Louisville baseball (35-21, 15-15 ACC) is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2022.
The Cardinals, who earned 12 Quad 1 wins this season, will be the 2-seed in the Nashville Regional, hosted by #1 overall seed Vanderbilt (42-16).
This marks yet another postseason chapter in the baseball rivalry between the Cardinals and Commodores. Louisville advanced to the 2013 College World Series by beating Vanderbilt at Hawkins Field, marking the second CWS appearance in program history for U of L at the time. Vanderbilt beat Louisville twice in the 2019 College World Series to eliminate the Cardinals, as the Commodores would eventually go on to win the national championship that season.
It could also lead to a potential rematch from earlier this season, one that saw Louisville beat Vanderbilt 5-4 at Jim Patterson Stadium on May 6th. Vanderbilt has since won the SEC Tournament, beating Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Ole Miss to win the conference title. Louisville is coming off a 13-11 loss to Pitt in the first round of the ACC Tournament, and have lost eight of their last 12 games coming into the NCAA Tournament.
Vanderbilt and Louisville will be joined by ETSU (41-15) and Wright State (38-19), who won the SoCon and Horizon League tournaments to clinch auto-bids into the NCAA Tournament, respectively.
All four teams will compete in a double-elimination bracket to advance to the Super Regionals, with Vanderbilt playing Wright State, and Louisville playing ETSU first. Louisville plays ETSU at 2 p.m. ET (1 p.m. CT) on Friday, with Vanderbilt v. Wright States set to start at 6 p.m. ET (5 p.m. CT).
