Sooners bound for Charlottesville regional

NORMAN – Oklahoma’s baseball team received an at-large bid to the 2023 NCAA Baseball Championship, and will begin postseason play at the Charlottesville Regional in Virginia. The 64-team bracket was revealed Monday on ESPN2.

Oklahoma , the regional No. 3 seed, will play regional No. 2 seed East Carolina at 6 p.m. CT Friday on ESPN2. Regional host and No. 7 national seed Virginia will face Army on Friday. OU has never played East Carolina in baseball, and is 5-3 all-time against Virginia and 1-0 against Army.

The winner of the Charlottesville Regional will face the winner of the Conway Regional, which features No. 10 national seed Coastal Carolina, Duke, UNC Wilmington and Rider.

Oklahoma is making its 40th appearance in an NCAA Regional, and second straight. The Sooners are 94-80 all-time in NCAA tournament games, have appeared in 11 College World Series (including 2022) and won national championships in 1951 and 1994.

The Sooners are ranked No. 40 in the final NCAA RPI, boast an overall strength of schedule that is ranked 15th in the nation, and a non-conference strength of schedule that is ranked 18th. OU also boasts six wins against RPI top-25 teams (second-most in the Big 12) and 12 top-50 wins (tied for second-most in the Big 12).

Oklahoma, which has 15 wins this season against teams in the NCAA Tournament field, has won 12 of its last 19 contests entering the postseason and is 10-2 following a loss since March 31. The Sooners have won 13 road games and three neutral-site games, and have 10 victories over teams that won a conference regular season title. Due to various illness and injuries, OU has only played 26 of its 57 games with every position player on the roster fully available for action – the first 12 games of the season and the last 14 contests.

This is the fifth time since 2010 that Oklahoma will play postseason games in the state of Virginia. The Sooners won the 2010 Charlottesville Super Regional, the 2012 Charlottesville Regional, the 2013 Blacksburg Regional and the 2022 Blacksburg Super Regional.