Fresh off the heels of its first - and last - Big 12 baseball championship, the Missouri baseball team will begin its NCAA Tournament journey out west.
The Tigers will open NCAA Tournament play in the Tuscon Regional at 10 p.m. Friday (ESPNU-TV) against Arizona. The Tigers are seeded fourth in the four-team, double elimination regional that also features Louisville (39-20) and New Mexico State (35-22).
Missouri (32-26) earned the Big 12's automatic bid by making a surprise run through the conference tournament. The sixth-seeded Tigers went 4-0 with wins against Texas, Texas A&M, Kansas and Oklahoma. Missouri won the title game 8-7 against the Sooners, after blowing a 7-2 lead earlier in the game.
III
Missouri State will be heading to Florida's Gold Coast for its regional.
The Bears are the third seed in the Coral Gable Regional along and will open play against Central Florida (43-15) at noon Friday. Stony Brook and Miami will play in the other game.
The Bears (39-20), who finished second to Indiana State in the Missouri Valley Conference, are making their eighth NCAA Tournament appearance. It's the Bears' first trip to the tournament since 2003, when they made a surprise run to the College World Series.