Tallahassee Regional Breakdown
The Florida State Seminoles roll into the Tallahassee Regional as the number three national seed looking to flip the switch back on and get rolling after a tough 0-3 run at the ACC Tournament in Greensboro last week. The Seminoles have been very dominant at Dick Howser Stadium over the years and this year marks the 29th time hosting for Florida State. Jace Boyd and James Ramsey set the pace offensively for the Seminoles. Boyd is hitting .395 and Ramsey leads the team in homeruns with 12 and is hitting a rock solid .382 for what has been a high scoring offense for head coach Mike Martin. On the mound, Mike Compton and Brandon Leibrandt carry the load in the starting rotation as both guys have earned run averages under 3. Robert Beincasa anchors things at the back end of the game as he has 13 saves with a 1.36 earned run average on the season.
The #2 seed in the Tallahassee Regional is the Mississippi State Bulldogs out of the SEC. The Bulldogs come in as the SEC Tournament Championships and after a very successful week in Hoover look to carry it forward in this regional. This is a very mentally tough, resilient squad under head coach John Cohen. Mississippi State won six afternoon games in the SEC Tourney to win the championship in the ten team format. Offensively, Adam Frazier leads the way with a .376 batting average in 61 games this season, and his on-base percentage is even more impressive at .484. On the mound Chris Stratton anchors a very strong pitching staff that has a team earned run average of 2.58. Stratton has 123 strikeouts in 102 innings, which is going to come in handy in the hitter friendly confines of Dick Howser Stadium.
The 3 and 4 seeds are Samford and UAB. Samford comes in as the Southern Conference Tourney Champions. They have beaten some giants of college baseball including top seeded Florida and Oklahoma. The Bulldogs could be a possible sleeper to make things very intriguing in this regional. Offensively, they are very skilled at hitting the ball out of the ballpark, led by Brandon Miller who has 22 homeruns, followed up by Saxon Butler and Phillip Ervin with 14 and 10 respectively. Josh Martin anchors things on the mound as he is 12-1 this season with a 2.96 earned run average. The UAB Blazers, Conference USA tournament champions, are the second team from Birmingham in this Regional. The Blazers are a team that just finds a way to win when it counts. Offensively, they are led by Keith Depew’s .299 batting average, and on the mound Ben Bullard has been the most effective starter with a 2.96 earned run average. He has also demonstrated great control as he has only walked 19 over the course of 82 innings.
