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Miami and FAU to compete in same NCAA baseball regional – Sun Sentinel
The Miami baseball team can look at it from two angles.
The Hurricanes are thrilled about hosting a regional in the NCAA tournament for a third straight season.
But they were also paired with perhaps the best No. 2 seed of the 64-team field — Florida Atlantic.
The Hurricanes and Owls will be joined by Long Beach State and Stetson in the double-elimination regional, which begins Friday at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field. Second-seeded FAU (38-17) faces No. 3 Long Beach State (36-20) at 1 p.m., followed by UM (45-11) against No. 4 Stetson (29-29) at 7 p.m.
The Hurricanes, one of 10 Atlantic Coast Conference teams in the field, are the tournament’s overall No. 3 seed, behind Florida and Louisville. Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Mississippi State, Clemson and LSU are the other national seeds that are in line to host super regionals if they advance.
“Any time you’re in the top eight, it’s good,” UM coach Jim Morris said. “The higher you are up, the better it is. This should give you every advantage to go back to Omaha. At the beginning of the year and every year, that is our goal.”
Florida Atlantic, ranked No. 13 by Baseball America, is arguably the best of the No. 2 seeds. The Owls won the Conference USA regular season championship but may have cost themselves a chance to host a regional by losing in the conference tournament. They’ve won eight games against ranked opponents this season, including three against teams in the top five.
The Owls, one of four Conference USA teams in the tournament, are led by MLB prospect and conference player of the year C.J. Chatham.
“First, I thought they were going to be a No. 1 seed somewhere else,” UM pitcher Bryan Garcia said. “Then they didn’t do too well in their tournament. I figured they’d go to Florida State or Florida because they’re a high two seed. Once FSU and UF passed, we knew they were coming to us.”
The Owls and Hurricanes split two regular-season meetings. Although Miami and FAU are considered the favorites in the regional, Owls coach John McCormack said his team won’t overlook the other opponents.
Long Beach State was the Big West Conference runner-up and has advanced to the College World Series four times, most recently in 1998. Stetson won the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament to earn an automatic bid but was an at-large team in 2007 and 2011.
“Miami, of course, is Miami,” McCormack said. “Long Beach State has been to Omaha. We’ve played well. We’re a good, national program and Stetson has a great history. Stetson was working at baseball way before a lot of people were.
“I’m excited about the field, looking forward to getting down there and playing some baseball.”
Still, most of attention will fall upon the top two seeds. Morris said he had a hunch Miami and FAU would be lumped together after having a conversation with McCormack on Sunday.
“I talked to Coach Mack yesterday a couple times on the phone,” Morris said. “They thought they might come here.