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Miami Herald
5 days ago
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Bethune-Cookman ready for ACC rematch on the diamond
Bethune-Cookman University heads into the NCAA Tallahassee Regional with momentum and belief, taking on host Florida State out of the ACC on Friday at 3 p.m. ET at Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium. The Wildcats (SWAC champions) enter the four-team regional as the No. 4 seed, while the Seminoles are the No. 9 national seed and ranked No. 7 in the latest Top 25. This marks Bethune-Cookman's sixth appearance in the Tallahassee Regional. The Wildcats are winless in 10 previous games, including five losses to Florida State. Head Coach Jonathan Hernandez, fresh off celebrating his daughter's high school graduation, believes this year's squad is different. "We come into this regional with nothing to lose. That makes us dangerous," Hernandez said. "Nobody expects us to win, but we believe." The Wildcats' belief is bolstered by a dramatic walk-off win over Florida A&M in the SWAC Championship, where Andrey Martinez's three-run homer capped a 19th come-from-behind victory of the season. Martinez tied the program's single-season home run record (20), and shortstop Jeter Polledo went 4-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored in the title game. Florida State (38-14), led by ACC Player and Defensive Player of the Year Alex Lodise, boasts a .315 team batting average and averages nearly eight runs per game. The Seminoles finished runner-up in the ACC and are making their 61st NCAA Tournament appearance. Bethune-Cookman will need another inspired performance to challenge the Seminoles and snap their postseason drought. Our Vaughn Wilson will be at the game embedded with the Wildcats. Stay with HBCU Gameday for updates, details and behind-the-scenes access with Bethune-Cookman University. The post Bethune-Cookman ready for ACC rematch on the diamond appeared first on HBCU Gameday. Copyright HBCU Gameday 2012-2025
American Press
22-05-2025
- Sport
- American Press
Scooter Hobbs column: SEC a mish-mash in a no-lose situation
The Southeastern Conference baseball tournament is underway. Enjoy it. Embrace it. Binge-watch it. Excuse me for repeating old news. But I know it's the best six-day baseball entertainment you're going to find that, in reality, signifies next to nothing. It's all a fairly harmless prelude to the latest round of SEC fatigue set for Monday when, according to reliable projections, the conference will put 13 teams into the NCAA tournament when the bracket is announced. Worse yet, the conference could and probably will land as many as six of the coveted top eight national seeds. Sorting out the top teams in the league is the only challenge. It's complicated by the fact that this year the whole week is single-elimination. That's not how baseball postseason is supposed to be played, but who cares when it really doesn't matter. Maybe the SEC is trying to prove you can expand to 16 teams, still get them all in one tournament bracket and get it done in less than a week on one field. There could be a Nobel prize for mathematics in the offing. But single-elimination doesn't do much for the (relative) bottom-feeders trying to make a deep run and the worst that can happen to the front runners is one loss. Hard to imagine much mobility. Anyway, things look as murky as could be, filled with contradictions. LSU is waiting it out assuming it has locked up a top eight seed regardless of what ensues. The website is the most reliable of the wide array of college ball's various ratings and rankings. It's run by unapologetic college baseball junkies who, even during football season, live and breathe the seam head intricacies like WHIP (walks, hits per inning pitched), BQR-S (bequeathed runners scored) and even the mathematically unexplainable WAR (wins above replacement). Maybe, so you don't have to. I once told Kendall Rogers, one of the co-owners, that he'd go crazy if he had to cover a game without a radar gun. Kyle Peterson, the face of college baseball like Kirk Herbstreit is to football, is another of the owners. I just know, even while waiting on a definition for a 'bequeathed runner,' that it's my go-to horsehide spot on the usually shaky internet. That said, I'm still trying to decipher its latest logic here. It has LSU as the No. 1 team in the country in its rankings. In fact, the Tigers are the consensus No. 1 when the various other polls check in. I'd say unanimous, but there are so many ratings I could have missed one. Explain, please. Never mind that the Tigers finished tied for third in the SEC and are the third seed in the tournament — if they ever get around to playing in it. That'll be on Friday night, we are promised, in an affair that began Tuesday morning and by then 11 of the 16 teams will already have been sent home. Maybe LSU will end up No. 1 in the end. But even apparently has some mixed emotions. The same website that ranks LSU No. 1 in its national rankings has the Tigers projected as the No. 7 national seed. That makes the No. 1 Tigers the No. 6 SEC team among the all-important top eight. That predicts LSU behind No.1 Texas (finally, some love for the regular season SEC champ), No. 2 Arkansas, No. 3 Vanderbilt, No. 5 Georgia and No. 6 Auburn. That would be fine with LSU, of course. All that matters is being in the top eight. The order doesn't mean squat. History says so. In fact, the Tigers will be hoping their eventual NCAA tournament seed does not catch up with their current poll ranking. It's one of college baseball's sacred superstitions. Still, just to clear up an urban legend, it is not true, as widely misreported, that the No. 1 overall national seed has never gone on to win the national championship in the current format. It might as well be, however. Since this (perfect) format began it has happened once — but that was the very first year of the change when Miami won it all as the top seed in 1999. In other words never in this century. So, yes, it's best to stay away from that No. 1 overall seed. And, by the way, a bequeathed runner is one left out on base by a pitcher who departs the game. Happy to clear that up.
USA Today
19-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Northeastern baseball is headed to the NCAA tournament by beating teams like a snare drum
Northeastern baseball is headed to the NCAA tournament by beating teams like a snare drum The Northeastern Huskies began their 2025 baseball season on a 4-5 slump. That's not especially surprising. College baseball's February start date is especially unkind to northern teams. Their first four weeks featured zero home games and road trips to North Carolina, Florida, California and Hawai'i. Once the Huskies got home, however, they began to beat New England's other teams like a snare drum. Northeastern sits at 45-9 as the Coastal Athletic Association tournament looms. Three more wins could officially punch an NCAA Tournament after a 25-2 romp through conference competition. That would be nice, but it's a formality. After a 24-game win streak, the Huskies sit at 19th in the poll. They're 25th in the RPI. Earning a regional hosting gig may be just out of reach, but even back-to-back losses this week would leave them no lower than a two seed in the 16 four-team pods that kick off each spring's 64-team road to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. How unlikely is this? Enough that USA Today's photo library has 36 pages of Northeastern Huskies athletics and zero pictures of its baseball team. Northeastern is a hockey school first and foremost. It also gave us Jose Juan Barea, the undersized guard who played 14 seasons in the NBA and helped the Dallas Mavericks win their first world championship. The diamond has produced few stars; 116 MLB draftees, 13 of which made it to the majors. The most successful was power-hitting first baseball Carlos Pena. Second place, in terms of career wins against replacement (WAR)? 30th-round reliever Adam Ottavino. This is to say the Huskies are often a good team from the northeast. But they've never been this good. Northeastern isn't merely beating teams en route to a program-record 45 wins. The club has left a trail of destruction in its wake. Monmouth got drubbed 34-10 in a three-game sweep. Hofstra went down by an aggregate of 19-1. Poor College of Charleston got packed up neatly and shipped back south without scoring a single run in Boston, losing by a total of 23-0. Even Kansas State, 17-13 in Big 12 play this season, got in on the action. The Wildcats made a rare trip to the east coast for a midweek two-game series. They lost 11-4 and 5-3. Northeastern isn't doing this with wild recruiting or gobs of NIL cash. Aside from freshman reliever Angel Cruz, who has made one appearance this spring, every player on the team is from either New York, New Jersey or New England. Four different players transferred up from Division III schools, including Jordan Gottesman, a left-handed starter who leads the team in strikeouts. Jack Goodman and Harrison Feinberg, two of the team's top batters, left the region to play on the west coast (Pepperdine and Southern California, respectively), transferred back home and are currently raking (24 home runs, 108 RBI between them). This is all remarkable, but not entirely unexpected. Northeastern is headed to its fourth NCAA tournament in the last six years it's been held (excluding 2020 thanks to Covid-19). The 2021 team went 20-3 in CAA play. The 2023 squad went 44-14. Head coach Mike Glavine -- a NU alum and, yep, brother of Tom -- has built a sustainable regional powerhouse. Northeastern is aiming for more. Those tournament invites resulted in zero wins, leaving the Huskies with little more than a participation trophy despite their place as a three-seed in each of those brackets. Four of their six NCAA Tournament losses have come by at least five runs. 2025 offers catharsis. Other Husky teams have been good. This one is at the threshold of greatness. 11 more wins in a row would give Northeastern the record for Division I baseball's longest winning streak. It would also rocket the program to a CAA tournament title, through the regional, past the Super Regional and into the College World Series final. That's asking a lot for a team that's only played 11 games against quadrant 1 or 2 competition (and has seen five of its nine losses come against them). But Northeastern's entire 2025 has been about beating the odds... and beating the brakes off its opponents.
Hamilton Spectator
12-05-2025
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
College baseball notebook: SEC leader Texas latest to get knocked off during Gators' late-season run
Florida's late-season surge keeps getting better. The Gators, who started 1-11 in SEC play, enter the final week of the regular season with wins in 12 of their last 15 conference games. They took two of three at Texas over the weekend for their first series win over a No. 1-ranked team since 2016. Florida (35-18, 13-14 SEC) has won five straight series, including against a top-five Arkansas last month, and has all but locked up a 17th straight NCAA Tournament bid. Before heading to Austin, the Gators were projected to be a No. 3 regional seed by . They were No. 13 in the RPI Monday and close at home against Alabama. Their run is reminiscent of last year, when they went into regionals one game over .500 and won five straight elimination games to reach the final four of the College World Series. Freshman left-hander Aidan King pitched seven shutout innings against the Longhorns on Sunday, allowing two hits and striking out nine, and Brody Donay hit his 14th homer in a 4-1 win. King has allowed one earned run over 14 1/3 innings across his last three starts. 'I don't remember a freshman pitching on the road like this and pitching as well as he did,' Gators coach Kevin O'Sullivan said, 'and if it has happened, it hasn't happened in a long time.' The Gators got three hits and three RBIs from Hayden Yost in their 8-2 win Friday. Texas won the second game 5-2 Saturday, scoring all of its runs in the sixth inning. In the polls LSU (40-12) is the No. 1 team in the and Baseball America rankings. The Tigers won two of three at home against Arkansas and three of their last four SEC series. D1Baseball ranks Florida State and Texas behind the LSU. The Seminoles (36-11) won four of five last week, including two of three against California, and is a half-game up on North Carolina State in the ACC. Texas (40-10), which started 38-5, has lost five of its last seven games but still holds a two-game lead over Arkansas in the SEC. Baseball America's Nos. 2 and 3 teams are Auburn and North Carolina. Auburn (36-15) is coming off a dominating sweep of South Carolina. The Tar Heels (37-11) split against NC State. Virginia on the rise Virginia (30-16) has won 10 of its last 11 following a three-game sweep of Miami, which had arrived in Charlottesville off five straight ACC series wins. The Cavaliers, who hit 116 homers in 63 games (1.84 per game) last season, went deep only 37 times in their first 35 games. They've turned up the power during this 11-game stretch, homering 25 times. Henry Godbout has hit five of them. Plunk, plunk, plunk Stanford salvaged a win over Grand Canyon in an unconventional way Sunday. The Cardinal went to bat in the bottom of the sixth down 8-0, scored 15 runs over four innings to tie it 15-all and won 16-15 when Gray Bailey hit three straight batters to force in the winning run in the 10th. Cleanup spot Iowa, Oregon and UCLA head into the final regular-season weekend alive for the Big Ten title. Iowa and Oregon play in Iowa City with the Hawkeyes holding a two-game lead over the third-place Ducks. UCLA, one game behind Iowa, hosts 12th-place Northwestern. ... West Virginia will clinch the Big 12 title if it wins one of three against third-place Kansas at home. Second-place Arizona State, which visits Oklahoma State, remains alive. ... Southern's Cardell Thibodeaux is on pace to have the highest batting average in Division I since 2021. Thibodeaux is batting .453 with 18 homers after batting .235 with three homers at Louisiana-Monroe last year. ... Evan Siary struck out 15 and walked none in eight shutout innings in Mississippi State's 4-1 win over Mississippi on Friday. Siary matched the national season high for strikeouts among power-conference pitchers. ___ AP college sports:
Winnipeg Free Press
12-05-2025
- Sport
- Winnipeg Free Press
College baseball notebook: SEC leader Texas latest to get knocked off during Gators' late-season run
Florida's late-season surge keeps getting better. The Gators, who started 1-11 in SEC play, enter the final week of the regular season with wins in 12 of their last 15 conference games. They took two of three at Texas over the weekend for their first series win over a No. 1-ranked team since 2016. Florida (35-18, 13-14 SEC) has won five straight series, including against a top-five Arkansas last month, and has all but locked up a 17th straight NCAA Tournament bid. Before heading to Austin, the Gators were projected to be a No. 3 regional seed by They were No. 13 in the RPI Monday and close at home against Alabama. Their run is reminiscent of last year, when they went into regionals one game over .500 and won five straight elimination games to reach the final four of the College World Series. Freshman left-hander Aidan King pitched seven shutout innings against the Longhorns on Sunday, allowing two hits and striking out nine, and Brody Donay hit his 14th homer in a 4-1 win. King has allowed one earned run over 14 1/3 innings across his last three starts. 'I don't remember a freshman pitching on the road like this and pitching as well as he did,' Gators coach Kevin O'Sullivan said, 'and if it has happened, it hasn't happened in a long time.' The Gators got three hits and three RBIs from Hayden Yost in their 8-2 win Friday. Texas won the second game 5-2 Saturday, scoring all of its runs in the sixth inning. In the polls LSU (40-12) is the No. 1 team in the and Baseball America rankings. The Tigers won two of three at home against Arkansas and three of their last four SEC series. D1Baseball ranks Florida State and Texas behind the LSU. The Seminoles (36-11) won four of five last week, including two of three against California, and is a half-game up on North Carolina State in the ACC. Texas (40-10), which started 38-5, has lost five of its last seven games but still holds a two-game lead over Arkansas in the SEC. Baseball America's Nos. 2 and 3 teams are Auburn and North Carolina. Auburn (36-15) is coming off a dominating sweep of South Carolina. The Tar Heels (37-11) split against NC State. Virginia on the rise Virginia (30-16) has won 10 of its last 11 following a three-game sweep of Miami, which had arrived in Charlottesville off five straight ACC series wins. The Cavaliers, who hit 116 homers in 63 games (1.84 per game) last season, went deep only 37 times in their first 35 games. They've turned up the power during this 11-game stretch, homering 25 times. Henry Godbout has hit five of them. Plunk, plunk, plunk Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Stanford salvaged a win over Grand Canyon in an unconventional way Sunday. The Cardinal went to bat in the bottom of the sixth down 8-0, scored 15 runs over four innings to tie it 15-all and won 16-15 when Gray Bailey hit three straight batters to force in the winning run in the 10th. Cleanup spot Iowa, Oregon and UCLA head into the final regular-season weekend alive for the Big Ten title. Iowa and Oregon play in Iowa City with the Hawkeyes holding a two-game lead over the third-place Ducks. UCLA, one game behind Iowa, hosts 12th-place Northwestern. … West Virginia will clinch the Big 12 title if it wins one of three against third-place Kansas at home. Second-place Arizona State, which visits Oklahoma State, remains alive. … Southern's Cardell Thibodeaux is on pace to have the highest batting average in Division I since 2021. Thibodeaux is batting .453 with 18 homers after batting .235 with three homers at Louisiana-Monroe last year. … Evan Siary struck out 15 and walked none in eight shutout innings in Mississippi State's 4-1 win over Mississippi on Friday. Siary matched the national season high for strikeouts among power-conference pitchers. ___ AP college sports:
