Baseball Prepares to Face Oregon at Eugene Regional on Friday
The Central Connecticut baseball team will open play in the Eugene Regional at PK Park when it faces 14th-seeded Oregon in their opening game of the NCAA Regional on Friday at 5:00 p.m. in Eugene, OR. First pitch is slated for 5:00 p.m. Eastern and the game will be carried live on ESPN3. Clay Matvick and Ben McDonald will call the action.
NCAA REGIONAL TOURNAMENT NOTES
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP DIGITAL PROGRAM
NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP BRACKET
The Blue Devils, who are 28-13 overall, will be making their seventh NCAA Tournament appearance. CCSU has earned the Northeast Conference automatic bid in two straight postseasons and three of the last four. They have won conference titles in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2010 and 2017 along with the most recent appearance in 2019. The Blue Devils traveled to Fayetteville, AR, for the 2019 regional and posted the program's first NCAA victory with a 7-4 win over Cal.
Head coach Charlie Hickey guided the Blue Devils to a 5-2 win over top-seeded Bryant in the seventh game of the NEC championship. With the win, Central has won 25 or more games in a season for the 17th time under Hickey and came out of the elimination bracket to win the league crown for the second straight championship and fourth time overall. In his 22nd season at the helm of CCSU, Hickey is the winningest coach in program history with 577 victories. He has won 581 career games in 25 seasons overall.
Central had 10 earn All-Northeast Conference honors and three more named to the All-Tournament Team, including senior Buddy Dewaine who was named MVP.
The Ducks went 37-14 overall and earned the No. 14 national seed in the field. Oregon is hosting a regional for the first time since 2013 when the Ducks hosted for the second consecutive year. Oregon won the 2012 Eugene Regional and hosted a Super Regional that season. Oregon has also played in three other Regional Tournaments, including the 2010 Norwich Regional, which included CCSU. Oregon made its only College World Series appearance in 1954.
Head coach Mark Wasikowski is in his second season as head coach at Oregon after previously serving as an assistant for five seasons (2012-16). In three seasons as head coach at Purdue he led the Boilermakers to 87 wins and a trip to the Regionals in 2018. He has guided the Ducks to 45 wins since being named head coach following the 2019 season.
Gonzaga (33-17) is the second seed in the regional, while LSU (34-22) is seeded third. The Bulldogs and Tigers will play at 10:00 p.m. on Friday night.
The team advancing from the Eugene Regional will play the winner of the Knoxville Regional.
The regional is a double-elimination format and will have all of the games carried on ESPN networks. The weekend's full schedule is as follows (all times Eastern):
Friday, June 4:
Game 1 (#14 Oregon vs. CCSU) - 5 p.m. ESPN3
Game 2 (LSU vs. Gonzaga) - 10 p.m. ESPN3
Saturday, June 5
Game 3 – Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2 - 4 p.m.
Game 4 – Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 - 10 p.m.
Sunday, June 6
Game 5 – Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4 - 6 p.m.
Game 6 – Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 4 - 10 p.m.
Monday, June 7
Game 7 – Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6 (if necessary) - 10 p.m.
Ticket Information: All-session tickets start at $80 and include admission to all six/seven games of the tournament. Tickets can be purchased online HERE
Follow @CCSUBlueDevils on Twitter and www.CCSUBlueDevils.com for updates throughout the weekend. Live in-game updates for Friday's action will be available by following @KizerBlueDevil on Twitter.
