2012 NCAA Baseball Tournament Bracket
Valparaiso, the 2012 Horizon League Regular Season and Tournament Champion, learned they would be staying close to home for their NCAA Tournament Regional as the Crusaders will play in the Gary, Ind., Regional.
The Crusaders are a No. 4 seed and will face No. 1 seed Purdue on Friday. Game time is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET. Also in the Gary Regional are No. 2 seed Kentucky and No. 3 seed Kent State. Friday's winners and losers play Saturday at 4 and 8 p.m. ET.
The Regional will be played at the U.S. Steel Yard, home of the Gary SouthShore Railcats, an independent professional team that is a member of the American Association. The 2010 Horizon League Tournament was played at the U.S. Steel Yard.
The Crusaders (35-23) went 3-1 in last week’s Horizon League Tournament. After falling to host UIC, 4-3, on Saturday afternoon, Valparaiso turned around and defeated the Flames 14-5 on Sunday to capture its first Horizon League Tournament title since joining the league in 2008. This will be Valpo’s first NCAA Division I Tournament berth since 1968.
Valparaiso enters the NCAA Tournament having won 27 of its last 32 games.
The Horizon League will be looking for its first win in the tournament since 2008 when UIC defeated Dallas Baptist 9-5. Last year’s League representative, Wright State was in the College Station Regional where the Raiders fell to Teas A&M and Arizona.
