Gonzaga baseball earns at-large berth to NCAA tournament

The Gonzaga University baseball team earned its first at-large berth to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship on Monday, being selected to play in the Fort Worth Regional Friday through Sunday.

Gonzaga (35-19) is the No. 3 seed in the regional to be played at TCU and will play No. 2-seed Arizona State (34-21) in opening game at noon (Pacific) on Friday. Top-seeded TCU (42-15) will take on Oral Roberts (38-19) following the GU-ASU game at 4:30.

The trip to Fort Worth is also a return for Gonzaga this season as the Zags went 1-2 in a three-game series against TCU on March 4-6.

“Today is a very exciting day for Gonzaga baseball,” said Gonzaga coach Mark Machtolf. “We’re very excited for our guys and for the entire athletic department.”

Gonzaga (35-19 overall) has 23 road wins, the second-most in the nation. The Bulldogs earned a share of the West Coast Conference regular season title with an 18-9 conference mark.

Last weekend, Gonzaga won two games at the WCC Championship and lost in the title game. This will be the second time for the Zags in the NCAA Tournament during its current Super Regional format. The first came in 2009 when the Zags clinched the WCC’s automatic qualifier with two wins over Loyola Marymount in the WCC Series.

Ticket information will be released as soon as it is available.