Seminoles face tough road back to super regional

Posted 5:55AM on Friday 4th June 2004 ( 20 years ago )

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA - Florida State will try to build on its surprising Atlantic Coast Conference championship when it plays host to its eight consecutive NCAA baseball regional this weekend. The top-seeded host Seminoles (42-20) are very familiar with winning in college baseball's opening round and know how to run a tournament. They are seeking to wrap up a seventh consecutive regional title. That could be a challenge for coach Mike Martin's Seminoles, one of three conference champions in the four-team field, battling to advance to next weekend's super regional. ``Baseball is the most unpredictable game there is,'' said Martin, who coached the Seminoles to the ACC championship last weekend. Florida State's begins Friday against Bethune-Cookman (27-26), champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Big 12 champion Oklahoma State (37-22), the No. 2 seed, meets No. 3 Central Florida (44-16) in the other opening round game. First-year Oklahoma State coach Frank Anderson may have a leg up on the rest of the competition. Anderson was the pitching coach at Texas last season when the Longhorns came to Tallahassee and defeated FSU with a two-game sweep in the super regional. ``It's been a transition year, but it's been a fun year,'' said Anderson, whose Cowboys clinched the program's first postseason berth since 2001. ``The thing we've done throughout the season is we've competed at a pretty high level.'' So has UCF coach Jay Bergman's team, which has spent most of the season ranked nationally. The Golden Knights, who won the Atlantic Sun Conference regular season title, will lean heavily on one of the nation's top pitching staffs. ``(Pitching) is going to be the most important thing in this tournament,'' said Bergman, who will send right-hander Matt Fox (13-2) against Oklahoma State left-hander Spencer Grogan (12-2) in the opener. Though UCF has only two players with NCAA experience, playing in a regional at Florida State is nothing new for Bergman. Six of UCF's 10 regional appearances have been at Dick Howser Stadium. ``We've been here so many times, I'm thinking about changing my voter's registration,'' Bergman said. Bethune-Cookman coach Mervyl Melendez is just hopeful his fourth-seeded Wildcats don't take too long to get reacquainted with playing, after wrapping up their sixth consecutive NCAA berth on May 2. ``We've been off for five weeks,'' Melendez said. ``Fortunately, we've had some guys who have been here before. If we can pitch (after the layoff), we'll be competitive.''

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