NEW ORLEANS - For the seventh time in the last 12 years the Sun Belt Conference will send three baseball teams to the NCAA Division Baseball Tournament as the NCAA Division I Baseball Selection Committee announced the field of 64 on Monday, May 31. FIU earned the conference's automatic bid to the tournament after winning the SBC tournament title over the weekend, while Florida Atlantic and Louisiana-Lafayette - SBC regular season co-champions - earned at-large selections.

The multiple selections in 2010 mark the 22nd-consecutive year the SBC has received two or more bids to the NCAA tournament. The last time the conference had more than two was in 2007 when the Ragin' Cajuns, New Orleans and Troy received bids to the NCAA tournament.

FIU, the SBC Tournament No. 4 seed, rattled off five consecutive wins in the tournament to earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament defeating Troy 14-10 in the championship game. The title was the second overall for FIU in the SBC and its first since 1999. The Panthers set new SBC tournament records for hits (89) and runs scored (61). FIU also broke the tournament batting average record hitting .385 to top the .380 mark set by former SBC member, Jacksonville, in 1987. The Panthers lead the SBC in hitting with a team average of .339.

FIU (36-23) is just the third team in league history to lose its first game of the SBC Tournament and go on to eventually win the title - Jacksonville (1986, 1993) and South Alabama (1984, 2001) - winning five consecutive games to earn the title. The Panthers are one of the most talked about programs in the NCAA tournament field as sophomore infielder Garrett Wittels, the SBC Player of the Year, chases history. The Bay Harbor Island, Fla. native has hit safely in 54 consecutive games, only four shy of the all-time NCAA Division I record of 58 set by Oklahoma State's Robin Ventura in 1987.

The Golden Panthers will be making their first appearance to an NCAA regional since 2002 when FIU was selected as an at-large team. FIU was placed in the Coral Gables, Fla. regional as the No. 3 seed and will face No. 2 Texas A&M on Friday, June 4. Regional host Miami is the top seed in the regional while Dartmouth is the No. 4 seed to complete the four-team field in Coral Gables.

FIU is no stranger to the Coral Gables regional having last played there in 2000. The Panthers went 2-2 in the regional that year. Only a season later, the Panthers would advance to the NCAA Division I Baseball Super Regional in Los Angeles, losing twice to Southern California.

Florida Atlantic, the SBC Tournament’s top seed after tying for the regular season crown, was knocked out of the tournament in the semifinals by champion FIU. The Owls finished the SBC regular season with a 21-9 record earning its first-ever SBC regular season title after joining the league in 2007.

SBC Coach of the Year John McCormack leads the Owls into the NCAA tournament after a five-year layoff. FAU's last appearance in the NCAA tournament was in 2005 as a member of the Atlantic-Sun Conference.

The Owls (35-22) earned the No. 2 seed in the Gainesville, Fla. regional - the program's first NCAA regional trip to Gainesville - and will take on Oregon State in the first round of play on Friday. The 2010 at-large selection for the Owls marked the first regional bid for the school since becoming a member of the SBC. Joining FAU and Oregon State in the Gainesville regional is host Florida and Bethune-Cookman.

FAU advanced to the Super Regionals in 2002 as a member of the A-Sun.

Louisiana-Lafayette, the SBC Tournament's No. 2 seed, will be making its 12th appearance in an NCAA regional and first since 2007. The Ragin' Cajuns earned a share of the SBC regular season title after finishing the season with a 21-9 conference mark.

ULL (37-20) will play as the No. 3 seed in the Austin, Texas regional and will face No. 2 seed Rice in the opening round. Texas, the regional host and No. 2 national seed, joins the Cajuns along with fourth-seeded Rider to round out the field.

The Ragin’ Cajuns have advanced to two NCAA Super Regionals (1999, 2000) and one College World Series (2000).

The Ragin' Cajuns enter the Austin Regional coming off a strong second half in which the squad won 23 of its final 27 games. In that stretch ULL won 17 of its final 18 SBC games to vault from 4-8 and ninth place to 21-9 and a regular season title. The Ragin' Cajuns are making their second NCAA regional appearance at Disch-Falk Field in Austin. In 1992, as a first-year SBC member, the Cajuns were sent to Austin, dropping both games.

The Cajuns led the SBC this season in pitching with a staff ERA of 3.39 allowing only 194 earned runs on the year.

The 2010 NCAA tournament will mark the fourth time FAU, FIU and ULL have appeared in the NCAA tournament during the same season - 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2010.

Only four other conferences had more selections than the SBC in the NCAA tournament: ACC (8), Pac-10 (8), SEC (8), and Big 12 (5). The Big East and Southern Conferences equaled the SBC with three selections.

The 2010 season was a highly successful one for league members as eight of the 11 baseball playing schools had 30 or more wins. UALR finished the 2010 season with 29 wins. It's the most the league has seen since 2008 when seven schools posted 30 or more wins.

Each of the 16 regionals will feature four teams, playing a double-elimination format. The regionals are scheduled to be conducted from Friday, June 4, to Monday, June 7 (if necessary).

The 64th Men's College World Series begins play Saturday, June 19, at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska.

- Sun Belt Conference -