Baseball
Buckeyes Make NCAA Tournament as At-Large Selection, Travel to Tallahassee.
By John PorentasOhio State began this season by playing it's first 21 games in Florida. They won 18 of them. The Buckeyes will now begin the final phase of the season, the NCAA tournament, once again in Florida as a participant in the Tallahassee Regional in the NCAA tournament.
OSU's regional foes will be Florida State (39-20), Georgia (37-22) and Marist (31-26). The Seminoles are the number one seed in the region and the No. 8 seed overall in the NCAA field of 64. Georgia is the No. 2 seed in the region, the Buckeyes the No. 3 seed and Marist the No. 4. Ohio State will begin tournament play against Georgia in a game scheduled for noon on Friday.
"We're in, that's all that matters," said OSU senior captain Justin Miller.
"We did well down in Florida early in the season. Maybe we can go back down there and make some noise," Miller said.
Regional play is conducted in a double-elimination format with the two losers from the first day meeting on the second day in an elimination game. The two winners on the opening day will play on day two with the loser meeting the winner of the elimination game for the right to play the remaining undefeated team in the regional championship game. Should the team coming out of the loser's bracket win that championship game a second championship game is played. The regional champion then moves on to one of 16 super-regionals, each a two of three series to qualify for the College World Series in Omaha.
The Buckeyes are 7-7 this season against teams who are in this year's field of 64. Three of those losses were to Minnesota, one to Indiana. one to Kent State and two to Louisville. Their wins came against Minnesota, Miami of Florida, Army (2), Indiana, George Mason and Xavier.
Georgia, OSU's opponent on Friday, is led by junior first baseman/third baseman Rich Poythress. Poythress is hitting .370 with 21 homeruns and 77 RBI. As a team, Georgia has hit 98 homeruns this year and boast five players with double-digit homeruns totals. In addition to Poythress Bryce Massanari has hit 19, Joey Lewis 16, Colby May 11 and Matt Cerione 10.
The Big Ten placed three teams in the NCAA tournament this year, OSU, Indiana and Minnesota. The Gophers are a two-seed in the LSU region while Indiana is a four-seed in the Louisville region.
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