CMU and UM Make NCAA Baseball Tournament Field
Central won the the Mid-American Conference title to earn their bid, while the Wolverines snuck in as a wild card.
The 64 team field for the NCAA baseball tournament was announced yesterday, and two Michigan teams made the field, one getting an automatic bid, and one sneaking in thanks to a late season surge.
The Central Michigan Chippewas will travel to South Bend, IN Friday afternoon to face the host school Notre Dame at the South Bend Regional. Game time is at 1:00pm.
The Chippewas (40-16 record) won the regular season crown in the Mid-American Conference to get their bid. The Irish (30-11) won the Atlantic Coast Conference title.
The Wolverines (27-17), meanwhile, will play Big East champion Connecticut (33-17) at 7:00pm Friday in the bottom half of the South Bend Regional. Michigan was the last team in the tournament after finishing third in the Big Ten regular season.
Last season's NCAA tournament was canceled due to the virus.
Both CMU and UM are returning to the tournament after the year off. CMU made it to the regional finals in 2019, while Michigan went on to the College World Series and lost in the national championship series, two games to one, to Vanderbilt.
Many baseball experts are calling the South Bend regional the toughest in the country, with ESPN's Mike Rooney calling CMU 'a bear of a fourth seed' who could cause problems for higher seeds.
Michigan came on late in the season after a slow start, only to drop two of three to Nebraska in the final weekend to kill their chances for a league title.
But the selection committee took mercy on the Wolverines, possibly due to their run to the title game in 2019.
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