The 16 host regional sites were announced at 12:00 p.m. ET on ESPN U’s “The Road To Omaha” special, with Miami seemingly drawing a favorable bracket—taking on the winner of the Dallas Regional, featuring host Dallas Baptist, as well as second-seeded Oregon State, third-seeded Texas and fourth-see VCU.
To get there, Miami must first take care of business at home and as the top seed will take on a familiar foe in fourth-seeded Florida International. First pitch is set for 7:00 p.m. ET, soon after second-seeded East Carolina squares off against Columbia.
While the Hurricanes and Golden Panthers are essentially crosstown rivals, the two didn’t face off this season.
Florida International went 29-29 this season as a member of Conference USA, where it won last weekend’s C-USA tournament championship, going 4-0 with wins over Rice, UTSA, Middle Tennessee and UAB.
Prior to that, FlU dropped two-of-three to Rice to end the regular season as well as UAB the previous weekend and went 9-6 in the month of May.
East Carolina earned a two-seed in the Coral Gables Regional by winning the American Athletic Conference title this past weekend, knocking off top-seeded Houston, 9-1. Like the Golden Panthers, the Pirates went undefeated in tourney play—going 4-0 over the six-day, eight-team event.
ECU went 40-20 on the season and against two ACC foes, fell 7-0 to North Carolina State in March, but topped Duke, 3-2 in extra innings weeks back.
Third-seeded Columbia has the furthest trek south this weekend and rolls in with a 31-15 record in the Ivy League. Competition-wise, the only common foe was Central Florida, with the Knights sweeping the Lions by a combined score of 23-5 over three games.
Should Miami top Florida International on Friday night, it will move into the winners bracket and will be back in action on Saturday, against at 7:00 p.m. ET, taking on the winner of East Carolina and Columbia. A win there sets up a Sunday night showdown at the same time, with a Monday night game on deck for Session 7, should things progress that far.
Should Miami win the Coral Gables Regional, the winner of the Dallas Regional will travel to South Florida next weekend for a best-of-three series with Omaha on the line.
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