AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Texas Longhorns will host one of the 16 college baseball regionals, the NCAA announced Sunday. The official seeds and teams going to each regional will be announced tomorrow.
It will be the second-straight year that Texas will host an NCAA regional at its home park. The Longhorns will be the top seed in the Austin regional.
“It definitely feels great,” said Longhorns Infielder Ivan Melendez. “Last week I thought that was going to be my last game at [UFCU Disch-Falk Field]. Today we just go the news that it wasn’t so I definitely feel happy I get to strap up the cleats and go out there and compete at The Disch one more time.”
Texas boosted its resume in a major way with its success in the Big 12 tournament this week, taking down Oklahoma State twice as well as TCU en route to the conference championship game. The Longhorns fell to Oklahoma in the championship game Sunday by a score of 8-1.
Texas is No. 12 in the RPI, a formula that calculates how good a team plays against its schedule and is used by the committee to guide members in seeding the tournament.
“It just shows what this team’s done all year,” said Longhorns Assistant Coach Sean Allen. “It hasn’t been easy. We love that. We talk every day about we don’t want things easy. We want things difficult. The good thing is we get to go back to Disch-Falk and play in front of this great crowd that supported us all year.”
Travis Sthele started on the mound for Texas as the burnt orange played its fifth game in five days. The Sooners pounced all over the Longhorns in the third inning, jumping out to an 8-1 lead.
Texas struck first when Ivan Melendez bashed an opposite-field home run in the first inning. The long ball was Melendez’s 29th of season, breaking the single-season record for Texas that was previously owned by Kyle Russell.
“Just to see my hard work be recognized,” said Melendez. “To be at the top of our home run record here for the university knowing all these prestigious players have played at this university, I definitely feel honored and blessed.”
The NCAA baseball regionals begin Friday, June 3. The official selection show is slated for 11 a.m. Monday morning. Texas A&M and Oklahoma State also earned spots as regional hosts.
