Tulane makes tourney

• Advocate staff report
• Published: May 27, 2008 - UPDATED: 6:20 a.m.

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After going 36-18-1 during the regular season and 1-2 in the Conference USA tournament at Turchin Stadium, the Tulane baseball team’s postseason chances were in the hands of the NCAA selection committee.

But less than 15 minutes into the selection show, the calm and subdued atmosphere shifted to cheers and high fives as the Green Wave claimed the No. 3 seed at the NCAA Tallahassee (Fla.) regional at Florida State.

“It’s just really good to be back in the NCAA tournament,” Tulane coach Rick Jones said in a university news release. “Last year, missing out for the first time in 10 years, that’s a depressing thing. … Just to be back in is where we need to be and where we are used to being. It’s good to be back.”

Tulane will take on second-seeded Florida (34-22) at noon Friday to open the four-team, double-elimination regional. Host and No. 4 national seed Florida State (48-10) and fourth-seeded Bucknell (29-22-2) play at 6 p.m.

The winner of the Tallahassee regional advances to play the winner of the NCAA Stillwater (Okla.) regional, which features host Oklahoma State, Wichita State, Texas Christian and Western Kentucky.

“They were certainly on our board for a good while, but they were not in the last group of teams that went in,” NCAA selection committee Chairman Larry Templeton said. “We looked at them with their conference play, and we looked at them as another team that went out and scheduled some teams across the country to improve their strength of schedule, and they got rewarded for that.”