The 2006 NCAA Division I baseball tournament was held from June 2 through June 26, . Sixty-four

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division I

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

teams met after having played their way through a regular season, and for some, a conference tournament, to play in the NCAA tournament. The tournament culminated with 8 teams in the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is a baseball tournament held each June in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the culmination of the NCAA Division I baseball tournament—featuring 64 teams in the ...

at historic Rosenblatt Stadium in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

. After winning the regional and super regional rounds of the 2006 NCAA Division I baseball tournament, eight teams advanced to Omaha. Clemson, ,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, Cal State Fullerton, Oregon State, , , and Miami (FL) all won their super-regionals and made the trip to the 2006 College World Series. Five national seeds advanced to Omaha: Clemson (1), Rice (2), Cal State Fullerton (5), Georgia (7), and Georgia Tech (8). Third-seeded and sixth-seeded both fell in the regionals, while the fourth seed lost in super regional play. The first pitch of the 2006 CWS was Friday, June 16, at 1:00 PM CDT (18:00 UTC). The 2006 tournament was only the second time in CWS history in which 16 games were played (the other being the 2003 College World Series). After losing their tournament opener to Miami (FL), the

Oregon State Beavers The Oregon State Beavers are the sport, athletic teams that represent Oregon State University, located in Corvallis, Oregon. The Beavers compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I (NCAA Division I ...

staved off elimination for four straight games to win their bracket and advance to the championship series. The , who had not lost a three-game series all season, were shut out in consecutive games by the Beavers and failed to score in a CWS-record 23 innings. Oregon State advanced to face North Carolina in the final. College World Series 2006 - Finals Game 2 opening

College World Series 2006 - Finals Game 2 opening

The best-of-three championship series featured Oregon State and

. Oregon State won the deciding game, 3–2, winning the school's first national title in baseball and its second NCAA championship overall. All games were televised on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...

. Oregon State set a CWS record by winning six elimination games (four in bracket play, two in the championship series) and also became the first team ever to lose twice in Omaha and still win the title. Oregon State is the only team besides Holy Cross in 1952 to win six games in the College World Series. Oregon State played in half (eight of 16) of the games in the tournament. OSU pitcher Jonah Nickerson was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Five-time national champion

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

was left out of the field of 64, the first time since 1988 that the Tigers failed to qualify for a regional. LSU's overall record of 35–24 merited at-large consideration, but it was undone by poor performance in the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

, where the Tigers finished 8th out of 12 teams at 13–17. LSU won national championships in 1991, '93, '96, '97 and 2000 under Hall of Fame coach Skip Bertman, who was the school's athletic director at this time. Ten days after LSU's season ended, Bertman fired his successor, Smoke Laval, and hired Notre Dame coach Paul Mainieri.

Bids

Automatic bids

Conference champions from 30 Division I conferences earned automatic bids to regionals. The remaining 34 spots were awarded to schools as at-large invitees.

Bids by conference

National seeds

''Bold indicates CWS participant.'' # Clemson # # # # Cal State Fullerton # # #

Regionals and super regionals

Bold indicates winner.

Clemson Super Regional

Houston Super Regional

Corvallis Super Regional

Tuscaloosa Super Regional

Fullerton Super Regional

Oxford Super Regional

Athens Super Regional

Atlanta Super Regional

College World Series

Participants

Bracket

Championship series

Saturday 6/24

=Championship Game #1: 6:00 PM

= Note: 77 minute rain delay in top of 6th inning

Sunday 6/25

=Championship Game #2: 6:00 PM

Monday 6/26

=Championship Game #3: 6:00 PM

All-Tournament Team

The following players were members of the All-Tournament Team.

Tournament performance by conference

Notes on tournament field

* Lehigh, UNC Asheville, San Francisco, Prairie View, and Sacred Heart were making their first NCAA tournament appearance.

References

{{2006 NCAA Division I baseball tournament navbox NCAA Division I baseball tournament Baseball in Austin, Texas Baseball in Houston