Exhibiting the strength of the Pac-10, a record eight of its teams were selected today to participate in the NCAA tournament, including the Arizona Wildcats who finished 33-22 overall.

Arizona returns to postseason action after missing last year’s NCAA tournament. The Wildcats have appeared in the NCAA tournament in six of the last eight seasons, including in 2004 when the school advanced to its first College World Series since 1986, when they won their third national championship.

The Wildcats will play in the Fort Worth Regional as the No. 3 seed. They open against No. 2 seed Baylor on Friday. TCU is the No. 1 seed and host school. The Horned Frogs play No. 4 seed Lamar on Friday.

The other Pac-10 teams are highlighted by Arizona State, which earned the nation’s No. 1 overall seed. UCLA was awarded the No. 6 national seed. Washington State, Stanford, Oregon, California and Oregon State also made the 64-team field.

“I am very excited to continue coaching this team,” UA coach Andy Lopez said in a quote posted by ArizonaWildcats.com. “I have said all year long I truly enjoy coaching this team. They are a fun group to be around and they compete really well.”

“I think our overall strength of schedule, the strength of the league, and the quality of the teams we beat throughout the season is what earned us a seed. You never want to leave it in the hands of a committee to decide, but we’re excited to be in the tournament. Once you’re in, it’s an even playing field for everyone. We’re going to be ready to compete.”

The Wildcats have a 14-11 mark in the NCAA tournament under Lopez, who is in his ninth season at Arizona. All 25 games were played on the road.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 31st, 2010 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: Andy Lopez, UA baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.