INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Valdosta State baseball team learned Wednesday afternoon that it is second in the initial NCAA South Region baseball rankings, announced by the NCAA. 

Tampa leads the rankings, followed by VSU, Saint Leo, Montevallo and Rollins to round out the top five.  Florida Southern is sixth, followed by Nova Southeastern, Delta State, Lee and Lynn in tenth.  There will be two more public rankings, before the NCAA Division II Baseball field is announced May 15 on NCAA.com.

Click here for the NCAA Baseball Region Rankings.
   
The Blazers are 28-12 overall and 17-9 in Gulf South Conference play.  VSU hosts Flagler College for the final game of a three-game season series Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. at Billy Grant Field at Tommy Thomas Park.  Currently, the Blazers are 6-3 against the top ten teams in the South Region.
 
The South Region will have eight teams qualify for the regional.  Each of the three conferences in the region, the Gulf South, Sunshine State, and Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, will have each of the conference tournament champions earn an automatic bid to the regional.  
 
This year, the format returns to two regional sites with four teams at each site, May 19-21.  Normally the top two earn hosting duties.  The winners of the two sites then will meet for a best-of-three series at the highest remaining seed May 27-28.  The winner of the "Super Regional" will advance to the NCAA Division II Baseball Championship, scheduled for June 4-11 in Cary, N.C., at the USA Baseball National Training Complex. 

The Blazers are looking for their 21^st appearance in the NCAA Championship as VSU won the national title in 1979 for the school's first national championship in any sport.  VSU is 52-46 all-time in the NCAA postseason.  Along with the title, VSU has finished third twice and fourth three times.  The Blazers went 2-2 in the NCAA South Regional in 2019 in Cleveland, Miss., defeating Eckerd twice and losing to Delta State twice.