NEW YORK — Arizona State made it easy for the NCAA selection committee.
The Sun Devils (47-8) overcame a sudden coaching change before the season, won the Pac-10 title and were chosen Monday as the top seed for the 64-team Division I college baseball tournament.
“They really didn’t make very many mistakes throughout the course of the season and down the stretch,” committee chairman Tim Weiser said. “I think they, for the most part, from beginning to end have been a team that people have recognized and looked at as kind of separate from a lot of other teams.”
The other national seeds, in order, are Texas (46-11), Florida (42-15), Coastal Carolina (51-7), Virginia (47-11), UCLA (43-13), Louisville (48-12) and Georgia Tech (45-13).
The 16 regional winners move on to the best-of-three super regionals, with those winners advancing to the College World Series, which begins June 19 in Omaha. It will be the last one played at Rosenblatt Stadium, the home of college baseball’s premier event since 1950. The eight-team championship will move to a new ballpark in downtown Omaha next season.
Arizona State has had an outstanding season under interim coach Tim Esmay, who replaced Pat Murphy after he abruptly resigned in November after 15 years. The Sun Devils will host one of 16 four-team, double-elimination regionals that begin Friday. Arizona State opens against Horizon League champion Milwaukee (33-24).
It’s the first time Arizona State has been the No. 1 overall seed, a spot that hasn’t exactly panned out for teams of late. The only top national seed to win the College World Series since the field was expanded in 1999 to 64 teams was Miami in that same year.
Defending national champion LSU will play UC Ir-vine in the first round of the Los Angeles regional.
Florida International’s Garrett Wittels will carry a 54-game hitting streak into the Coral Gables, Fla., regional and an opening-round matchup against Texas A&M. Wittels is four games shy of matching Robin Ventura’s Division I record of 58 consecutive games with at least one hit, set in 1987 for Oklahoma State.
NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 seeds
A list of No. 1 overall seeds since the NCAA expanded the tournament field to 64 baseball teams in 1999, with eventual College World Series winners in parentheses:
2010 — Arizona State
2009 — Texas (LSU)
2008 — Miami (Fresno State)
2007 — Vanderbilt (Oregon State)
2006 — Clemson (Oregon State)
2005 — Tulane (Texas)
2004 — Texas (Cal State Fullerton)
2003 — Florida State (Rice)
2002 — Florida State (Texas)
2001 — Cal State Fullerton (Miami)
2000 — South Carolina (LSU)
1999 — Miami (Miami)
