Determined Eagles Shift Focus To Tuscaloosa

An unmistakable tension cast a shadow over the Harrington Athletics Village on Sunday afternoon. Time ticked away, but every minute drew Boston College closer to answering the certain argument about the Eagles' ability to host a regional in the upcoming NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. Their emotions dotted and crossed every letter, but they knew the tournament's selection committee held the determination to swing the final scythe of an answer.

Time didn't change its speed, but an evening that felt like forever instead turned surreal as sunset brought the committee's final answer. The sun had set over the horizon, and with it went dreams of the first Northeast regional since 2010 and the first on-campus regional in New England since 1991. The alphabetical list rattled off its names, and after Auburn and Baton Rouge, a jump to Charlottesville meant Boston was formally and officially omitted.

Immediate disappointment rang through the spheres of BC's social media world, and sadness transformed to anger within those first few minutes. Within the Pete Frates Center, however, the Eagles themselves held a determination that didn't quit when the NCAA's midday selection show announced their destination as Tuscaloosa, Alabama as the No. 2 seed in a regional hosted by the Crimson Tide's legendary facade.

"Our expectations were to have a chance to host," said head coach Mike Gambino after Monday's announcements. "We thought we could go to Omaha with the home field [advantage], and we were one win away. It's what we want here, and the change was our ability to host [this year], which is still on our list of goals. Unfortunately, we didn't get that this year, but I think what we believe is that we can build a Northeast program, an ACC program that in the process can start winning this year."

BC's regular season locked the Eagles into the NCAA Tournament long before the two-day announcement of sites and matchups, but the team hoped its sixth-place finish and group runner-up status from last week's ACC Tournament would launch it into hosting status. A hard-fought loss to Clemson was the last remaining shred of evidence that the team was good enough, but the committee opted for eight sites at SEC locations.

The ACC is usually recognized as widely-regarded as an equal to the SEC atop the college baseball power rankings, but this year's bracket offered four host sites to the ACC while adding four sites from other conferences - the same number as last year but with the caveat of a much more unbalanced setup after the 2021 regionals featured two Big 12 locations, two Pac-12 spots, one Big Ten school in Maryland, and three non-Power Five sites.

Boston thought it had a good shot to host in 2023, but the Eagles instead slipped to what amounted to the No. 17 national ranking after the Crimson Tide defeated Kentucky and Alabama in the double-elimination format. Their loss to top-seeded Florida was an 11-inning grind, and despite dropping a later game to Vanderbilt in the elimination bracket, it was a deeper run than South Carolina and Kentucky, which were also listed as hosts, while simultaneously earning the head-to-head win over the aforementioned Tigers.

"I think all athletes have that kind of factor where you want to be the best," said catcher Peter Burns, "and if you're not upset about stuff like [not hosting], then you're just not competitive. But it wasn't like we were angry or anything. We've always been saying that we have a chip on our shoulder the whole year, and we're excited to go to Alabama."

Monday offered the first glimpse at how BC moved forward after its omission as host site, but the Eagles took the field for their first practice as an NCAA tournament team without any signs of the drama swirling around the facility. The regional itself is one of the more intriguing groupings, and the littering of strong baseball competition leaves Tuscaloosa as a wide-open path to Omaha for any of the four teams.

The bracket itself is double elimination, but Friday starts with second-seeded BC playing Troy, which is one of four Sun Belt Conference teams in the tournament. The Trojans finished third in the conference's regular season behind Coastal Carolina, a site host as a national seed and the regular season champion, and Southern Mississippi, one of last year's site hosts as a top-16 team, but were upset by sixth-seeded Appalachian State after losing to Southern Miss. Their finish aside, the SBC posted the most bids out of any non-Power Five league and sent more teams to the tournament than the three-bid Big Ten.

The winner and loser of this matchup will face either top-seeded Alabama or fourth-seeded Nicholls, which won the Southland regular season championship before going undefeated through the league tournament, and while the Tide have the home field advantage, the Colonels are a month removed from defeating top-ranked LSU at Alex Box Stadium.

"This is a long time coming," said infielder Vince Cimini. "We've all been very excited to find out where we're going to end up, and I think from the beginning of the year, we knew we could make a special run at this thing. [The selection] is a recognition of a lot of hard work, and we honestly had no idea [where we would go]. Anywhere we go, we'll make it a good run. To be a top seed, it would have been great to host, but I think we have just as good of an opportunity as a two-seed."

The regional winner will draw the winner of the Winston-Salem Regional hosted by No. 1 overall seed Wake Forest, but there's a chance the winner of the Tuscaloosa Regional could still host the Super Regional round if the Demon Deacons fail to advance out of home field. That bracket is particularly difficult with second-seeded Maryland winning the Big Ten, but the Terrapins first have to advance through third-seeded Northeastern, a local Northeast team also with something to prove. Fourth-seeded George Mason rounds out the round.

Three other New England teams are in the national field, but both have to advance through tough brackets teams to reach Super Regionals: Maine, the America East champion, is the No. 4 seed in Coral Gables against Miami, and Connecticut, the long-considered No. 2 seed opposite the Eagles' hypothetical regional, is in Gainesville as the No. 2 seed in Florida's regional. Northeast Conference champion Central Connecticut State rounds out the field as the No. 4 seed at South Carolina's Columbia Regional.

As for the ACC, its eight seeds are second only to the SEC's 10 slots and two more than the Big 12's sixth seeds. Half of those bids are hosts, including Wake Forest as the No. 1 overall national seed, and Miami's path as the No. 9 team is opposite No. 8 Stanford in the longest distance between national seeds paired with one another. Conference champion Clemson is the No. 4 overall seed and hosts Tennessee, Charlotte and Lipscomb, while Virginia host East Carolina, Oklahoma and Army in a particularly-tough regional as the No. 7 overall seed.

Beyond BC, Duke earned the league's other No. 2 seed in a Carolina-based regional hosted by Coastal Carolina, and the Blue Devils' first round matchup against UNC-Wilmington features the Colonial Athletic Association's champion, while third-seeded NC State plays Campbell at South Carolina's regional.

First round matchups begin on Friday with BC playing Troy at 3 p.m. ET, followed by Alabama's game against Nicholls. All games can be seen via coverage on ESPN's online streaming platform.

Determined Eagles Shift Focus To Tuscaloosa

Players Mentioned

Peter Burns

Vince Cimini

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