The UCSB baseball team has received a large seat for the NCAA tournament and will open the regional game against the state of Oklahoma in Tucson on Friday.
The gauchos (39-18) were seeded third and Oklahoma State (35-15-1) second in the Tucson Regional with four teams. Host and top seeded Arizona (40-15) plays in the other first round match against No. 4 Grand Canyon (39-19-1).
It is a tournament format with double elimination between the four teams, in which the winner is promoted to a super regional series.
UCSB makes its 12th appearance in the NCAA tournament and its fifth in the past eight seasons.
Runner-up in the Big West, the Gauchos bring an eight-game winning streak to Tucson. Oklahoma State finished fourth in the Big 12 regular season before making it to the conference tournament championship game in Oklahoma City. The Cowboys lost to TCU, 10-7.
Oklahoma State is led by Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who beat .362 with 15 home runs and 66 RBI. He played for the Santa Barbara Foresters last summer.
UCSB and Oklahoma State met at the Regionals in 1990 and the 2016 College World Series.
The Gauchos enter the Regionalliga with a hot streak after winning eight games in a row and beating their opponents 78:22. They won the most conference games in program history with 29-11.
Coverage of all Tucson Regional games is hosted on ESPN3 and ESPN +.
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