Field of 64: FSU baseball named No. 3 seed in Auburn Regional

FSU baseball (33-23) will make the postseason for the record-tying 44th consecutive year after making it as one of the last four, according to ESPN.

They won’t host a regional after a mini-collapse in the final week of the regular season, losing to Florida and a series sweep against North Carolina.

However, they will be a No. 3 seed in the Auburn Regional, which is better than an earlier projection with the Noles in the Tennessee regional.

FSU baseball will take on the No. 2 seed UCLA Bruins (38-22) in their first matchup.

One of the first teams out of the field was NC State, which FSU baseball needed a 17-inning walk-off to help win that series. How big is that win in hindsight? What type of ripple effect would that have had if the Noles didn’t make the tournament for the first time in over 40 years?

UCLA finished their season with a No. 48 RPI ranking compared to No. 29 for the Noles.

Both teams had one common opponent, the California Bears, both winning two of three against them. The Bruins and Noles are similar teams, both will not light the world on fire offensively, but have good pitching that can carry them. UCLA has a slightly better fielding percentage overall. The No. 1 overall seed Auburn has a better offense, but FSU likely has the better starting pitching. However, Auburn has an excellent field percentage of .980, which is much better than the Noles.

It’ll be interesting to see which FSU baseball team shows up. FSU has the starting pitching to go toe-to-toe with anyone when they’re on, but even that’s been somewhat of a question lately. Can the offense put up enough runs to consistently give the Noles a shot to win?

The NCAA Tournament will begin play, Friday, June 3rd.