OU Baseball Qualifies For NCAA Regional

The field of 64 teams bound for the NCAA Tournament was announced Monday and the Oklahoma Sooners will compete in the Charlottesville, VA regional.

The Sooners were named a No. 2 seed and will face No. 3 Appalachian state on Friday at 7 p.m.

"First of all, I am extremely excited for this group of young men that have been challenged and gone through an awful lot of adversity to be rewarded with a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament," said OU Head Coach Sunny Golloway, who will be the head coach of a Division I team in the NCAA Tournament for the 13th time.

Appalachian State (39-16) won the Southern Conference regular season title, but lost in their conference tournament last Friday. OU has never played against Appalachian State.

"Our only familiarity with our first game opponent is the fact that they played Samford as a common opponent and we both defeated them in two out of three games," said Golloway. "However, Samford went on to win the conference tournament. If Samford is indicative of the strength of that league, we will have our hands full."

Host Virginia is the top seed with a 38-17 record and will host Army (41-13).

"We recognize the challenges that lie ahead having experienced a Super Regional in 2010 in Charlottesville," said Golloway. "We also recognize that as a No. 1 seed, Virginia has advanced to the College World Series in two out of the last three years. We fell that the regional field will be tough, not just Virginia, and that we must play our best baseball to advance."

This year's bid to the tournament is the fifth straight for the Sooners (38-22), and the 35th post season appearance overall.

"Although we are obviously disappointed of falling just short of a big 12 championship this past weekend, we realize our main focus and goal from day one is to get to Omaha. And that journey will begin Friday."

Related Story: Missouri Tops Oklahoma 8-7, Wins First Big 12 Title

Each of the four-team, double-elimination regionals will be played June 1-3. The winners of each regional will advance to the Super Regional round June 8-10.

The eight winners of the Super Regionals will play in the College World Series, beginning June 15 at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha in Omaha, Neb.

Regional Game Times (ET)

Friday, June 1
Game 1 - No. 1 Virginia vs. No. 4 Army, 4 p.m.
Game 2 - No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 3 Appalachian State, 8 p.m.

Saturday, June 2
Game 3 - Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 1 p.m.
Game 4 - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 6 p.m.

Sunday, June 3
Game 5 - Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 1 p.m.
Game 6 - Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 4, 6 p.m.

Monday, June 4
Game 7 - Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6 (if necessary), 6 p.m.