UCA Could Give Southland Its First Super Regional Team
Southland Conference
FRISCO, Texas – The Southland Conference finds itself on the verge of history tonight when Central Arkansas plays at Mississippi State in the championship game of the NCAA Starkville Regional.
A win would send the No. 4 seed Bears (42-21) to a Super Regional. That is something no other team has been able to do while a member of the Southland, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2013.
Central Arkansas, which earned the league’s automatic bid in only its third season of Division I postseason eligibility, is the fifth Southland team to advance to a regional final since the NCAA tournament field expanded from 48 to 64 teams in 1999. That is when the tournament went from eight six-team regionals to 16 four-team regionals.
Four of those berths in the regional final, including the Bears’ run in 2013, have come against the Southeastern Conference. Former league member Louisiana-Monroe made the first trip to the regional final in the expanded format in 2000, falling to LSU 5-3. Sam Houston State has reached the regional final twice, falling 21-13 at Ole Miss in 2007 and 5-1 to Arkansas in 2012.
Before Sunday’s 5-2 win by Central Arkansas over Mississippi State, only Lamar had been able to force a second championship game. In 2003, the Cardinals opened with a 3-2 win over Arkansas only to fall 7-3 to Texas. Lamar rebounded to eliminate Arkansas 7-6 to reach the championship round needing two wins over the Longhorns to become the first Southland team to advance to a Super Regional, which pits the winners of two regional sites in a best-of-three series for the right to advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
Lamar beat Texas 6-2 to force the second game, but the Longhorns won the clincher, 6-3, on its way to a Super Regional win at Florida State and berth in the College World Series.
The Southland Conference had three teams come within one game of the CWS prior to 1999. Former member Louisiana Tech played Texas in the 1974 district playoffs at Arlington Stadium. Only 28 teams played in the tournament that year. After opening with a 3-2 win over Texas-Pan American, the Bulldogs beat Texas 5-4 before dropping two games to the Longhorns 8-0 and 12-2.
The Cardinals were the Southland’s only other regional finalist, playing for a berth in the College World Series in both 1984 and 1985. Both times, Lamar was in the Austin Regional and not surprising, against Texas.
In a four-team regional in 1984, Lamar lost its first game to Texas 6-0, but responded with elimination victories against Oklahoma (4-3) and UNLV (10-5) to reach the title game where the Longhorns prevailed 6-5. In a six-team regional in 1985, Lamar had to come out of the loser’s bracket again to reach the final. The Sooners beat Lamar 9-0 in the regional opener, but Lamar responded with elimination wins against LSU (4-3), Houston (10-9) and Oklahoma (7-5) before falling in the regional championship to Texas, 10-2.
The Southland, which has placed at least two teams in a regional 10 times, including each of the last two years when it has had a regional finalist, continues to enhance its baseball profile on a national scale.
Oral Roberts, which joined the Southland Conference last July, has made 24 regional appearances in its history and played in the 1978 College World Series. The Golden Eagles, who made 15 consecutive regional appearances from 1998-2012, won the 2006 Fayetteville Regional before back-to-back losses at Clemson in the Super Regional. ORU is an 11-time regional finalist, including seven times since the format change in 1999 and most recently in 2011.
Among the four teams that will join the Southland next month – Abilene Christian, Houston Baptist, Incarnate Word and New Orleans – only New Orleans has played in the NCAA Division I tournament. The Privateers have played in the tournament 14 times and became the first school in Louisiana to reach the College World Series in 1984, just two years after playing for its first regional championship in 1982. UNO also played Texas for the regional championship in 1989.
Southland’s Regional/District Title Game Appearances
| 1974 |
Louisiana Tech vs. Texas |
Arlington, Texas |
L, 8-0, L, 12-2 |
| 1984 |
Lamar vs. Texas |
Austin, Texas |
L, 6-5 |
| 1985 |
Lamar vs. Texas |
Austin, Texas |
L, 10-2 |
| 2000 |
Louisiana-Monroe vs. LSU |
Baton Rouge, La. |
L, 5-3 |
| 2003 |
Lamar vs. Texas |
Austin, Texas |
W, 6-2; L, 6-3 |
| 2007 |
Sam Houston State vs. Ole Miss |
Oxford, Miss. |
L, 21-13 |
| 2012 |
Sam Houston State vs. Arkansas |
Houston, Texas |
L, 5-1 |
| 2013 |
Central Arkansas vs. Mississippi State |
Starkville, Miss. |
W, 5-2; |