Gators earn top seed in baseball
Associated Press
NEW YORK
Florida heads into the NCAA tournament as college baseball’s top team.
The Gators appreciate the honor, but they’re interested only in finishing No. 1 at the College World Series.
“I think that we have a good team,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “I think that we had a good year. I’d agree with everybody that I don’t think we have played our best yet, which is encouraging.”
Florida (42-18) was selected Monday as the top seed for the 64-team tournament and will host one of 16 four-team, double-elimination regionals that begin Friday.
“That was a very close vote,” said Kyle Kallander, chairman of the Division I baseball committee. “The committee really discussed at length who deserved to be that No. 1 overall. There were several deserving teams.”
The other national seeds, in order, are: UCLA, Florida State, Baylor, Oregon, North Carolina, LSU and two-time defending College World Series champion South Carolina.
“We had four teams that were in serious consideration for that last top national seed, that No. 8 seed,” Kallander said. “It was very competitive in the evaluation process.”
Kallander said the Gators’ overall body of work — including a 21-10 record against top 25 teams — put them in front of the field.
History has not been kind to the No. 1 overall seeds, though. Only once has a top seed gone on to win the College World Series: Miami in 1999, the first year the NCAA went to its current tournament format.
“Obviously, this is a great time of the year for everybody,” said O’Sullivan, whose team opens against Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion Bethune-Cookman (34-25). “We’re excited to be in it. We’re excited to be home.”
The Gamecocks (40-17) are trying to join the 1970-74 Southern California squads as the only teams to win three or more consecutive national titles. South Carolina opens against Manhattan (33-25), the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament champion.
Florida and South Carolina are among a tournament field-leading eight Southeastern Conference teams, including Arkansas, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is second with seven teams: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Virginia.
The 16 regional winners move on to the best-of-three super regionals. Those eight winners advance to the College World Series, which begins June 15 in Omaha, Neb., at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha.
Miami (36-21) is in the tournament for the 40th straight year, extending its own record, while Florida State is making its 35th consecutive appearance. Dayton (31-28) and Samford (39-21) are making their tournament debuts, while Valparaiso (35-23) will play in a regional for the first time since 1968.
“I don’t think our guys will be intimidated at all,” said Valparaiso coach Tracy Woodson, a former major leaguer. “We’ve already played some great teams on our schedule this year.”