Michigan Receives At-Large Bid to NCAA Tournament
5/29/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- After compiling 42 wins through the 2017 regular season and finishing second in the Big Ten Conference, the University of Michigan baseball team received an at-large berth in the 2017 NCAA Division I Championship on Monday (May 29) when the 64-team NCAA field was announced. The Wolverines have been assigned to the Chapel Hill (N.C.) Regional, which will be hosted by North Carolina and played Friday through Monday (June 2-5).
The at-large selection is Michigan's first since 2007, though the Wolverines advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2008 and 2015 by way of winning the Big Ten Tournament, which serves as an automatic qualifier.
2017 NCAA Chapel Hill Regional Schedule
Friday, June 2
Game 1: #2 Florida Gulf Coast (42-18) vs. #3 Michigan (42-15), 1 p.m.
Game 2: #1 North Carolina (47-12) vs. #4 Davidson (32-24), 6 p.m.
Saturday, June 3
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 4
Game 5: Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 1 p.m.
Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5, 6 p.m.
Monday, June 5
Game 7, if necessary, 6 p.m.
The Wolverines (42-15), who are making their second NCAA Tournament appearance under head coach Erik Bakich and 23rd overall, are the No. 3 seed in the regional and will face No. 2-seeded Florida Gulf Coast (42-18) on Friday (June 2) at 1 p.m. in the opening game of the double-elimination event at Boshamer Stadium. Host North Carolina (47-12), the tournament's No. 2 overall seed, and Davidson (32-24) will meet in the night game at 6 p.m.
The four-team, double-elimination regional schedule has two games each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with an "if necessary" game scheduled for Monday.
The meeting between Michigan and Florida Gulf Coast will mark the sixth in history and the first in the postseason. The Wolverines won the most recent meeting, which came at the Eagles' home field back in 2014, though Florida Gulf Coast leads the series, 3-2. The Eagles earned the No. 2 seed in the regional after defeating Jacksonville twice last week to clinch the Atlantic Sun Conference title and capture the automatic bid with a program-best 42 wins.
Michigan, which finished the regular season in second place in the Big Ten with a 16-8 league record, is one of five Big Ten teams in the NCAA field, joining Indiana, Big Ten Tournament winner Iowa, Maryland and Big Ten champion Nebraska.
The 16 regional champions will advance to the best-of-three super regionals June 9-11. The eight super regional winners will advance to the College World Series, scheduled for June 17-28 in Omaha, Nebraska. The Wolverines have advanced to the College World Series seven times, most recently in 1984, and won national titles in 1953 and 1962.
