It was a big day for South Bay college baseball Monday. San Jose State earned its first NCAA Regional berth since 2002 and neighbor Santa Clara received its first invite since 1997 as the NCAA tournament field was officially set.

San Jose State (31-25), which earned a berth by beating Air Force Sunday in the Mountain West Conference tournament, will face quite a task Friday when it takes on host Stanford on Friday at Sunken Diamond at 2 p.m. The Cardinal, seeded first in the four-team Stanford Regional that includes Texas A&M and Cal State Fullerton, are seeded No. 8 overall in the tournament.

Santa Clara (35-18) will travel to Arkansas Friday to face the No. 3-seeded Razorbacks, won its first West Coast Conference tournament championship — and NCAA tournament berth — by shutting out Nevada on Sunday.

Wake Forest (47-10), which leads the nation in wins and has not lost consecutive games, was named the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament, and the Southeastern Conference had a record-tying 10 teams picked to play in regionals.

The 64-team tournament opens Friday in 16 regionals. Winners advance to eight best-of-3 super regionals. Those winners move on to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

The top eight national seeds are assured of hosting super regionals if they win their regionals.

Other notes about the tournament:

• Vanderbilt has the longest active streak with its 17th straight appearance. Texas is in the tournament for a record 62nd time. Florida State (23-31) saw its record-tying streak of regional appearances end at 44.

• Tulane (19-40), which won the American Athletic Conference Tournament as the No. 7 seed, has the most losses of any team to ever make the national tournament. The Green Wave’s reward is a spot in the Baton Rouge Regional and an opening game against LSU.

• Arizona, at 12-18 in Pac-12 play, has the worst conference record of any team selected to the field since 2009.

Motorsports

Blaney wins Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte >> Ryan Blaney held off William Byron to win the rescheduled Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Speedway, giving team owner Roger Penske a sweep of the Memorial Day weekend’s top races in the United States.

Josef Newgarden won a record-extending 19th Indianapolis 500 on Sunday for Team Penske. It marked the first time Team Penske has earned a sweep of the two races in the same year.

Like Newgarden, Blaney went into the crowd to celebrate with fans after the win.

A few moments later, he tried to hold back tears with the weight of 59-race winless streak lifted from his shoulders.

“You start to get to feel like you can’t win anymore,” Blaney said. “We hadn’t won in awhile and that can get hard. I want to thank the 12 (team) for believing in me.”

Blaney took the lead from Byron on a restart and led the final 26 laps to win his first Cup Series race since the 2021 Daytona’s Coke Zero Sugar 400, snapping a 59-race winless drought.

The 51/2-hour race included five wrecks in the final 50 laps, including one with 26 to go when last week’s All-Star race winner Kyle Larson spun and took out defending Cup champion Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Christopher Bell.

Blaney had passed Byron on the previous restart, and then beat him again on the final restart to take the checkered flag.

Byron finished second, followed by Martin Truex Jr., Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick.

Defending race champion Denny Hamlin was left fuming after his day ended with a wreck on lap 186, prompting him to call for NASCAR to suspend its most popular driver Chase Elliott.

Hamlin claimed the Hendrick Motorsports driver intentionally wrecked him by hooking his right rear bumper following a dust-up earlier in the race.

Elliott’s car also sustained significant damage ending his day early, too.

Elliott denied intentionally wrecking Hamlin in retaliation.

Newgarden earns record $3.666M for Indy win >> Josef Newgarden celebrated his first Indianapolis 500 win Sunday night. He cashed in at the race’s annual victory dinner.

The two-time IndyCar champ earned a record $3.666 million for the biggest win of his career, an increase of more than $500,000 over last year’s race winner, Marcus Ericsson. Newgarden’s win also extended Team Penske’s record total to 19.

Indy’s total purse of $17,021,500 also broke last year’s mark by more than $1 million.

NFL

Bell says he smoked marijuana before games >> Former Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets running back Le’Veon Bell says he smoked marijuana before playing some NFL games during his career.

“That’s what I did,” Bell told Barstool Sports’ “Steel Here” podcast which was published Friday. “When I was playing football, I smoked, bro. Even before the games, I’d smoke and I’d go out there and run for 150 (yards), two (touchdowns).”

Jersey Jerry, who co-hosts the podcast with Kevin Adams, then asked: “In the NFL?”

“Yeah,” said the 31-year-old Bell, who hasn’t played in the league since the 2021 season.

Bell was suspended twice for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy while he played for the Steelers. He began his professional career in Pittsburgh in 2013 and became one of the league’s most dynamic and productive players. Bell was a one-time All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowl selection as a dual threat out of the Steelers’ backfield.

Bell had short stints with Kansas City in 2020, and Baltimore and Tampa Bay in 2021 after leaving the Jets. He has run for 6,554 yards and 42 touchdowns in his career.

Men’s college golf

Florida’s Biondi wins NCAA title >> Fred Biondi shot a 3-under 67 and rallied from a five-shot deficit in the final round to earn Florida’s third individual men’s NCAA golf championship.

Biondi shot 2-under 35 on the front nine at Grayhawk Golf Club and was three back after a bogey on No. 12. The senior from Brazil birdied the par-4 14th and closed with four straight pars, two-putting from 50 feet on No. 18 to finish at 7 under.

Biondi joins Bob Murphy (1996) and Nick Gilliam (2001) as national champions at Florida.

Illinois’ Jackson Buchanan just missed a 20-foot birdie on No. 18 that would have tied him with Biondi. He shot 67 to tie Georgia Tech’s Ross Steelman at 6 under.

Steelman had a three-shot lead after 15 holes, but closed with three straight bogeys to open the door for Biondi. Steelman shot 73 to finish at 6 under.

North Carolina earned the No. 1 seed in match play, and top-ranked Vanderbilt struggled, missing match play by nine shots.

Men’s college lacrosse

Notre Dame wins first national title >> Liam Entenmann made a season-high 18 saves and Brian Tevlin scored a go-ahead goal with 27 seconds left in the third quarter to help Notre Dame claim its first men’s lacrosse national title with a 13-9 victory over Duke in Philadelphia.

Third-seeded Notre Dame (14-2) had lost in its previous two championship game appearances in 2010 and 2014 — both to Duke. The top-seeded Blue Devils (16-3) were playing in their seventh national championship game in program history.