The University of Florida baseball team learned on Monday afternoon that it was awarded the top national seed for the 2012 NCAA Baseball Tournament that begins on Friday at McKethan Stadium. Making their 28th Regional appearance and fifth in a row under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan, the top-seeded Gators (42-18) will face fourth-seeded Bethune-Cookman (34-25) at 7 p.m. Second-seeded Georgia Tech (36-24) will meet third-seeded College of Charleston (37-20) earlier in the day at 1 p.m. The entire Gainesville Regional will be carried on ESPN3. This marks the fourth-consecutive year that UF has been a national seed (No. 8 in 2009, No. 3 in 2010 and No. 2 in 2011).
“Obviously, this is a great time of the year for everybody,” O’Sullivan said. “We’re excited to be in it. We’re excited to be home. Obviously, we’re going to have to play well if we want to advance. Our only concern right now is on Bethune (Cookman) and hopefully we have a great week of practice. I like this team going forward, but it’s one game at a time and we’re going to have to play well. Our regional is a tough one and we’ll just worry about one game at a time.”
The Regional continues through Sunday, with a final game to be played Monday night, if necessary. The Gainesville Regional winner will face the winner of the Raleigh Regional in a Super Regional series next weekend. The eight Super Regional winners advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
UF is 80-58 (.580) all-time in NCAA Tournament action and has reached the CWS seven times: 1988, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2005, 2010 and 2011. Last season, the Gators defeated Manhattan (17-3) and Miami (Fla.) twice (5-4 and 11-4) to sweep the Gainesville Regional before downing Mississippi State twice in three games to win the Gainesville Super Regional. UF claimed its bracket in Omaha to reach the CWS Championship Finals for the second time in school history and fell to South Carolina.
2012 NCAA Gainesville Regional Schedule
Friday, June 1
Game 1: 1 p.m. - No. 3 College of Charleston (37-20) vs. No. 2 Georgia Tech (36-24) (ESPN3)
Game 2: 7 p.m. - No. 4 Bethune-Cookman (34-25) vs. No. 1 FLORIDA (42-18) (ESPN3)
Saturday, June 2
Game 3: 1 p.m. - Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2 (ESPN3)
Game 4: 7 p.m. - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 (ESPN3)
Sunday, June 3
Game 5: 12 p.m. - Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4 (ESPN2/ESPN3)
Game 6: 7 p.m. - Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5 (ESPN3)
Monday, June 4
Game 7: (if necessary) – 7 p.m. - Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6 (ESPN3)
The national top eight seeds are Florida (42-18), UCLA (42-14), Florida State (43-15), Baylor (44-14), Oregon (42-17), North Carolina (44-14), LSU (43-16) and South Carolina (40-17).
