Y. not invited to NCAA tournament

BYU did not receive an at-large bid to the NCAA baseball tournament when the pairings were announced Monday.

The Cougars (39-19-1) missed out on an automatic bid when they dropped two straight games to UNLV in the Mountain West Conference tournament Saturday. One win over the Rebels would have given BYU the tournament title and a trip to the NCAAs.

UNLV (34-27), the MWC's regular-season champion, will compete in regional competition against Coastal Carolina (48-14), Arizona State (34-22) and East Carolina (35-24).

Tulane was selected as the top seed for the 64-team Division I college baseball tournament.

The Green Wave (50-9), led by two-way stars Brian Bogusevic and Micah Owings, were ranked near the top of the major polls all season. Tulane, which opens against Southern, will host one of 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.

The Southeastern Conference had nine teams receive berths, tying the record it set last year. Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Tennessee are all in the tournament.

The Atlantic Coast Conference was second with seven berths: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Virginia.

The Hurricanes (38-17-1) are making their 33rd straight appearance to extend their NCAA record.

UNLV is the lone Mountain West team in the field.

Three teams are making their first tournament appearances: North Carolina A&T (27-25), Quinnipiac (26-22) and Rhode Island (34-19). Each of them won their conference tournaments to make the field of 64.

Oregon State is in the field for the first time since 1986, while Furman won the Southern Conference to earn its first berth since 1991.

Each of the four-team, double-elimination regionals will be played on campus sites from June 3-6. The winners of each regional will advance to the super regionals, played June 10-13.

The eight winners of the super regionals will play in the College World Series, which starts June 17 in Omaha, Neb.

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.

The 16 regional hosts are: Arizona State, Baylor, Cal State Fullerton, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia Tech, LSU, Long Beach State, Miami, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oregon State, Tennessee, Texas and Tulane.