The 2012 NCAA Division I baseball tournament began on Friday, June 1, 2012, as part of the 2012 NCAA Division I baseball season. The 64 team double elimination tournament concluded with the 2012 College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, starting on June 15 and ending on June 25.
The 64 NCAA Division I college baseball teams were selected out of an eligible 297 teams. Thirty teams were awarded an automatic bid as champions of their conferences, and 34 teams were selected at-large by the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee.
Bids
Automatic bids
Conference champions from 30 Division I conferences earned automatic bids to regionals. The remaining 34 spots were awarded to schools as at-large invitees.
School Conference Record (Conf) Berth Last NCAA appearance Stony Brook America East 46–11 (21–3) Won Tournament 2010 ACC 36–24 (12–18) Won Tournament 2011 Atlantic Sun 39–22 (17–10) Won Tournament 2011 Atlantic 10 31–28 (17–7) Won Tournament First appearance Missouri Big 12 32–26 (10–14) Won Tournament 2009 St. John's Big East 37–21 (18–9) Won Tournament 2011 Big South 41–17 (18–5) Won Tournament 2011 Purdue Big Ten 44–12 (17–7) Won Tournament 1987 Big West 35–19 (17–7) Won Regular season 2011 Colonial 38–21 (24–6) Won Tournament 2008 Conference USA 32–28 (9–15) Won Tournament 1991 Horizon 35–23 (22–8) Won Tournament 1968 Ivy League 31–15 (14–6) Won Tournament 1977 Metro Atlantic 33–25 (18–6) Won Tournament 2011 Kent State Mid-American 41–17 (24–3) Won Tournament 2011 Bethune-Cookman Mid-Eastern 34–25 (18–5) Won Tournament 2011 Missouri Valley 26–28 (6–14) Won Tournament 2011 Mountain West 36–22 (18–6) Won Tournament 2011 Northeast 25–30 (19–13) Won Tournament 2011 Ohio Valley 38–22 (19–7) Won Tournament 2011 UCLA Pac-12 42–14 (20–10) Won Regular season 2011 Patriot 41–13 (18–2) Won Tournament 2009 Mississippi State Southeastern 39–22 (16–14) Won Tournament 2011 Southern 39–21 (19–11) Won Tournament First appearance Southland 36–23 (19–14) Won Tournament 2006 Southwestern Athletic 33–16 (15–8) Won Tournament 2007 Summit 37–23 (17–6) Won Tournament 2011 Sun Belt 31–28 (15–15) Won Tournament 2000 West Coast 34–21 (16–8) Won Regular season 2008 Western Athletic 30–26 (8–10) Won Tournament 2011
By conference Conference Total Schools SEC8 Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Vanderbilt ACC7 Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami (Fla.), North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia Pac-12 5 Arizona, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA Big 124 Baylor, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas A&M Conference USA4 UAB, East Carolina, Rice, UCF Missouri Valley3 Creighton, Indiana State, Missouri State Southern 3 Appalachian State, College of Charleston, Samford Big East2 Louisville, St. John's Big Ten2 Michigan State, Purdue Mountain West2 New Mexico, TCU Southland 2 Sam Houston State, Texas-Arlington West Coast2 Pepperdine, San Diego WAC2 Fresno State, New Mexico State America East1 Stony Brook Atlantic Sun1 Belmont Atlantic 101 Dayton Big South1 Coastal Carolina Big West1 Cal St. Fullerton Colonial1 UNC Wilmington Horizon1 Valparaiso Independent1 Dallas Baptist Ivy1 Cornell MAAC1 Manhattan Mid-American1 Kent State MEAC1 Bethune-Cookman NEC1 Sacred Heart Ohio Valley1 Austin Peay State Patriot 1 Army SWAC 1 Prairie View Summit1 Oral Roberts Sun Belt1 Louisiana-Monroe
National seeds These eight teams would automatically host a Super Regional had they advanced to that round. Only North Carolina failed to advance out of its regional.
Bold indicates CWS participant.
Florida UCLA Florida State Baylor Oregon North Carolina LSU South Carolina
Regionals and Super Regionals Bold indicates winner. * indicates extra innings.
Gainesville Super Regional
Columbia Super Regional
Los Angeles Super Regional
Baton Rouge Super Regional
Tucson Super Regional
Tallahassee Super Regional
Eugene Super Regional †Purdue hosted at the U.S. Steel Yard in Gary, Indiana, due to the construction delays of the Boilermaker's new stadium, Alexander Field.
Waco Super Regional
College World Series
Participants School Conference Record (conference) Head coach Previous CWS Appearances Best CWS Finish CWS recordNot including this year Arizona Pac-12 43–17 (20–10) Andy Lopez 15(last: 2004) 1st(1976, 1980, 1986) 33–27 Arkansas SEC 44–20 (16–14) Dave Van Horn 6(last: 2009) 2nd(1979) 9–12 Florida SEC 47−18 (18−12) Kevin O'Sullivan 7(last: 2011) 2nd(2005, 2011) 11–15 Florida State ACC 48–15 (24–6) Mike Martin 20(last: 2010) 2nd(1970, 1986, 1999) 26–40 Kent State MAC 46–18 (24–3) Scott Stricklin 0(last: none) none 0–0 South Carolina SEC 45–17 (18–11) Ray Tanner 10(last: 2011) 1st(2010, 2011) 28–17 Stony Brook America East 52–13 (21–3) Matt Senk 0(last: none) none 0–0 UCLA Pac-12 47–14 (20–10) John Savage 3(last: 2010) 2nd(2010) 3–7
Bracket Seeds listed below indicate national seeds only.
Championship Series
Game 1
Game 2
All-Tournament Team The following players were members of the College World Series All-Tournament Team. Position Player School P Michael Roth Konner Wade Arizona C Riley Moore Arizona 1B Christian Walker 2B Devon Travis Florida State 3B Sherman Johnson Florida State SS Alex Mejia Arizona OF Evan Marzilli Joey Rickard Arizona Rob Refsnyder (MOP) Arizona DH Bobby Brown Arizona
Final standings Seeds listed below indicate national seeds only Place School Record 1st Arizona 10–0 2nd #8 South Carolina 9–3 3rd Arkansas 7–3 #3 Florida State 7–2 5th Kent State 6–3 #2 UCLA 6–2 7th #1 Florida 5–2 Stony Brook 6–4 9th #4 Baylor 5–3 #7 LSU 4–2 NC State 4–3 Oklahoma 4–3 #5 Oregon 4–2 Stanford 3–2 St. John's 3–2 Texas Christian 4–3 17th Appalachian State 2–2 Austin Peay 2–2 Central Florida 2–2 Clemson 2–2 Creighton 2–2 Dallas Baptist 2–2 Georgia Tech 2–2 Kentucky 2–2 Louisville 2–2 Mississippi 2–2 #6 North Carolina 2–2 Oregon State 2–2 Pepperdine 2–2 Samford 2–2 Sam Houston State 2–2 Vanderbilt 2–2 33rd Cal State Fullerton 1–2 Coastal Carolina 1–2 College of Charleston 1–2 East Carolina 1–2 Fresno State 1–2 Louisiana Monroe 1–2 Mississippi State 1–2 Missouri 1–2 Missouri State 1–2 New Mexico 1–2 Oral Roberts 1–2 Purdue 1–2 Rice 1–2 Texas A&M 1–2 UNC Wilmington 1–2 Virginia 1–2 49th Army 0–2 Belmont 0–2 Bethune-Cookman 0–2 Cornell 0–2 Dayton 0–2 Indiana State 0–2 Manhattan 0–2 Miami 0–2 Michigan State 0–2 New Mexico State 0–2 Prairie View 0–2 Sacred Heart 0–2 San Diego 0–2 UAB 0–2 UT-Arlington 0–2 Valparaiso 0–2
# denotes national seed
Record by conference Conference# of BidsRecordWin %RFSRWSNSCSNCPac-12 5 25–8 5 4 2 1 1 1 Southeastern 8 32–18 7 4 3 2 1 Atlantic Coast 7 18–15 5 2 1 1 MAC 1 6–3 1 1 1 America East 1 6–4 1 1 1 Big 12 4 11–10 2 2 Big East 2 5–4 2 1 Mountain West 2 5–5 1 1 Southern 3 5–6 2 Conference USA 4 4–8 1 Missouri Valley 3 3–6 1 Southland 2 2–4 1 West Coast 2 2–4 1 Big Ten 2 1–4 Western Athletic 2 1–4 9–32
The columns RF, SR, WS, NS, CS, and NC respectively stand for the Regional Finals, Super Regionals, College World Series, National Semifinals, Championship Series, and National Champion.
Tournament notes
Round 1 Florida's Jonathon Crawford threw a no-hitter against Bethune-Cookman, the seventh no-hitter in NCAA tournament history and the first since 1991. Kent State defeated Kentucky in 21 innings, the second longest game in NCAA tournament history. Baylor lost to Oral Roberts, the first national seed to lose their round one game since Florida State and Georgia both did so in 2008. Both Georgia and Florida State went on to make the College World Series, with Georgia losing in the championship series.
Round 2 Miami (FL) became the first #1 seed to go 0–2 in Regional play since San Diego in 2007.
Regional Finals Arizona became the first team ever to score at least 15 runs in every Regional game. They were the first team since Arkansas in 2009 to score 10 or more runs in every Regional game. Stony Brook became the third #4 seed ever to win a Regional, joining Missouri in 2006 and Fresno State in 2008.
Super Regionals Kent State, Oregon, St. John's, and Stony Brook all appeared in the Super Regionals for the first time. LSU lost a Super Regional in Baton Rouge for the first time (had won previous five). Florida State scored 35 runs in two games against Stanford, tied with LSU (2008) for the most runs in a Super Regional and the most in a 2-game Super Regional (previous record was 26).
College World Series
Stony Brook was the first College World Series participant from the America East Conference and is the first from New York since St. John's in 1980. Kent State was the first MAC team to make the world series since 1976. No school from Texas made the College World Series for the first time since 2001. This is the 20th consecutive year that the SEC has fielded at least one team in the College World Series. This is the 5th consecutive year that the SEC has fielded at least one team in the Championship Series. South Carolina becomes the first team since the '96, '97, '98 LSU Tigers to return to Omaha with a chance to defend their back-to-back Championships. Southern California is the only program in CWS history to win three consecutive CWS titles, or more, (1970–1974),(5). South Carolina entered the World Series riding two significant postseason winning streaks. Longest College World Series winning streak (10 CWS games) in NCAA history. Longest post-season winning streak (20 games) in NCAA history. (This streak includes, Regional, Super Regional and College World Series games, and also consists of six one run wins and four games that required extra innings.) Florida is making a third consecutive appearance in the College World Series for the first time in team history. Fellow 2012 CWS participants Florida State ('94,'95,'96 & '98,99,'00), Arizona ('58,'59,'60), Oregon State (05,06,07) and South Carolina ('02,'03,'04 & '10,'11,'12) have all made three consecutive appearances. The Game 4 match-up between No. 1 seed Florida and No. 8 seed South Carolina marks the first opening-round rematch of the previous season's Championship Game since the 1960 series when Arizona faced, and defeated, the 1959 Champions from Oklahoma State. This is the first appearance by Kent State or Stony Brook in the College World Series. Stony Brook is the second team since 1999 to be seeded fourth in a regional and advance to the College World Series (Fresno State won 2008 CWS). Arizona pitcher Konner Wade became the first pitcher to throw a complete-game shutout without a walk in a College World Series game since 1972. For the first time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1999, neither team that started 2–0 in the CWS was a national seed. (Arizona and Arkansas) As a result of the 20 June 2012 Game 10 rain delay, South Carolina will become the first team, since Georgia did so in 1987, to play all or part of two games on the same calendar day at the CWS when they face Arkansas in the night game (Game 12) on the 21st. The last team to play two full games, in the College World Series, on the same day was Michigan on 2 June 1980. With the 2–0 win over Arkansas in game 12, South Carolina becomes the first team since 1952 (Holy Cross)(60 years) to win two games in the College World Series on the same day.
CWS records tied or broken With the Game Four win over No. 1 seed Florida, the No. 8 seed South Carolina Gamecocks extend their NCAA record-setting postseason win streak to 21 consecutive games and their College World Series record-setting consecutive win streak to 11. (Both streaks came to an end in game Eight.) With the 4–1 win over Kent State in game 10, South Carolina's Michael Roth becomes the College World Series' all-time leader in Most Innings Pitched, with 53 2/3rd over three years. Roth also tied the record for Most CWS Starts with his 7th, and he tied the record for most CWS Wins all-time with a 4–0 CWS record. Additionally, Roth ties the record with Most Years With Wins (3).