Louisville baseball earns No. 2 overall seed in 2016 NCAA Tournament

The Louisville baseball team has earned the No. 2 overall seed for the 2016 NCAA Tournament. That distinction tops last year's No. 3 overall seed as the best tournament seed in the history of the Cardinal baseball program.

U of L will begin its run to the College World Series on Friday at 6 p.m. against MAC champion Western Michigan (22-32). The first game in the regional will be between third-seeded Wright State (44-15) and No. 2 seed Ohio State (43-18-1). The Buckeyes, who have won 15 of their last 18 games, defeated Louisville 2-0 in 2015, but the two teams did not meet this season. U of L faced Wright State at home on March 16 and defeated the eventual Horizon League champs, 9-1.

Here's the full regional schedule:

Ticket information can be found here.

Should Louisville advance to the super regionals, there could be a familiar foe ready to make the trip to Jim Patterson Stadium. The Cards will face the winner of the Nashville Regional, headlined by arch-rival Vanderbilt. The regional also features Xavier, UC Santa Barbara and Washington.

Ironically, U of L and Vandy squared off in the 2013 Super Regionals when the Commodores were the No. 2 overall seed. The Cardinals shocked everyone by winning the first two games of the best of 3 series and punching their ticket to Omaha. Vanderbilt got revenge a year later when it defeated Louisville in the first game of the College World Series, and went on to win the national championship.

The Cards beat Vandy 8-5 on May 10 in the annual Battle of the Barrel game between the two programs.

Should the Cards advance to Omaha, they will be the top seed in one of the two four-team elimination tournaments. If the seedings hold (which they likely won't), U of L would be joined by Miami, Clemson and Mississippi State.

This marks the fourth straight season that Louisville will be hosting a regional at Jim Patterson Stadium. Since the stadium opened its gates in 2005, the Cardinals have won more than 77 percent of their games in the ballpark posting a 310-91 record (.773 winning percentage). U of L is 33-1 at home this season, and 19-6 all-time in regional and super regional games at Jim Patterson Stadium.

The ACC tied a tournament record by sending 10 teams to the big dance, three more than the SEC. Here's the full field of 64.