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When Michigan State lost on Saturday to Indiana and came up short of playing for the Big Ten baseball tournament title, the Spartans appeared to be in danger of having their NCAA tournament drought extended. By leaving it in the hands of the selection committee, Michigan State needed to be picked as one of the at-large teams.
Luckily for the Spartans, they were. The field of 64 teams was announced on Monday afternoon, and Michigan State was included as one of the at-large teams. This means that for the first time since 1979, Michigan State's baseball program is going dancing.
Michigan State was placed in the Palo Alto Regional as a No. 3 seed. The Spartans will take on Pepperdine, the No. 2 seed in the regional, on Friday. The No. 1 seed in the regional is Stanford, which will take on No. 4 Fresno State on Friday. All of the games will be broadcast on ESPN3.com.
For more information on the regional, head over to Stanford's official site. You can go here for a look at the full NCAA baseball tournament bracket.