Houston narrowly missed out on an at-large bid for the 2019 NCAA Baseball Tournament, the NCAA Selection Committee announced during Monday morning’s selection show, after being one of the first teams to be left bidless.
The Cougars, having gone 0-2 in the American Athletic Conference Tournament despite its top-five regular season finish in the league, joined Missouri, Texas State and AAC-opponent UCF as the first four out of the tournament.
“First four out doesn’t win any awards,” said head coach Todd Whitting shortly after finding out UH did not qualify for the 64-team tourney. “We were really close. We were literally one win away this last week from being safe and in the tournament.”
Although the Cougars were largely projected to be one of the last teams in, UH will miss only its second tournament in the last six years and first since Houston was left out in 2016.
Whitting, who took over in 2011 and has led the team to multiple conference championships since then, was left disappointed along with his players after the snub but said Houston will come back from it once the 2019-2020 season rolls around.
“I feel bad for those kids in that room,” Whitting said. “But it’s not the end of the world. I’m excited about our club coming back next year.”