May 31, 2010
2010 NCAA Bracket (Interactive) | 2010 NCAA Bracket (PDF)
Press Conference with Corbin, Gray and Hill
NASHVILLE, Tenn. –For the second straight year Vanderbilt baseball will head to the NCAA Louisville Regional as an at-large team.
The Commodores (41-17) will be the No. 2 seed in the regional with host Louisville (48-12) as the No. 1 seed as well as the No. 7 overall national seed.
VU will face No. 3 seed Illinois State (31-22) on Friday at Jim Patterson Stadium, while the Cardinals will face No. 4 seed Saint Louis (33-27). Game times are tentatively set with the Commodores-Redbirds game a 1 p.m. CT first pitch and the Cardinals-Billikens game a 5 p.m. CT start.
The Commodores are making their fifth straight NCAA tournament appearance and sixth in eight years under head coach Tim Corbin.
VU has made the regional championship game in four of the previous five appearances including last year against the Cardinals.
Vanderbilt is 41-17 overall after going 1-2 at the SEC tournament in Hoover. VU has already faced Illinois State and Louisville this season and recorded wins against both.
Illinois State (31-22) received an automatic bid after winning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament championship over the weekend. The Redbirds are making their third NCAA regional appearance and first since 1994. They have won 31 games under the direction of first-year head coach Mark Kingston and captured a share of the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship before going 3-0 en route to a tournament title last week.
The Commodores defeated Illinois State, 9-2, on March 6 at Hawkins Field as part of the Music City Classic.
Louisville (48-12) enters its fourth straight NCAA regional with a 48-12 record overall, setting a new school record for wins earlier this week in the BIG EAST Championship. Louisville won its second straight BIG EAST regular season title on May 22 before being eliminated in the semifinals of the BIG EAST Championship by eventual tournament champion St. John’s.
The Commodores and Cardinals met in an epic 17 inning contest at Hawkins Field on May 11 in a game that benefited Nashville flood relief efforts. Jason Esposito’s walk off homer in the 17th gave VU an 11-10 win that saw the Commodores rally from two two-run deficits in the ninth and 14th innings.
Saint Louis (33-27) is making its fourth NCAA trip and their first since 2006. SLU earned the Atlantic 10 Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tourney after winning four games in a row at the A-10 Championship in Camden, N.J. In all, SLU has won seven straight and broke the single-season wins record with a 5-4, conference-clinching victory against top-seeded Charlotte May 29.
The Commodore Athletic Department will have a very limited amount of Louisville Regional Baseball Tournament booklets for sale. All will be sold by National Commodore Club priority and reservations will be taken over the phone by calling (615) 322-GOLD (4653) starting on June 1 at 8:30 a.m. The cost of each booklet will be $93.00 (includes all tax and processing) and those National Commodore Club members who receive priority will receive an email confirmation if your order is processed.
If you are not a National Commodore Club member, please click here to visit the Louisville ticket website to get the latest information on availability. As information becomes available, www.vucommodores.com will update on ticketing information. At this time, we have no information on single session ticket availability.