Baseball Buckeyes punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament

The Ohio State Buckeyes were never supposed to make the NCAA Tournament in baseball this season. They have seemingly been in the middle of the pack of the Big Ten for quite some time, but this year was different. They may have been in the middle of the pack throughout the regular season, but the conference tournament was all that mattered.

The scarlet and gray got hot at just the right time in order to punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season. As the No. 7 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, Ohio State miraculously won the conference tournament to punch their ticket into the NCAA Tournament. On Monday, they found out that they will be in the Vanderbilt regional, which consists of No. 2 overall seed (No. 1 seed in the regional) Vanderbilt, No. 2 seed Indiana State, No. 3 seed McNeese, and the No. 4 seed Buckeyes.

NASHVILLE REGIONAL

1️⃣ Vanderbilt
2️⃣ Indiana State
3️⃣ McNeese
4️⃣ Ohio State#RoadToOmaha pic.twitter.com/JU1wKLDBgu

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) May 27, 2019

https://twitter.com/NCAACWS/status/1133047761371316225

Although they won the Big Ten tournament, Ohio State had to work hard to even be in the tournament in the first place. They won five of their last six conference games to close out the regular season in order to even be one of eight teams to make the Big Ten tournament. Then, after making the semifinals, that game was moved from Saturday night to Sunday due to weather, with the winner then having to play in the championship game an hour after the semifinal game concluded. After defeating Nebraska to take home the Big Ten crown, their second win of the day, the No. 7-seeded Buckeyes were the lowest seed to ever capture the Big Ten title.

History in Omaha!@OhioStateBASE punches its ticket to the dance and becomes the lowest-ever seed to win the @B1GBaseball Tournament: pic.twitter.com/5CeB2na5lb

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) May 26, 2019

The Buckeyes, along with the other two teams in the Vanderbilt regional, will have their hands full against the Commodores. As the No. 2 overall seed, Vanderbilt is 49-10 this year, which is the most wins in the country. They are also an incredible 31-5 at home, so the home-field advantage will be something that is very tough to beat.

Ohio State, who are currently 35-25, will begin the regional by taking on Vanderbilt Friday night, with first pitch set for 7 p.m. ET. From there, they will either take on Indiana State or McNeese, depending on the result of each game. Each regional is double elimination, with the winning team from all 16 regionals advancing to the Super Regional.

The Road to Omaha begins Friday night.