NCAA baseball’s 16 regional host teams include Kentucky and Louisville

Kentucky’s baseball team will stage its first baseball postseason games since 2006 this week after being selected one of 16 schools to host the NCAA Tournament regional round, it was announced Sunday night. The games will take place Friday through Monday at Cliff Hagan Stadium.

It will be just the second time the program hosts the four-team regional bracket. The other three teams that will make their way to Lexington will be announced at noon Monday during the NCAA Baseball Championship Selection Show on ESPN2. The Wildcats (39-20) also will find out whether they are one of the eight national seeds who would host a super regional should they advance past the regional round.

The Louisville Cardinals were also among the regional host teams announced Sunday.

The Wildcats earned the right to host with a 39-win season that surpassed preseason media predictions. Despite losing the first four games of the season by a total of five runs the Cats bounced back with a stretch of 21 wins in 24 games that included three-game sweeps of No. 23 UC Santa Barbara and at No. 11 Texas A&M. They also took two of three games from No. 11 Mississippi and No. 22 Vanderbilt during that stretch.

UK won 19 Southeastern Conference games — the second most in school history — and played for the league title on the final day of the regular season. The Cats entered Sunday with the No. 10 RPI in the country against the nation’s 13th-most difficult schedule and have 18 wins against the RPI’s top 50, the fourth most of any team.

Kentucky finished second in the SEC East in the regular-season standings at 19-11. Florida (42-16, 21-9) won the East and LSU (43-17, 21-9) took the West.

LSU knocked off Arkansas 4-2 in Sunday’s SEC Tournament championship game in Hoover, Ala.

Ticket information

All-session tickets for the Lexington regional will go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Monday (May 29).

All-session packages, which range from $55 to $85, include admission for all six/seven games of the regional tournament. Each session will consist of a single game, and the stadium will be cleared between each game.

Based on availability, single-session tickets ($10-$15) will go on sale Thursday, June 1, at 9 a.m. ET.

Tickets may be purchased online at UKathletics.com/NCAATickets, in person at the Joe Craft Center ticket office, or by calling the UK Ticket Office at (800) 928-2287. The Joe Craft Center ticket office will be open Monday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET, and Tuesday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET.

Any remaining tickets will be sold on-site beginning three hours prior to the first game on Friday, June 2, at Cliff Hagan Stadium.

This story was originally published May 28, 2017 at 8:36 PM with the headline "NCAA baseball’s 16 regional host teams include Kentucky and Louisville."