The 48-year wait is over.
And for head baseball coach Ray Birmingham, his three-year promise became a reality.
On Monday, the UNM baseball team earned an at-large bid to the NCAA baseball tournament for the first time since 1962. UNM earned a No. 3 seed in its respective region and will travel to Fullerton, Calif., to face Stanford in the opening round.
The team gathered at Coaches Sports Grill to have a selection show party Monday.
Birmingham said he was ecstatic after the announcement was made on ESPN.
“I wasn’t even looking (at the TV),” Birmingham said. “I was just listening, because I talked to some people last night, and everybody was real positive about it.”
The college baseball tournament is set up similar to the NCAA basketball tournament bracket, but the highest seed in each region hosts four teams.
The four teams face double elimination in the first round and the winner of the region moves onto the Super Regionals to face another regional winner.
The winners of the eight Super Regionals move onto the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
Minnesota and Cal-State Fullerton are in the same region as UNM.
“We’ve been playing really hard all year long,” Birmingham said. “The anticipation was killing me. It’s been a long time since 1962, and I look at the picture of the 1962 team every day on my desk. These kids have been spectacular. They typify the state of New Mexico. They are all blue-collar, hard-working people. I’m proud for our state to have these young men in cherry and silver.”
The Lobos finished the regular season second in the Mountain West Conference, losing to No. 8 TCU 2-0 in the championship round of the MWC tournament on May 28.
Because the Lobos didn’t earn an automatic bid by beating TCU, catcher Rafael Neda said he was anxious during the show.
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“Oh, man, we were just so nervous,” Neda said. “We were just waiting for our name to come out, and after the first 32 teams came out, and our name didn’t come out, it was like, ‘We might not make it.’”
Good thing the Lobos have some perspective on Stanford. UNM played Stanford in 2009 in a three-game series in Palo Alto, Calif., with the Cardinal taking two of the three games from the Lobos.
UNM second baseman Adam Courcha said he didn’t care which team the Lobos drew in the tournament.
“I am at a loss for words now,” Courcha said. “Whoever it was, it didn’t matter who we’re playing. It’s just an unbelievable feeling seeing your name pop up there (on the TV screen). For what we can do for this town, the state, it’s very humbling.
Courcha, who is a senior, said it was worth the wait to play in the tournament.
“I have spent four glorious years at UNM,” he said. “To have this happen in my senior season, for the coaching staff and for all of the boys, it’s a blessing and an unbelievable feeling.”
