INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Valdosta State baseball team learned Wednesday afternoon that it moved to fifth for the third NCAA South Regional baseball rankings, announced by the NCAA. This is the final ranking before the NCAA Division II Baseball field is announced May 15 on NCAA.com. at 10 p.m. ET.
Tampa leads the rankings, followed by Saint Leo, Rollins, Delta State, and Valdosta State to round out the top five. Nova Southeastern is sixth, followed by Montevallo, Florida Southern, Lee and Shorter in tenth. Lee, who won its first Gulf South Conference Tournament championship on Tuesday earned an automatic bid to the regional, as did Spring Hill College for winning the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC).
Click here for the NCAA Baseball Region Rankings.
The Blazers are 30-14 overall and 17-9 in Gulf South Conference play. VSU appeared in the GSC Conference Championship this past weekend as No. 2 and defeated No. 7-seed West Florida, 13-12, in extra innings for its first game of the tournament. The Blazers the fell to No. 6-seed Alabama Huntsville 7-3 and lost, 11-4, in an elimination game against No. 8-Seed Shorter.
This year, the regional 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 21st 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. Currently, the Blazers are 8-4 against the top ten teams in the South Region.
For all information on Blazer baseball visit vstateblazers.com or follow Valdosta State Athletics on social media.
