins and losses and strength of schedule and is perhaps the most referenced and reliable ranking of college baseball teams.

The other regional hosts in order of seeding are Florida, Stanford, Oregon State, Mississippi, Arkansas, North Carolina, Florida State, Georgia, Texas Tech, Clemson, Stetson, East Carolina, Texas, Minnesota and N.C. State.

With its Sun Belt regular season title with a 23-7 record and tournament title with a 4-0 mark, the Chants had a case to leapfrog some teams ranked ahead of it in the RPI in consideration for a regional.

No. 12 East Carolina (43-16), No. 16 Connecticut (35-20-1) and No. 18 South Florida (35-20-1) are all from the American Athletic Conference, and it was highly unlikely three teams from the AAC would all host regionals. None of the teams were better than 14-9-1 in conference play, either, and just ECU was selected.

No. 17 Jacksonville (39-18) doesn’t have stellar on-campus facilities and the minor league Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp are at home Friday and Saturday, and No. 4 Stetson (45-11) already represents the Atlantic Sun conference as a regional host.

Neither No. 13 Auburn (39-21) nor No. 15 Texas A&M (39-20) had winning records in the SEC, Auburn going 15-15 and the Aggies going just 13-17 in conference play.

No. 19 N.C. State (40-16) lost four of its last five games, including decisions to 10th-seeded Virginia and sixth-seeded Florida State in its only two games in the ACC Tournament, though the Wolfpack was selected.

Minnesota (40-13) and Connecticut, 14th and 16th in the RPI respectively, were projected hosts in part because there weren't other comparable options in their regions of the country. But the Northeast was left without a regional site.

There were teams ranked below Coastal that had arguments to host a regional, however, including No. 23 Texas (37-20), the Big 12 regular-season champion that was granted a regional, as well as Duke (40-15) and Louisville (43-17), who each went at least 18-12 in ACC play. But neither was selected.

“Winning Game 1 is of paramount importance, to stay in that winner’s bracket and play night games and hopefully get that 10th man on our side with our stadium," Gilmore said. "We’ve been waiting since it’s been built [in 2015] to get this opportunity, so I hope not only do we play well, but I hope our community will really rally around us and pack that place with teal and black and actually have a home-field advantage.”

Ticket prices range from $10 for individual games to $75 for the entire regional, depending on the type of ticket.

The CCU ticket office was closed Monday so the only way to purchase tickets was online at https://www.ticketreturn.com/prod2/team.asp?SponsorID=11817#.WwtUyUgvyUk. The ticket office at Arcadia Hall will reopen at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Parking can also be purchased for the lot surrounding Springs Brooks Stadium for $45 for all sessions or $15 per game. For more information visit www.goccusports.com/tickets or call the ticket office at 843-347-8499.

This story was originally published May 27, 2018 at 9:06 PM with the headline "An analysis of how Coastal Carolina was granted a regional from the NCAA committee."