The state of Utah isn't traditionally known for its college baseball success, but two of the 64 teams in the NCAA Tournament this year hail from the state.
The Utah Utes baseball team won the school's first Pac-12 championship in a non-Olympic sport and earned a No. 4 seed in the Oxford Regional while Utah Valley's trip to the Baton Rouge Regional is its first to the NCAA Tournament in school history.
"The state's getting better," Utah Valley coach Eric Madsen said. "That's what we need. The top local kids always wanted to leave town and go to these other programs that were making regionals more often. ... That's one thing we weren't able to ever accomplish. It just shows that the kids in state are buying in and the talent's definitely improving. I think it's great the notoriety the state's getting just because of the success that (Utah Valley and Utah) have had."
The two teams may both be No. 4 seeds playing regionals at Southeastern Conference schools — and they even shared a charter to fly south — but the programs took different paths to their destinations.
The Utes (25-27, 19-11) had finished last in the Pac-12 standings every year since joining the league in 2012 until this year. They were picked to finish there again and were well on their way after a 3-11 start, but reinvented themselves and stormed through the conference season. The slow growth of the program came with the inclusion in the Pac-12, which allowed more money to flow into the budget and opened doors to new recruits.
"If you look at the majority of our roster, most of the kids are coming from California now," Utah coach Bill Kinneberg said. "That would have never happened. We want every good kid in Utah, but being in the Pac-12 we've got to get the best players we can."
Utah previously reached the NCAA Tournament in 2009 as Mountain West Conference tournament champs and this is the Utes' fifth overall appearance. The Utes play regional host Ole Miss (43-17) on Friday. Baseball being the first non-Olympic sport at the school to break through and claim a Pac-12 title was vastly unexpected.
"Four years in the cellar? I think the best part is now people are starting to notice us," said Utah pitcher Jayson Rose, who'll take the mound against Ole Miss. "Even if we won a series, it was like, 'Oh, they got lucky.' Now people are finally like they're here, they're here to stay."
Utah Valley (31-27) wasn't even a Division I program at one point. The school transitioned to D-I in 2003 and played its first baseball season in the new tier in 2004.
Former athletic director Mike Jacobsen made a financial commitment to the program and the roots took hold. Madsen, a five-year assistant under former coach Steve Gardner, remembers busing to every game, including a conference tournament in South Dakota. Players used to sleep four to a room, and now that's been cut down to two. Per diem has gone up. Coaches can regularly recruit out of state. Madsen flatly said, "We eat better."
The program went 47-12 in 2012 and still wasn't selected for the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines have currently won seven straight, 11 of 13 and face host LSU (42-18) on Friday.
"Those kids those first years, they were just playing for the experience to be playing Division I," Madsen said. "It's been awesome to watch and be a part of seeing the growth each year, both the highs and lows. It's really surreal for me.
"The selection show was interesting because the last time we were in there it was probably the worst day of my coaching career when we didn't get in (2012). To see us rebound from that and overcome and regrow to get where we are, it's monumental. Thirteen years, there's a lot of teams that have been in Division I a lot longer than that that haven't had the opportunity to get to a regional."
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.