A pair of Division I HBCU baseball teams learned their NCAA Tournament fate on Monday.
North Carolina A&T and Texas Southern earned automatic bids to the 64-team field, with play beginning on Friday.
The teams will participate in four-team regional play, with a double-elimination formation. The winner will advance to the best-of-3 Super Regional Round the following week.
North Carolina A&T, champions of the MEAC for the first time since 2005, is the No. 4 seed in the North Carolina Regional, which is hosted by the University of North Carolina. The Aggies will play No. 1 North Carolina at 1 p.m. Friday.
“It’s a great feeling to play in the tournament for the team, for the fans and for the university, so I’m going to go out and do all I can do,” said junior pitcher Tim Luth. “We’re all just a bunch of guys having fun. We all want to play the best that we can and see what happens.”
Texas Southern, the SWAC champions, will also not have to travel far to play in the regional round, as the No. 4 seed Tigers will face No. 1 Texas at 8 p.m. in the Texas Regional on Friday night.
Texas Regional
No. 1 Texas vs. No. 4 Texas Southern, 8 p.m. Friday (Longhorn Network)
No. 2 Indiana vs No. 3 Texas A&M Baptist, 4 p.m. Friday
North Carolina Regional
No. 1 UNC vs. No. 4 North Carolina A&T, 1 p.m. Friday (ESPN3)
No. 3 Houston vs. No. 2 Indiana, 11 a.m. Friday, 4 p.m.
