By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
University of Texas redshirt junior Porter Brown from Reagan High School and TCU freshman Anthony Silva from Clark will headline the The JB Replay’s list of players to watch from the San Antonio area in the upcoming NCAA Baseball Championship.
The tournament opens at 16 locales on Friday, with Brown and the Longhorns playing as a No. 2 seed in the Coral Gables Regional, according to the NCAA bracket announced on Monday morning.
Brown, an outfielder, enters the tournament having been named a unanimous pick on the all-Big 12 first team.
Silva, a shortstop, was an all-Big 12 second-team selection and made the conference’s all-freshman team. Silva and the Horned Frogs will be the No. 2 seed in the Fayetteville Regional.
The top 16-rated teams in the NCAA tournament will host four-team regionals on the opening weekend starting Friday. In uncommon twist, the state of Texas will not host an opening-weekend regional.
The Dallas Baptist Patriots and the Sam Houston State Bearkats on Monday joined power-conference programs at TCU, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech in the field of the 64.
Dallas Baptist, TCU, Texas and Texas A&M are all No. 2 seeds in their first-weekend tests. Texas Tech and Sam Houston State are No. 3 seeds.
Among the schools that did not make the national tournament bracket were the UTSA Roadrunners, the University of the Incarnate Word Cardinals and the Texas State Bobcats.
Texas
Coral Gables Regional
1) Miami; 2) Texas; 3) Louisiana; 4) Maine.
Friday’s tournament opener for the Longhorns: Texas vs. Louisiana, 1 p.m., Longhorn Network.
Eye on San Antonio-area talent at Texas: Porter Brown, outfield, Reagan; Jalin Flores, shortstop, Brandeis; Travis Sthele, RHP, Reagan; Sam Walbridge, LHP, Saint Mary’s Hall.
TCU
Fayetteville Regional
1) Arkansas; 2) TCU; 3) Arizona; 4) Santa Clara.
Friday’s tournament opener for the Horned Frogs: TCU vs. Arizona, 8 p.m., ESPNU.
Eye on San Antonio area talent at TCU: Anthony Silva, shortstop, Clark; Luke Boyers, outfield, Boerne Champion; Cohen Feser, RHP, Reagan.
Texas A&M
Stanford Regional
1) Stanford; 2) Texas A&M; 3) Cal State Fullerton; 4) San Jose State.
Friday’s tournament opener for the Aggies: Texas A&M vs. Cal State Fullerton, 9 p.m., ESPN2.
Eye on San Antonio area-talent at A&M: Jordan Thompson, outfield, Boerne Champion; Kasen Wells, outfielder, Smithson Valley; Nathan Dettmer, pitcher, Johnson.
Texas Tech
Gainesville Regional
1) Florida, 2) UConn, 3) Texas Tech, 4) Florida A&M.
Friday’s tournament opener for the Red Raiders: UConn vs. Texas Tech, noon, on ESPN+.
Eye on San Antonio-area talent at Texas Tech: Brandon Beckel, junior RHP from Antonian; Zac Vooletich, senior infielder from Brandeis
Dallas Baptist
Stillwater Regional
1) Oklahoma State, 2) Dallas Baptist, 3) Washington, 4) Oral Roberts.
Friday’s tournament opener for the Patriots: Dallas Baptist vs. Washington, noon.
Sam Houston State
Baton Rouge Regional
The teams: 1) LSU, 2) Oregon State, 3) Sam Houston State, 4) Tulane
Friday’s tournament opener for the Bearkats: Sam Houston vs. Oregon State, 7 p.m., ESPN+.
Notable
The top eight seeds in the tournament are Wake Forest (47-10), Florida (44-14), Arkansas (41-16), Clemson (43-17), LSU (43-15), Vanderbilt (41-18), Virginia (45-12) and Stanford (38-16).
The next eight include Miami, Fla., (40-19), Coastal Carolina (39-19), Oklahoma St. (41-18), Kentucky (36-18), Auburn (34-21-1), Indiana State (42-15), South Carolina (39-19) and Alabama (40-19).
Texas pitcher D.J. Burke has entered the transfer portal, according to a report from si.com.
Burke, a junior righthander from Clark, pitched 24 and 1/3 innings in 15 games for the Longhorns this season. He was 1-0 with a save and a 2.22 earned run average, but he hasn’t pitched since April 30 at TCU. He’s on the roster of the Duluth Huskies of the Northwoods League, a wooden-bat league for players with NCAA eligibility remaining.
A San Antonio-area player to watch for the Arkansas Razorbacks is Hunter Grimes, a redshirt junior from Kerrville who played in the 2019 season at UTSA. Dominic Tamez, a junior catcher from Johnson, plays for 16th-rated Alabama.
Should Texas win the Coral Gables Regional in Florida and should Texas A&M win the Stanford Regional in California, the two old rivals would meet the following weekend in the Super Regional round.