May 30, 2005
Indianapolis, Ind. - Stanford (32-23) will begin the 2005 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship by traveling to a regional hosted by Baylor (Waco, Tex.) this Friday-Monday, June 3-6. The Cardinal is seeded third in the regional and will play No. 2 seed Texas Christian (40-18) in its first postseason game on Friday (2 pm, CT/12 pm, PT). Host Baylor (39-21), the top seed in the regional and the No. 4 national seed, will also open regional play on Friday (7 pm, CT/5 pm, PT) versus fourth-seeded Texas-San Antonio (27-32). For ticket information to the 2005 regional being hosted by Baylor, contact the Stanford Athletics Ticket Office at 1-800-STANFORD.
The regional will continue on Saturday with the losers of Friday's contests playing an elimination game (Game 3) at 2 pm, CT/12 pm, PT. Friday's winners will matchup in a winners' bracket game (Game 4) at 7 pm, CT/5 pm, PT.
The Game 3 winner and Game 4 loser will play an elimination contest (Game 5) on Sunday at 2 pm, CT/12 pm, PT.
The first championship game will pit the Game 4 and Game 5 winners on Sunday at 7 pm, CT/5 pm, PT. A second championship game (Game 7), if necessary, will be played on Monday, June 6 (6 pm, CT/4 pm, PT). The second championship contest would be necessary if the winner of Game 5 defeats the winner of Game 4 in the first championship game.
Stanford has not faced any of the schools in the Waco regional since Stanford game-by-game results have been available dating back to 1959.
The winner of the Waco regional will advance to a super regional versus the winner of a regional being hosted by Clemson (Clemson, S.C.). The Clemson regional features the host Tigers (39-21), along with College of Charleston (47-13), Oral Roberts (40-18) and North Carolina A&T (27-25).
Eight super regionals consisting of 16 regional winners will be held from Friday, June 10 - Monday, May 13. Super regional hosts along with specific dates and times will be announced on the ESPN Bottom Line on Tuesday, June 7 (9 am, PT).
Super regional winners will make up the eight-team field for the 59th College World Series to be held Friday, June 17 - Monday, June 27, at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska.
Stanford will be participating in the NCAA's postseason event for the 12th consecutive season and the 26th time overall but traveling for a regional for the first time since 1995, ending a string of nine consecutive seasons Stanford has hosted a regional.
Stanford was selected as one of 34 at-large teams to the 2005 NCAA Division I Baseball Championships after having earned the Pacific-10 Conference automatic berth in each of the past two seasons by winning back-to-back league titles in 2003 and 2004. Stanford tied for sixth in the conference this season with a 12-12 Pac-10 record. The Cardinal had finished either first or second in the league in 22 of the past 24 campaigns.
Stanford made five consecutive trips to the College World Series from 1999-2003 before the run was snapped with a regional loss to Long Beach State in 2004. All told, Stanford has won two CWS titles (1987, '88) and finished as the national runner-up on three other occasions (2000, '01, '03), while making a total of 15 trips to Omaha. Stanford has an all-time postseason record of 115-56 (.673) and is 63-23 (.733) in 22 regional appearances.
The entire 64-team field, top eight national seeds and site assignments for the 2005 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship were announced live on ESPN during a half-hour television program on Monday. The committee set the tournament bracket through both the super regionals and the first round of the College World Series, and will not reseed the field after play begins.
A total of 30 Division I conferences received an automatic berth to the event, along with the 34 at-large selections.
A complete list of regional hosts (and locations) are as follows: Arizona State (Tempe, Ariz.); Baylor (Waco, Tex.); Cal State Fullerton (Fullerton, Calif.); Clemson (Clemson, South Carolina); Florida (Gainesville, Fla.); Florida State (Tallahassee, Fla.); Georgia Tech (Atlanta, Ga.); Louisiana State (Baton Rouge, La.); Long Beach State (Long Beach, Calif.); Miami (Coral Gables, Fla.); Mississippi (Oxford, Miss.); Nebraska (Lincoln, Neb.); Oregon State (Corvallis, Ore.); Tennessee (Knoxville, Tenn.); Texas (Austin, Tex.); and Tulane (New Orleans, LA). All regional sites are on campus.
Oregon State will host a regional for the first time, while Long Beach State, Mississippi and Tulane are hosting for the second time in school history. This will be the 24th occasion that Florida State has hosted a regional, while Miami and Texas are hosting for the 21st time since the NCAA went to the regional format in 1975. LSU is hosting a regional for the 17th time, while Arizona State (16th), Clemson (10th), Georgia Tech (seventh), Florida (seventh), Cal State Fullerton (fifth), Tennessee (fifth), Nebraska (fourth) and Baylor (third) have hosted in the past as well.
Seven sites (Cal State Fullerton, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisiana State, Miami, Mississippi and Texas) also hosted in 2004. Long Beach State hosted a super regional last year but did not host a regional.
Each regional field features four teams playing a double-elimination tournament scheduled to be conducted from Friday, June 3 - Monday, June 6. The format for the 2005 regionals is modified slightly from previous seasons. Games 1 and 2 will be played on Friday, followed by Games 3, 4 and 5 on Saturday. The first championship game (Game 6) will be contested on Sunday with the second championship contest (Game 7) to be played Monday if necessary. In the past, Games 1-2 were played on the first day, followed by Games 3-5 on day two, and Games 6 and 7 (if necessary) on the third day.
2005 NCAA REGIONAL SCHEDULE (at Waco, TX - hosted by Baylor)
| FRIDAY, JUNE 3 | |
| 2 pm, CT/12 pm, PT (Game 2) | - No. 3 Stanford (32-23) vs. No. 2 Texas Christian (40-18) |
| 7 pm, CT/5 pm, PT (Game 1) | - No. 4 Texas-San Antonio (27-32) vs. No. 1 Baylor (39-21) |
| SATURDAY, JUNE 4 | |
| 2 pm, CT/12 pm, PT (Game 3) | - Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Loser - Elimination Game |
| 7 pm, CT/5 pm, PT (Game 4) | - Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner |
| SUNDAY, JUNE 5 | |
| 2 pm, CT/12 pm, PT (Game 5) | - Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Loser - Elimination Game |
| 7 pm, CT/5 pm, PT (Championship #1, Game 6) | - Game 4 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner |
| MONDAY, JUNE 6 | |
| 6 pm, CT/4 pm, PT (Championship #2, Game 7, if necessary) | - If Game 5 Winner defeats Game 4 Winner in Game 6 |