SEC rules the roost

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Southeastern Conference schools were awarded eight of the 16 regional sites for the NCAA baseball tournament on Sunday, tying the record it set in 2023.

The rest of the 64-team field and first-round matchups will be announced Monday by the Division I Baseball Committee.

The SEC will have Arkansas (43-13), Auburn (38-18), Georgia (42-15), LSU (43-14), Mississippi (40-19), Tennessee (43-16), Texas (42-12) and Vanderbilt (42-16) playing at home to start the national tournament.

Three Atlantic Coast Conference teams are hosts: Clemson (44-16), Florida State (38-14) and North Carolina (42-12).

First-year Big Ten schools Oregon (42-14) and UCLA (42-16) are hosts, as are Sun Belt Conference schools Coastal Carolina (48-11) and Southern Mississippi (44-14) and independent Oregon State (41-12-1).

Each regional will include four teams playing in a double-elimination format. Regionals start Friday and Saturday and run through June 2, with the winners meeting in best-of-three super regionals the following week. Selection of the eight super regional hosts will be announced June 3.

Florida State is hosting a regional for the 37th time, most by any school. FSU, Georgia, North Carolina, Oregon State and Tennessee each hosted in 2024, and Arkansas and Clemson are hosting for a third straight year.

There are 29 conferences that will receive an automatic berth in the field of 64, along with 35 at-large selections. The College World Series begins June 13 at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.

USA hockey wins world title

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Tage Thompson scored at 2:02 of overtime to the give the United States a 1-0 victory over Switzerland on Sunday for its second world hockey championship and first since 1933.

Thompson, the Buffalo Sabres star from Connecticut, fired a wrist shot past goalie Leonardo Genoni from the top of the right circle for this sixth goal of the tournament.

“What an absolutely amazing feeling,” said U.S. coach Ryan Warsofsky of the San Jose Sharks. “Everyone in our group contributed to winning the gold medal. We beat an excellent team in Switzerland tonight and full credit to them for the tournament they had … We’ll remember this for a long, long time.”

In 1933, the United States beat Canada 2-1 in the final in Prague. The Americans also were formally awarded the title in 1960, when they won the Olympics in Squaw Valley and the worlds did not take place.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Vancouver forward Drew O’Connor said. “U.S. hockey has been growing and getting better every year. We haven’t had success here, but you’ve seen it in the world juniors and things like that.”

Utah’s Logan Cooley and Nashville’s Brady Skjei assisted on the goal. Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman made 25 saves to finish 7-0 in the tournament.

“We did it, the wait is over,” Swayman said on social media. “Thanks for sticking along with us. It’s going to be a great summer.”

Vancouver’s Conor Garland failed on a penalty shot early in the second.

Amid the celebrations on the ice, the U.S. players displayed Johnny Gaudreau ‘s jersey to honor the forward who was killed with brother Matt in late August riding their bicycles in their home state of New Jersey on the eve of their sister’s wedding. Gaudreau leads the U.S. scorers at the worlds with 43 points.

“What a group. What a fun month,” Garland said. “If we lost, we lost … but we didn’t. We’re such a tight-knit group, that’s just the way it always is with USA Hockey.”

Switzerland beat the U.S. 3-0 in the group stage of the tournament, the Americans’ only defeat.

Bronze medal for Sweden

Mikael Backlund and Marcus Johansson each scored twice to help Sweden beat Denmark 6-2 in the third-place game.

Lucas Raymond and Mika Zibanejad also scored for Sweden. Nick Olesen and Nikolaj Ehlers scored for Denmark.

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