Georgia, Georgia Tech awarded NCAA regionals

ATLANTA - Georgia Tech and Georgia landed two of the 16 NCAA baseball regional tournament sites announced Sunday.

The full 64-team NCAA field will be announced Monday. Game times, seedings and pairings also will be announced Monday for the regionals, which begin Friday.

Georgia (41-19) and Tech (45-16) made the NCAA tournament field as at-large selections.

Tech will host a regional for the eighth time overall, including five straight years and six of the last seven. Tech also hosted Super Regionals in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2005.

Georgia will host its third regional.

Tech and Georgia also each hosted regionals in 2004, when the Bulldogs beat the Yellow Jackets in the Atlanta Super Regional to advance to the College World Series.

In the Southeastern Conference, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi also will host regionals. In the Atlantic Coast Conference, Clemson, North Carolina and Virginia also were awarded regionals.

The 16 regional winners advance to one of eight NCAA Super Regionals, scheduled for June 10-12 or 11-13 on campus sites.

Tech, ranked No. 11 by Baseball America and No. 16 by Collegiate Baseball, enters the NCAA tournament after falling to Clemson Saturday night in the semifinals of the ACC tournament.

The Yellow Jackets climbed to No. 1 in both polls on March 6 - the 11th time in school history Tech has been ranked No. 1.

Since 1985, Tech has missed only one NCAA tournament - in 1999. Despite being an almost annual member of the tournament field, Tech has made only two College World Series appearances - in 1994 and 2002.

Tech is 29-5 at Russ Chandler Stadium this season, including nine straight wins.

Georgia, ranked No. 9 by Baseball America and No. 10 by Collegiate Baseball, lost to Vanderbilt in Saturday night's elimination game of the SEC tournament semifinals.

"Certainly we're very pleased to be chosen to host an NCAA regional again, and it's part of a reward for having a great season up to this point," said Georgia coach David Perno. "I'm very proud of the team and I know they are looking forward to playing at home for the regional. I hope our fans are excited, too."

The Bulldogs were 12-3 in the second half of their conference schedule to finish 18-12 overall in the SEC, their best record since winning the league title in 2004.

Georgia, the 1990 College World Series champion, tied for third in the 2004 CWS. Georgia also played in the 2001 College World Series.

Georgia is 17-7 against ranked opponents this season and 17-3 in its last 20 games.