Auburn baseball No. 14 seed in NCAA Tournament bracket: Tigers' regional opponents, schedule
AUBURN — Auburn baseball already knew the most important news Monday morning as the NCAA unveiled its 2022 NCAA Tournament bracket.
Plainsman Park had been announced Sunday night as a host site for an NCAA regional, meaning Auburn (37-19) was in the tournament field as a top-16 overall seed. The players, tracking social media, had set up a phone screen to be projected on a television. "We were just screaming," senior Brody Moore said.
What the Tigers were curious to find out was where exactly they fall in the bracket, and who they're hosting this weekend.
It will be Southeast Louisiana in the first round, plus UCLA and Florida coming to Auburn from June 3-6 as the Tigers are the No. 14 national seed. The winner of the Auburn regional will advance to the final 16 and face the winner of the Oregon State regional in a best-of-three super regional the following weekend. Oregon State is the No. 3 seed.
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This is Auburn's fourth NCAA Tournament appearance under seventh-year coach Butch Thompson. Thompson led the program to its fifth College World Series in 2019 without playing a tournament game at home. In 2018, Auburn advanced to the super regional then lost to Florida.
"We should've hosted here in 2018," Thompson said. "And teams feel that way. As good as we feel today, there are some teams that don't feel as good. It's part of doing this. ... But 2018 hurt. But then how can I impact it?"
Thompson credited baseball director of operations Greg Drye with helping arrange in-state road games since then. "We changed everything as far as scheduling," Thompson said. "To see it play out, I'm thankful for that. We've been fighting to host since 2018."
Picked to finish last in the SEC West this season, Auburn exceeded expectations by finishing in fifth place in the league. The Tigers are hosting a regional for the first time since 2010. The last time they won a home regional was 1999.
Thompson addressed the players after the selection show, saying: "We get an opportunity to party like it's 1999 on our field."
NCAA Auburn regional schedule, TV times
Friday's games
Game 1: No. 2 UCLA (38-22) vs. No. 3 Florida State (33-23), 11 a.m., ESPN2
Game 2: No. 1 Auburn (37-19) vs. No. 4 Southeast Louisiana (30-29), 6 p.m., ESPN+
Saturday's games
Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser
Game 4: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner
Sunday's games
Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser
Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner
Monday's game (if necessary)
Game 7 (if Game 5 winner wins Game 6): Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn baseball NCAA Tournament seed, regional opponents, schedule
