Sports

FSU, Georgia among top eight

• Florida State is seeded fourth, and Georgia eighth in the NCAA baseball playoffs and will host regionals. Georgia Tech also is among the 64 teams and will play in Athens.

Scott Chancey

The road to Omaha begins this weekend.

Florida State (48-10) and Georgia (35-31-1) were chosen among the eight national seeds, enterg in the postseason as the fourth and eighth seeds, respectively. They will host double-elimination regionals beginning Friday as well as a best-of-3 Super Regional the next weekend if they advance that far. Georgia Tech (39-19) also is among the field of 64 teams and will play in the Athens Regional.

Miami is the top seed, followed by North Carolina (46-12), Arizona State (45-11), Cal State Fullerton (37-19) at fifth, Rice (42-13) and LSU (43-16-1).

The Tallahassee Regional also includes Florida, Tulane and Bucknell, and the Seminoles begin play against Bucknell at 7 p.m. Friday. Former Lee County star Buster Posey was an All-ACC Tournament selection and leads the nation in three offensive statistical categories. He and younger brother, Jack, will once again be part of a team trying to win coach Mike Martin his first College World Series, which begins June 14. Buster Posey has 19 home runs, 20 doubles, four triples, 73 RBI and a .467 batting average. Jack Posey bats .267 with two homers, four doubles and 15 RBI.

"I like this team. I like the way this team approaches the game," Martin said on Seminoles.com about his team that won the ACC Atlantic title during the regular season. "I could not stop talking to my wife on the way home from Jacksonville (site of the ACC tournament) about the way this team played their last game against North Carolina (which Posey tied with a clutch single in the top of the ninth against and the Seminoles won, 9-6, Saturday). If there ever was a chance for character to surface it was in that game. I know we have used that word (character) all season long but my gosh, they played that game like it was a regional tournament. Bang plays at the plate, guys falling over, just playing their hearts out, in a game that probably didn't have any meaning on the outcome of (Monday).

But it just goes to show you what kind of competitors this team is made of."

Martin is still trying to figure out Bucknell.

"Bucknell is a team we know nothing about," Martin said. "All I remember in this business is that I had never heard of Marshall in 1978. The guys were over confident and we were shut out by Marshall in Miami. Bucknell ... they're an outstanding team and therefore they're in the tournament. Any team that's in the field of 64 is an outstanding team. Bucknell is going to be a very competitive team that we will certainly not overlook or take lightly."

The Bulldogs, who won the SEC regular season title, will host not only Tech, but also Louisville (41-19) and Lipscomb (32-28). Georgia plays Lipscomb at 3 p.m. Friday and Tech plays Louisville at 7.

Georgia is making its ninth NCAA postseason appearance in school history including its fourth under David Perno, who was recently named the SEC Coach of the Year. Perno now has taken more Bulldog tams to the NCAA postseason than any baseball coach in school history. Georgia won the College World Series in 1990.

"We're very excited to be one o the national seeds, and I think we were rewarded for being SEC Champions and playing one of the nation's toughest schedules," Perno said on Georgiadogs.com. "I am proud and happy for the team, they played excellent baseball for 90 percent of the regular season. We were no punished for not playing that well at the end when we had the SEC title locked up and were banged up at the SEC Tournament. We split with Florida State at their place and beat LSU twice in Baton Rouge during the season and they are national seeds.

The Bulldogs, however, lost against Georgia Tech in two of their three regular-season games.

"It will be a challenge, we've got a tough regional, but I'm not complaining too much. They are called 'regionals,' so I knew we had a chance to see Georgia Tech again, and we've faced Louisville recently too," Perno added. "We know each other and we'll start preparing for Lipscomb (Monday)."

Georgia has faced Tech in four previous NCAA appearances (1987, 2001 and 2002 Regionals and 2004 Super Regional). In NCAA meetings, Georgia is 4-2 against Tech. Georgia went 1-2 versus the Yellow Jackets this season and last faced Louisville in 2006 in Athens, sweeping a three-game set. The Bulldogs are 1-0 against the Cardinals in NCAA Regional action, beating them at the 2002 NCAA Atlanta Regional. This will be the first meeting with Lipscomb.

The Yellow Jackets, who have two players with area ties – Lee County's Thomas Nichols and Second-Team All-ACC pick Charlie Blackmon, whose mother is from Albany – hope to put their ACC tournament losses against Miami and Clemson behind them. Nichols, who homered against Clemson on Saturday ,bats .289 with seven homers, 15 doubles, two triples and 36 RBI. Blackmon leads Tech with a .391 batting average, 12 doubles, three triples and 42 RBI.

"We are excited to be headed back to the NCAA Tournament," Georgia Tech head coach Danny Hall said on Ramblinwreck.com. "We are looking forward to competing in Athens and since it's in our home state, it will be great for Georgia Tech fans to come over to support us."

Georgia Tech has posted a 54-47 record in its 23 years of NCAA play. The Jackets won regionals in 1994, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006, advancing to the College World Series in 1994, 2002 and 2006.