ASU baseball to begin NCAA Tournament in Lincoln Regional

Arizona State baseball learned Monday its NCAA Tournament path starts in the Lincoln Regional hosted by 13-seed Nebraska.

The Sun Devils’ first game in the double-elimination stage is on Friday against Ole Miss.

ASU enters the tournament 37-19 (19-11 in Big 12) after finishing third in the conference and reaching the Big 12 Semifinal where it lost to top-10 West Virginia, one of the 16 teams hosting a regional.

It’s the second NCAA Tournament appearance in Willie Bloomquist’s fifth season as head coach after 2025 marked his first appearance. ASU was one game away from reaching the Super Regionals a year ago before dropping its final game to UC Irvine, 11-6.

This season’s 37-19 mark is the best in Bloomquist’s tenure.

The Sun Devils have been led by outfielder and Big 12 Player of the Year Landon Hairston and ace Cole Carlon.

Hairston, a sophomore out of Casteel High School in Queen Creek, set a program record for most home runs in a single season (28, fourth in country). He ranks top 10 nationally in slugging (first), batting average (fifth), total hits (fifth) and on-base percentage (10th).

Carlon earned his second straight First Team All-Big 12 honors this season and is fourth among all pitchers in strikeouts per nine innings (14.49) and fifth in total strikeouts (124). He checked in at 15th on ESPN’s 2026 MLB Draft rankings on May 18.

Redshirt junior infielder Nu’u Contrades gave ASU a third First Team All-Big 12 honoree. His power took a big step forward this season with 17 home runs in 49 games after hitting 15 over his first three seasons (105 games).

TV, times for Lincoln Regional including ASU baseball

Whichever team comes out on top of the double-elimination regional will head to the Super Regionals, where it will play a best-of-3 series against another regional winner to decide who moves onto Omaha for the College World Series.

All times listed for the double-elimination round are MST.

Friday

• Game 1: Nebraska vs. South Dakota State at 1 p.m. on ESPN+
• Game 2: Arizona State vs. Ole Miss at 6 p.m. on ESPN2

Saturday

• Game 3: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner
• Game 4: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser

Sunday

• Game 5: Game 4 winner vs. Game 3 loser
• Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner

Monday

• Game 7 (if necessary): Game 6 rematch

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