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Exclusive NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Super Regionals Begin Friday
Millions Watch ESPN's Regional Coverage
ESPN's exclusive coverage of the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship - featuring every matchup for the second consecutive season - will continue with the Super Regionals Friday, June 6, to Monday, June 9.
ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will combine to televise every game of the eight best-of-three Super Regionals (up to 24 games). Each Super Regional winner will advance to the College World Series. For the 12th straight year, ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to televise the entire College World Series (up to 17 games), including the best-of-three College World Series Finals.
Highlights of the Regional round action:
· The state of Texas, which only had four teams in the entire 64-team field last season, will be represented by four teams in the Super Regionals. This will be the fourth time a state has had four teams among the final 16 (California in 2008 and 2000, and Texas in 2003). At least two of those squads reached the College World Series in the three previous instances.
· Five teams seeded third or lower won their Regional, a first since the field expanded to 64 teams.
· College of Charleston is only the fourth four seed to reach the Super Regionals. Stony Brook in 2012 and Fresno State in 2008 advanced to the College World Series with Fresno State winning the national title. Missouri in 2006 lost in the Super Regionals.
· Three seeds Pepperdine, Stanford, UC Irvine and Kennesaw State advanced. Kennesaw State is the first school since Kansas in 1993 to win a Regional in its first NCAA Tournament appearance.
· Nine of the 16 No. 1 seeds were eliminated in the Regionals, including five of the eight national seeds. Both are tied for the most such regional upsets in the 16 years since the field expanded to 64 teams.
· Four of the five Big 12 Conference teams, and both of the American Athletic Conference squads, advanced to the Super Regionals.
Millions Watch ESPN's Regional Coverage
ESPN's second consecutive year of covering every NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Regional matchup from all 16 sites - 105 games across ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3 from May 30 to June 2 - generated millions of viewers.
ESPN2 and ESPNU's combined 20 game telecasts reached 13,129,000 viewers, marking a 2 percent increase over last season (vs. 12,816,000). ESPN3 and WatchESPN also generated significant audiences throughout the four days with fans watching 124,500,000 minutes of Regional action for a 34 percent increase over last season.
ESPN3's audience growth for exclusive games - marked by a 40 percent increase in viewers - is highlighted by its most-viewed NCAA baseball game ever. The network's coverage of LSU vs. Houston on Monday, June 2, reached 156,000 viewers that watched 12,800,000 minutes of the action.
New Orleans and Louisville are tied for the highest-rated metered markets for ESPN2 and ESPNU's Regional telecasts followed by Birmingham and Portland, which were tied for the third highest rated, Austin and Oklahoma City. Seven markets were tied for the seventh highest: Greenville, Nashville, Richmond, Houston, Kanas City, Raleigh-Durham and Atlanta.
ESPN Super Regionals Schedule
Schedule subject to change
Game times and network designations are subject to change based on number of games.
Date Time (ET) Matchup / Commentators Game Networks
Fri, June 6 1 p.m. Stanford vs. Vanderbilt (Nashville, Tenn.)
Dave Neal, Kyle Peterson, Chris Burke & Jaymee Sire 1 ESPN2
4 p.m. Houston vs. Texas (Austin, Texas)
Dari Nowkhah, Danny Kanell & Kaylee Hartung 1 ESPN2
6:30 p.m. Kennesaw State vs. Louisville (Louisville, Ky.)
Carter Blackburn & Alex Cora 1 ESPNU
9:30 p.m. UC Irvine vs. Oklahoma State (Stillwater, Okla.)
Clay Matvick & Eduardo Perez 1 ESPNU
Sat, June 7 Noon Maryland vs. Virginia (Charlottesville, Va.)
Mike Patrick & Doug Glanville 1 ESPN2
1 p.m. College of Charleston vs. Texas Tech (Lubbock, Texas)
Joe Davis & Jay Walker 1 ESPNU
2 p.m. Houston vs. Texas (Austin, Texas)
Dari Nowkhah, Danny Kanell & Kaylee Hartung 2 ESPN
3 p.m. Stanford vs. Vanderbilt (Nashville, Tenn.)
Dave Neal, Kyle Peterson, Chris Burke & Jaymee Sire 2 ESPN2
4 p.m. Pepperdine vs. TCU (Fort Worth, Texas)
Adam Amin & Keith Moreland 1 ESPNU
7 p.m. Kennesaw State vs. Louisville (Louisville, Ky.)
Carter Blackburn & Alex Cora 2 ESPNU
8 p.m. Ole Miss vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (Lafayette, La.)
Tom Hart & Ben McDonald 1 ESPN2
10 p.m. UC Irvine vs. Oklahoma State (Stillwater, Okla.)
Clay Matvick & Eduardo Perez 2 ESPNU
Sun, June 8 Noon Maryland vs. Virginia (Charlottesville, Va.)
Mike Patrick & Doug Glanville 2 ESPN2
2 p.m. Houston vs. Texas (Austin, Texas)
Dari Nowkhah, Danny Kanell & Kaylee Hartung 3 * ESPN
3 p.m. Stanford vs. Vanderbilt (Nashville, Tenn.)
Dave Neal, Kyle Peterson, Chris Burke & Jaymee Sire 3 * ESPN2
3 p.m. College of Charleston vs. Texas Tech (Lubbock, Texas)
Joe Davis & Jay Walker 2 ESPNU
6 p.m. Kennesaw State vs. Louisville (Louisville, Ky.)
Carter Blackburn & Alex Cora 3 * ESPN2
6 p.m. Pepperdine vs. TCU (Fort Worth, Texas)
Adam Amin & Keith Moreland 2 ESPNU
9 p.m. Ole Miss vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (Lafayette, La.)
Tom Hart & Ben McDonald 2 ESPN2
9 p.m. UC Irvine vs. Oklahoma State (Stillwater, Okla.)
Clay Matvick & Eduardo Perez 3 * ESPNU
Mon, June 9 1 p.m. College of Charleston vs. Texas Tech (Lubbock, Texas)
Joe Davis & Jay Walker 3 * ESPN2
4 p.m. Maryland vs. Virginia (Charlottesville, Va.)
Mike Patrick & Doug Glanville 3 * ESPN2
7 p.m. Ole Miss vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (Lafayette, La.)
Tom Hart & Ben McDonald 3 * ESPN2
7 p.m. Pepperdine vs. TCU (Fort Worth, Texas)
Adam Amin & Keith Moreland 3 * ESPNU
* If necessary
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