Jackson Free Press

After being cancelled in 2020, the NCAA College Baseball Tournament returns for 2021. The field features three teams from our state as Mississippi State University, University of Mississippi and the University of Southern Mississippi each made a regional.

Mississippi State is the seventh overall national seed and is guaranteed to host a Super Regional if the Bulldogs advance. MSU finished the regular season 40-15 but is coming into the regional after bombing in the SEC Tournament.

MSU ended up being blown out by the University of Florida in their first game of the SEC Tournament in a 13-1 loss. The Bulldogs bowed out of the tournament after being spanked by the University of Tennessee 12-2.

The strong regular season helped MSU, and the SEC Tournament dud didn’t hurt the Bulldogs. MSU will host the four-team regional with a double-elimination format to decide the winner.

MSU hosts second seed Virginia Commonwealth University, Campbell University is the third seed and Samford University is the fourth seed. MSU opens the tournament against Samford University on Friday, June 4, at 2 p.m.

VCU will face Campbell on the same day at 7 p.m. The loser of game one will face the loser of game two in an elimination game on Saturday, June 5, at 2 p. m. The winner of game one will then face the winner of game two at 7 p.m. the same day.

Next the winner of the game from the loser’s bracket will face the loser of the winner’s bracket on Sunday, June 6, at 2 p.m. That winner will face the only undefeated team left in the regional.

The regional will play out until each team has but one is eliminated with two losses. The winner of the regional heads to the Super Regional.

Southern Miss heads north to face the Mississippi in the Oxford Regional. The Rebels at 41-19 are the No. 12 national seed and will host second seed USM, third seed Florida State University and fourth seed Southeastern Missouri State University.

The Rebels were ousted from the SEC Tournament by eventual champions and No. 1 overall seed University of Arkansas. UM is coming into the tournament fairly hot after a nice run in the conference tournament.

Southern Miss ended up losing twice to Louisiana Tech University to fail to reach the Conference USA Tournament final. The 37-19 Golden Eagles are just as historically rich in the NCAA Baseball Tournament as the Rebels and Bulldogs.

Southern Miss faces Florida State on Friday, June 4, at 2 p.m. and UM faces Southeastern Missouri State at 7 p.m. The format will follow the same as the Starkville regional.

The two losers will meet up Saturday, June 5, at 11 a.m. in an elimination game with the two winners facing at 5 p.m. The winner of the elimination game will meet the loser of the winner’s bracket game on Sunday, June 6, at 1 p.m.

The last undefeated team will be waiting at 5 p.m. for the winner of the 1 p.m. game. Those two teams will play until there is one team left to reach the Super Regional.

One team not in the 2021 NCAA Tournament is Jackson State University. The Tigers went 24-0 in the Southwestern Conference in the regular season. But in the SWAC Baseball Tournament Championship Game, the Tigers were upset by Southern University 7-6.

It was the first SWAC loss for JSU and cost the Tigers a chance at the NCAA Tournament.

Read more sports coverage at jfp.ms/sports.