The Arizona Wildcats can punch their ticket to Omaha at Hi Corbett Field โ but it wonโt be easy.
Arizona earned the No. 5 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament on Monday. As expected, the UA (40-15) will face Western Athletic Conference champion Grand Canyon (39-19-1) on Friday. First pitch is slated for 7 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN3.
The Tucson Regional, as ESPN analyst Kyle Peterson noted, is โloaded.โ The other teams coming to Hi Corbett are UC Santa Barbara (39-18) and Big 12 runner-up Oklahoma State (35-17-1). The Cowboys are ranked 14th in RPI. Those two will face off in the regional opener at 1 p.m. Friday.
Arizona is making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2017 and its third in six seasons under Jay Johnson. The tournament was not held last year after the pandemic nixed the season in early March.
This year marks the 15th time in program history that Arizona will host the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. Itโs the second time the Wildcats will host at Hi Corbett. The first time, in 2012, they advanced to the College World Series and won the national championship.
The UA and GCU met twice during the regular season. The Lopes defeated the Wildcats 5-4 in 10 innings on April 13 in Phoenix. Arizona took the rematch 13-2 on May 4 in Tucson.
Should they advance, the Wildcats would face the winner of the Oxford Regional hosted by No. 12 overall seed Ole Miss. The other teams in that regional are Southern Mississippi, Florida State and Southeast Missouri State.
We'll have more on this developing story later today.
