Tulane No. 1 seed in NCAA baseball

Tulane heads into the NCAA baseball tournament with the No. 1 national seed and plenty of confidence.

The Green Wave (50-9), ranked No. 1 in at least one of the major national polls for all but three weeks this season, were given the top seed for the 64-team Division I tournament.

“This is a credit to our kids,” coach Rick Jones said. “They performed all year, had preseason accolades and it’s not easy to go out every day when you know you’re going to get the ‘A’ game of every other team you play.”

Tulane opens against Southern as one of the hosts for the 16 four-team, double-elimination regionals that begin Friday.

The other national seeds, in order, are: Georgia Tech (42-16), Nebraska (51-13), Baylor (39-21), Mississippi (44-18), defending champion Cal State Fullerton (41-15), Florida (40-20) and Oregon State (41-9). Those schools can only face each other if they advance to the College World Series.

“As long as you’re one of the top eight seeds, you have a tremendous advantage to move ahead,” NCAA Division I baseball committee chairman Charlie Carr said.

Cal State Fullerton is trying to join Texas (1949-50), Southern California (1970-74), Stanford (1987-88) and Louisiana State (1996-97) as repeat national champions.

Teams that received top seeds in their regionals are: Clemson (39-21), Coastal Carolina (48-14), Florida State (50-18), Long Beach State (36-20), Louisiana State (38-20), Miami (38-17-1), Tennessee (41-19) and Texas (45-14). Each is hosting a regional, except for Coastal Carolina; Arizona State is hosting that one.

The winners of each regional will advance to the super regionals June 10-13. The eight winners of the super regionals will play in the College World Series, which starts June 17 in Omaha, Neb.

The SEC leads with nine berths.