Miami baseball heading to Gators’ Gainesville for the NCAA tournament as No. 2 seed
The Miami Hurricanes added another notch Monday to their newest postseason streak on the road to the College World Series in Omaha — and they’ll begin at a place that rankles the nerves of any longtime University of Miami fan.
After a 2020 season cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hurricanes will return to the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament by traveling to Gainesville — home of the in-state nemesis Florida Gators — for one of 16 first-round, double-elimination regionals of the 64-team tourney.
Miami began its 2021 season in Gainesville by beating the Gators in two of three games, but will not open the regional against UF.
The Atlantic Coast Conference Hurricanes (32-19), seeded No. 2 in Gainesville, will face No. 3 seed South Alabama (33-20), winner of the Sun Belt Conference tournament, in their regional opener at 5 p.m. Friday (ACC Network). The Southeastern Conference Gators (38-20) are the No. 1 regional seed and No. 15 national seed and will face No. 4 regional seed USF (28-27) at noon Friday (SEC Network).
“Right now we’re just trying to pull up as much information as we can on schools,’’ UM coach Gino DiMare said. “It’s like a hurry-up-and-get-ready type of deal... Florida, we do know a lot about each other, but you can’t get to Florida if you don’t take care of the first game.
“The urgency is pretty simple. It’s right there in front of you. It will be over for a lot of teams at the end of this weekend. It’s been a little bit of a roller-coaster season. We went 0-2 in the ACC [tournament]. We gotta score more runs, we gotta swing the bat better. Hopefully we can catch on fire this weekend with our offense.’’
UM is 15-8 all-time against South Alabama, last facing the Jaguars in 1997.
“It is a brand new ballpark at Florida, probably one of the best stadiums in the country and a great opponent in Miami — we’re excited,’’ Jaguars coach Mark Calvi said on the South Alabama website. “This has been a special team that gives everything they’ve got, and I couldn’t be happier for them.”
Miami’s bracket
Miami’s regional bracket is paired against the Austin Regional, which includes No. 2 national seed Texas (42-15), No. 4 regional seed Southern (20-28), No. 2 regional seed Arizona State (32-20) and No. 3 Fairfield (37-3). Thus, the winner of the Gainesville Regional will play the winner of the Austin Regional in the next round of the tournament, the best-of-three-game super regionals June 11-14.
The unranked Canes would likely (but not definitely) have to face the Gators, ranked 12th by Baseball America, to advance out of the regional.
The good news for UM is that the Hurricanes have played in UF’s new $65 million Florida Ballpark in Gainesville and took that three-game, opening-weekend series against the then-ranked No. 1 Gators with 10-9 and 8-6 victories the last two games.
The bad news for UM is that when facing Florida, the Canes have lost their last eight postseason games dating to 2009. And if they should meet again this time around, unlike early in the season because of the pandemic, the NCAA is allowing a capacity crowd.
UM is 132-128-1 all-time against Florida.
Fans galore
“It’s awesome,’’ said UM pitcher Daniel Federman, who started in the season-opening loss. “The crowd will be a little bit bigger but we’re going to have some Miami fans there, I know that. It will be really cool to go back there. It’s going to be a great environment.”
The eight super regional host sites will be announced by the NCAA on Tuesday, June 8 at approximately 8 a.m. All eight super regional hosts will be selected from the 16 regional hosts.
This is the Hurricanes’ 47th trip to the postseason and second NCAA Tournament since their 44-year national-record streak ended in 2017 when they were left out of the tournament field. They also didn’t make the tournament in 2018.
UM’s last trip to a regional was in 2019, when they traveled to Starkville, Mississippi and went 2-2, ultimately eliminated by No. 6 national seed Mississippi State.
“That atmosphere was out-of-control amazing,’’ UM infielder Anthony Vilar said of the 2019 regional. “We’re just ready to get back into that atmosphere with all that energy — fun baseball, competitive baseball — and win some games.”
College World Series
The Hurricanes, winners of national titles in 1982, 1985, 1999 and 2001, have been to the College World Series 25 times, winning 48 games there. After the super regionals, the final eight teams standing advance to the CWS, which begins June 19 at TD Ameritrade Park. A capacity crowd will be allowed and is expected.
The Gators’ national championship came in 2017. They’ve been to the College World Series 12 times.
There were 30 Division I conference champions which received automatic berths in the field of 64, and 34 at-large selections Monday by the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee.
▪ Florida State (30-22) is the No. 3 seed in the Oxford, Mississippi Regional and will face No. 2 seed Southern Miss (37-19) at 3 p.m. Friday (ESPNU). No. 12 national seed Ole Miss (41-19) will face No. 4 regional seed Southeast Missouri State (30-20) at 8 p.m. (ESPN3).
This story was originally published May 31, 2021 at 12:36 PM.
