Raiders headed to NCAA baseball tournament’s Louisville Regional

The Wright State baseball team is headed to Louisville, Kentucky, for the NCAA Regionals and will take on Ohio State in its opening game on Friday, June 3, at 2 p.m. at Jim Patterson Field at the University of Louisville.

The Raiders (44-15) are making their second straight appearance in the regionals, sixth in Division I and 13th NCAA appearance overall in program history. Wright State is also the #3 seed for the second consecutive year.

Wright State secured a spot in the NCAA baseball tournament by winning the Horizon League tournament.

Wright State and Ohio State are joined by regional No. 1 seed Louisville (47-12) and No. 4 seed Western Michigan (22-32), who will play on Friday at 6. The Raiders are 8-6 all-time against the Cardinals, including a 9-1 Louisville win on March 16, and are 1-0 versus Western Michigan, with the lone meeting being an 8-2 Raider home win on May 9, 2003.

In 2015, Wright State was the runner-up at the Champaign Regional. The Raiders dropped a 13-7 decision to Notre Dame in the opening game before eliminating Ohio 8-3 and Notre Dame 4-0 to advance to the finals. WSU then fell to host Illinois 8-4 in the finals.

In its first Division I regional appearance, Wright State went 1-2 in 1994 in Knoxville, Tennessee, defeating North Carolina State 14-12 before falling to Arizona State 7-4 and North Carolina State 10-6. In 2006 in Corvallis, Oregon, the Raiders dropped a 5-3 decision to eventual national champion Oregon State and lost 5-3 to Oregon. In 2009 in Fort Worth, Texas, the Raiders fell 6-3 to TCU and 6-4 in 11 innings to Texas A&M while in 2011 in College Station, Texas, the Raiders fell 11-0 to Texas A&M and 13-0 to Arizona.

Ohio State (43-18-1) won four games in two days to claim the Big Ten Tournament title, winning over Michigan and then Michigan State twice before rallying from an early 4-0 deficit to defeat Iowa in the title game 8-7. Wright State and the Buckeyes have met 40 times previously, with OSU hosting a 22-17-1 advantage. The two teams, though, have not played each other since Ohio State won 13-4 in Columbus on April 21, 2004.

The two teams have four common opponents in 2016 in Toledo (OSU 2-0-1, Wright State 3-1), Xavier (OSU 1-0, Wright State 2-0), Cincinnati (OSU 1-0, Wright State 2-0) and Eastern Michigan (OSU 1-0, Wright State 2-0).

Ticket information for the regional tournament will be released soon.

The winner of the Louisville Regional will move on to a Super Regional next week against the winner of the Nashville Regional, which consists of Vanderbilt, Washington, UC Santa Barbara and Xavier. The Super Regional is a best two-of-three format with the winner advancing to the eight-team College World Series, scheduled for June 18-29 in Omaha, Nebraska.

2016 NCAA Baseball Louisville Regional Schedule:
Friday, June 3 | (ESPN3)
Game 1: #2 Ohio State vs. #3 Wright State – 2 p.m.
Game 2: #1 Louisville vs. #4 Western Michigan – 6 p.m.

Saturday, June 4 | (ESPN3)
Game 3: Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Loser – Noon
Game 4: Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner – 4 p.m.

Sunday, June 5 | (ESPN3)
Game 5: Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Loser – Noon
Game 6: Game 5 Winner vs. Game 4 Winner – 4 p.m.

Monday, June 6 | (ESPN3) – If necessary
Game 7: Game 6 Loser vs. Game 6 Winner – 4 p.m.