Michigan baseball, Central Michigan learn opponents, sites for NCAA baseball tournament

The road to the College World Series is set for both Michigan baseball and Central Michigan baseball.

Michigan is in the Louisville regional and will open the NCAA baseball tournament on Friday against Oregon. The Cardinals, the No. 12 seed in the 64-team field, are the hosts and will take on Southeast Missouri State.

Central Michigan will open the tournament in the Gainesville regional and play the host, No. 13 seed Florida, on Friday. The other side of that regional is Liberty and Oklahoma.

Each four-team regional is a double-elimination format. Those 16 winners advance to a best-of-three series for a trip to the College World Series on the line.

The Louisville regional winner advances to the Super Regionals against the College State regional winner, which features No. 5 seed Texas A&M, Oral Roberts, Louisiana and TCU. The Gainesville regional winner will face the Blacksburg regional champ, to be settled between Virginia Tech, Wright State, Columbia and Gonzaga.

Game times and networks are to be announced, though every game can be seen on the ESPN-plus app.

U-M (32-26) earned the Big Ten’s automatic bid into the NCAA tournament by winning the conference tournament on Sunday with a 10-4 win over Rutgers in Omaha, Nebraska.

The Wolverines feature an offense that was top-three in the Big Ten in scoring and slugging percentage. Junior outfielder and leadoff hitter Clark Elliott was not only the an All-Big Ten first team selection, but was the Big Ten tournament Most Outstanding Player. However, U-M's pitching has been vulnerable this season, second-to-last in the conference in ERA and batting average against.

CMU (42-17) earned the Mid-American Conference’s big by claiming the MAC crown with an 11-7 win over Ball State on Sunday in Muncie, Indiana.

The Chippewas had three hitters and a pitcher named to the All-MAC first team: leadoff man Mario Camilletti, second-place hitter Justin Simpson, right fielder Jakob Marsee and right-hander Andrew Taylor. CMU was No. 1 on the conference in batting average and runs scored, and No. 2 in the MAC in ERA and batting average against.

The College World Series will culminate with eight teams meeting in Omaha on June 17. The finals will begin June 25.

Michigan made a surprising run to the College World Series final in 2019, falling in the third and decisive game to Vanderbilt. CMU has never made it to the College World Series.

Last year, U-M and Central Michigan were in the South Bend regional, won by host Notre Dame.

Contact Kirkland Crawford: kcrawford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @HiKirkHere.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan, CMU know where roads to College World Series begin