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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – For the first time since elevating its athletics program to the Division I level 15 years ago, Cal Poly has earned an NCAA regional playoff berth in baseball.

Coach Larry Lee’s Mustangs, who finished the regular season with a 37-19 record, will face Oral Roberts (31-13) in the Tempe Regional on Friday at 2 p.m. Host Arizona State (44-12), the No. 5 national seed, will take on Kent State (42-15) at 7 p.m.

Two more games will be played both Saturday and Sunday at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark, with the extra game, if necessary, to be played Monday, June 1.

Pairings were announced Monday morning on ESPN.

"This is a big step for the program and breaks down that initial barrier of getting into postseason play," said Lee, in his seventh season with the Mustangs. "I am very happy for our players who have worked so hard and have overcome a lot of adversity throughout the course of the year. They have really done it without a full deck all season long."

Cal Poly will be the lone non-conference champion in the four-team field. Arizona State has won three straight Pacific-10 Conference titles while Oral Roberts won the Summit League crown. Kent State claimed the Mid-American Conference tournament championship.

"It's a solid regional but travel-wise it's the best you could ask for," Lee added. "We're excited about participating in that regional."

Cal Poly came close to earning its first regional bid in 2005 with a 36-20 record and second-place Big West Conference finish, but was denied an at-large playoff bid.

"It's very difficult to get an at-large berth being out west," said Lee. "The system doesn't favor teams out in the west and there are always teams left out that are deserving."

Oral Roberts topped South Dakota State 6-2 on Saturday in Tulsa, Okla., to win the Summit League championship. The Golden Eagles have won 12 consecutive conference tournament titles and will make their 12th straight NCAA Regional appearance.

Andre Lamontagne (5-2), a transfer from Long Beach State and a Righetti (Santa Maria, Calif.) High school graduate, earned his fifth win of the season by tossing his second consecutive complete game. The senior right-hander gave up two runs on six hits while striking out nine and issuing only one walk.

Arizona State won the Pac-10 title with a 21-6 record while Kent State beat Toledo 5-3 on Saturday to capture the Mid-American Conference tournament title after finishing third in the regular-season standings at 17-9.

Cal Poly finished third in the Big West Conference with a 14-10 record. The Mustangs jumped to a 17-4 mark in the first five weeks of the season, including a pair of eight-game winning streaks.

Cal Poly won 11 of 14 weekend series during the regular season and has already won 13 more games than they did in all of 2008, clinching its fifth winning season in the last six campaigns and its seventh 30-win season in the last 10 years.

Cal Poly was 20 games above the .500 mark three times this season -- 30-10, 32-12 and 37-17 -- and only the fourth time since moving to Division I 15 years ago. The 2004 squad was 33-13-1 in mid-April. Twenty is the school’s Division I record.

The Mustangs have lost nine of their last 16 games since elevating their mark to 30-10 with a dramatic 10-inning 17-16 win over Fresno State on April 28 in Baggett Stadium, but won a series at Long Beach State for the first time since 1997 and split their final four games last week, all in Baggett Stadium.

Highlights so far in 2009 include winning two of three games in a season-opening weekend series against then-No. 3 Rice, winning two of three games at 2008 NCAA regional qualifier Houston, series sweeps against Sacramento State, Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State Northridge and UC Davis, a pair of wins over defending national champion Fresno State, a 7-4 triumph over perennial Big West power Cal State Fullerton, the series win at Long Beach State two weeks ago, the Mustangs’ first win over USC in 34 years, five extra-inning victories, seven walk-off triumphs and a total of 21 come-from-behind wins.

Cal Poly is 21-7 when it scores first, 9-3 in Sunday games, 23-7 at home, 15-1 when playing errorless defense and 28-4 when it outhits the opposition.

The tournament field of 64 teams includes five first-time qualifiers. In addition to Cal Poly, the first-time qualifiers are Kansas State, Binghamton, Xavier (Ohio) and Georgia State.

The national top eight seeds are Texas (41-13-1), Cal State Fullerton (42-14), LSU (46-16), North Carolina (42-16), Arizona State (44-12), UC Irvine (43-13), Oklahoma (41-18) and Florida (39-20).

The Big 12 and Southeastern conferences each will be represented by eight teams while the Atlantic Coast has seven qualifiers. The Big West Conference has two national seeds. Texas is the state with the most qualifiers (seven), followed by California and Florida, each with five.

For the Golden State, Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine both will host regionals while Cal Poly, San Diego State and defending national champion Fresno State (which won the Western Athletic Conference tournament title over the weekend in Honolulu, Hawaii) made the field as well.

The Tempe Regional winner will play the Clemson Regional champion (Clemson, Tennessee Tech, Oklahoma State and Alabama) June 5-7 or June 6-8. The College World Series is scheduled for June 13-24 in Omaha, Nebraska.

Cal Poly qualified for the NCAA Division II regionals six times, capturing the 1989 national title and finishing second in 1993.