QUEENS, N.Y. - The St. John's baseball team is headed to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season as the squad earned a No. 3 seed in the Houston Regional hosted by Rice University. The Red Storm (41-14) will face No. 2 seed Texas (37-20) to open play at 2 p.m.(CT) on Friday, May 30. Rice (42-13), the No. 1 seed in the region and the No. 6 national seed, will face No. 4 seed Sam Houston State at 6 p.m.(CT) on the other side of the bracket.

This is the Red Storm's fourth NCAA appearance in the past five seasons and its fifth since head coach Ed Blankmeyer took over at the helm. The squad will be representing St. John's in the NCAA Tournament for the 31st time in school history.

Both Rice and St. John's earned at-large bids, while Texas and Sam Houston State earned the automatic bids from the Big 12 Southland Conference, respectively.

The BIG EAST put two schools in the NCAA Tournament as Louisville earned the No. 3 seed in the Georgia Regional.

St. John's won its second straight BIG EAST regular season title and reached the 40-win plateau for a school-record fourth straight season in 2008. The team also tied school records with 41 wins and 20 BIG EAST wins. Blankmeyer was named the BIG EAST Coach of the Year for the second straight season, while George Brown was tabbed the BIG EAST Pitcher of the Year and a school record-tying eight players earned All-BIG EAST honors.