EUGENE — Oregon is headed to the Santa Barbara Regional of the NCAA Tournament.

The Ducks (37-18) had the lowest RPI (52) of any at-large selection in the 64-team field and are the No. 3 seed in the regional, opening against San Diego (40-13) on Friday (noon ESPNU).

“When you leave anything in the hands of a committee and you don’t win an automatic bid, then you leave it up for grabs,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said. “Did feel strong with the body of work that we had, the number of conference wins that we had, the number of conferences weekends that we won. We’re happy to be into the tournament and now it’s an 0-0 like everybody else and there’s 64 great teams in there.”

No. 14 national seed UC Santa Barbara (42-12) and Fresno State (33-27) will also play on Friday (6 p.m., ESPN+). Tickets for the Santa Barbara Regional will go on sale to the general public at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The Santa Barbara Regional was the 15th of 16 regional pods announced during Monday’s selection show and with several other bubble teams already announced the level of uncertainty as to Oregon’s status grew as the remaining potential spots dwindled. Then there was jubilation as Oregon came on the videoboard at PK Park as the team watched from left field.

“Definitely a little sigh of relief, but this is something that we’ve earned and we’ve worked for all year,” pitcher Kevin Seitter said. “To act like we’re surprised — we can’t. A little nerve-racking maybe, but we had all the confidence and the faith in the world considering our resume and we’re really looking forward to the opportunity to compete.”

Oregon lost two of three games this season against UCSB, which is coached by former UO assistant Andrew Checketts, and all three meetings in 2023. Both of those series were originally scheduled to be played at UCSB but moved to Eugene due to weather, making this weekend the first time the Ducks will play on the new playing surface at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium, which was installed before this season.

“It plays a little tight down the lines and then it plays big in center field; I think it’s a really fair park,” Wasikowski said. “I know they’ve just put down a brand new surface so it should really play well. Coach Checketts has got Oregon ties, Duck ties, which he’s a friend of ours.

“But we don’t play Santa Barbara; we don’t play them first. We play San Diego first so the focus for me isn’t on somebody that we aren’t scheduled to play, it’s somebody that we are scheduled to play and that’s San Diego.”

Oregon did not face San Diego or Fresno State this season, but swept a four-games series with the Toreros in 2023 and dropped three of four at San Diego in 2022.

The Santa Barbara Regional is paired with the College Station Regional and No. 3 seed Texas A&M, which hosts Grambling, Texas and Louisiana. The winners of the two regionals will play in a best-of-three super regional starting June 7.

It will be the 11th postseason appearance all-time and fourth in a row for Oregon, which won the Nashville Regional and lost in the Eugene Super Regional last year.

Oregon is 22-20 all-time in postseason play, including 19-16 since baseball returned to UO in 2009. The Ducks are 17-12 all-time in regional play, including 9-8 as a road team.

“There should be experience now in that locker room where guys have shown up in regional settings, whether it’s road or home, super regional settings,” Wasikowski said.