Cole Pepper
Five teams from schools in Florida are scheduled to begin play in the NCAA baseball regionals Friday.
Florida State earned the No. 9 seed nationally and will host a regional in Tallahassee. The Seminoles open the double-elimination round against Bethune-Cookman (3 p.m. ET, ACC Network).
The Seminoles (38-14) were eliminated from the ACC tournament in the semifinals by North Carolina. FSU is listed at 25/1 odds by SportsBetting.ag to win the College World Series, the 11th-best odds in the field of 64.
Florida State is led by shortstop Alex Lodise, who hit .415 this season, ninth-best in the nation. He led the team with 66 runs batted in and tied for the team high with 17 home runs.
Bethune-Cookman (33-25) won the SWAC tournament in dramatic fashion. Andrey Martinez hit a three-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to beat Florida A&M and win the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA regionals.
Martinez enjoyed a monster year at the plate, hitting .354 with a team-high 20 home runs and 63 runs batted in.
Florida travels to Conway, South Carolina, to play in the regional hosted by Coastal Carolina. The 15th-ranked Gators face East Carolina (noon ET, ESPN2).
The Gators (38-20) concluded the regular season by winning series against No. 5 Arkansas, South Carolina, No. 1 Texas and No. 18 Alabama. They were eliminated from the SEC tournament by No. 17 Ole Miss.
Florida relied largely on two starting pitchers this season. Aidan King (6-2, 2.76 ERA) and Liam Peterson (8-3, 4.10) combined to start 25 of the Gators’ 58 games. No other pitcher started more than seven games this season.
Miami plays Alabama in the Hattiesburg regional (3 p.m. ET, ESPN 2). The Hurricanes (31-24) had a down year by the program’s standards. They lost their first game in the ACC tournament 12-2 to California.
The Hurricanes were led by third baseman Daniel Cuvet, who led the Canes with a .378 average, 16 home runs and 76 runs batted in.
Stetson advanced to the finals of the ASun tournament, but the final game was not completed due to inclement weather. Florida Gulf Coast was declared the winner of the first championship game and a second game would have been played under ideal conditions. Instead, Stetson was awarded the automatic bid under conference policy.
The Hatters (40-20) face North Carolina State on Friday in the Auburn regional (2 p.m. ET, ESPN+). Starting pitcher Jonathan Gonzalez has been one of the best in the nation this season, posting a 9-2 record with a 1.95 ERA.
The winners of the 16 regionals advance to the Super Regionals next week. Super Regional winners advance to the College World Series in Omaha.
