The College World Series has an even stronger Southeastern Conference flavor than usual.
SEC baseball programs Arkansas, Auburn, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt make up half the eight-team field for the CWS that starts this weekend in Omaha, Nebraska, and that comes after the league had six of the top 16 seeds when the 64-team NCAA tournament began late last month.
On Saturday, Michigan (45-20) faces eighth-seeded Texas Tech (44-18) at 2 p.m. EDT, and Florida State (41-21) meets fifth-seeded Arkansas (46-18) at 7. On Sunday, it's seventh-seeded Louisville (49-16) versus second-seeded Vanderbilt (54-11) at 2 and sixth-seeded Mississippi State (51-13) against Auburn (38-26) at 7:30. Double-elimination play continues through next week to set up the best-of-three title series that starts June 24.
This marks the 11th time in a 12-season stretch the CWS will include multiple SEC teams. At least one of the league's programs has reached the title round 10 of the past 11 years.
Auburn's Will Holland fields a grounder last Saturday during the opening game of the NCAA baseball tournament super regional hosted by North Carolina. The Tigers are joined by Arkansas, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt in making up half the field for this year's College World Series."It's the same every year," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. "It's a great league. A lot of kids want to play in this league. A lot of kids will turn down money from professional baseball to play in this league because it gets you ready. It gets you ready for the next step."
This CWS field is notable for what's missing, too: For the first time since 1996, no West Coast schools reached Omaha. UCLA was the NCAA tournament's No. 1 seed but lost a best-of-three super regional to Michigan.
"We lost one series all season - and it was this weekend," UCLA coach John Savage said after losing to Michigan in the decisive third game Sunday night. "It's a tough one to swallow."
By sending four teams to Omaha, the SEC has tied a record. The same league had four CWS representatives in 1997, 2004 and 2015, and the Atlantic Coast Conference sent four teams in 2006.
Tennessee coach Tony Vitello, an Arkansas assistant for four seasons before taking over in Knoxville in summer 2017, said the depth of the lineups made the SEC particularly strong this year. Vitello led this season's Volunteers to a 40-21 record and the program's first NCAA tournament appearance since 2005 despite going 14-16 in league play.
"I think the arms are always going to be there," Vitello said of SEC pitching, "but the hitting from top to bottom was pretty dang good, with lots of lineups with the 7, 8 and 9 hitters doing damage."
Perhaps it's no coincidence three of the SEC's best lineups reached the CWS. Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Mississippi State are the SEC's top three teams in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and runs scored. Vanderbilt leads the league in each of those categories as well as home runs, and the Commodores tied an SEC record by having 13 players selected in the MLB draft last week. Vanderbilt first baseman JJ Bleday, the SEC player of the year, went fourth overall to the Miami Marlins.
"The background on my phone is TD Ameritrade Park," said Vanderbilt catcher Philip Clarke, referring to the site of the CWS. "That's definitely an expectation, to go there every year."
Arkansas and Mississippi State bounced back from disappointing finishes to their 2018 CWS appearances. Mississippi State was a game away from meeting Arkansas in last year's title round before losing two straight times to Oregon State.
Mississippi State returns to Omaha under new coach Chris Lemonis.
"We definitely wanted to get back," said Mississippi State pitcher Ethan Small, a first-round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers. "I think the experience of losing in Omaha last year helped us do that."
Arkansas was an out away from winning its first national championship last year when a ninth-inning popup fell between three of its fielders in foul territory. Given new life, Oregon State rallied to win 5-3 and beat Arkansas again the following night to win the NCAA crown.
The Razorbacks are back, though, while the Beavers failed to make it out of their four-team regional, which Michigan won.
"It left a little bit of a bitter taste in our mouth, but there's also guys on the team that have contributed to get us back to Omaha who weren't even part of that moment," Arkansas outfielder Heston Kjerstad said. "They didn't know what it felt like. It was kind of a little different for the guys who have been there and the guys who (haven't), but at the end of the day, we're just focusing on this season."
Auburn's presence in Omaha is more surprising. The Tigers upset No. 3 national seed Georgia Tech in a regional and No. 14 seed North Carolina in a super regional to clinch their first CWS appearance since 1997.
"We're just a gritty group of guys," Auburn shortstop Will Holland said. "We don't stop."