After earning a top-eight national seed, the Florida State Seminoles baseball team will play at home through the super regionals in the 2018 College World Series. The top seed in the Tallahassee regional, the Seminoles will face the No. 4 seed Samford Bulldogs Friday at 7 p.m. EST at Dick Howser Stadium.
Florida State is 43-17 this season. The Seminoles are a strong 30-7 at home, while they have struggled a bit on the road, going 9-9. Thus, their home-field advantage is huge. Samford is 36-24 and has gone 13-9 on the road.
Game Odds
BetDSI Sportsbook has released odds, which you can view below, for this matchup.
Samford Bulldogs +260
Florida State Seminoles -380
Spread -3.5
Over/Under 9.5
Game Preview
Pundits expected Florida State would land a regional site and that expectation proved true. The others to do so: North Carolina, Clemson, and NC State.
The Seminoles came together and surged late in the season. Check out their full slate of games here. This marks the Seminoles’ 56th postseason appearance.
Check out the full Tallahassee regional bracket below.
Tallahassee here we come!
The Dogs earn the No. 4 seed the in @NCAACWS Tallahassee Regional and will take on No. 1 seed Florida State at 6 p.m. CT!#RoadToOmaha #SamfordStrong🐶🐾 pic.twitter.com/lDw0iUS5fG
— Samford Baseball (@samfordbaseball) May 28, 2018
Florida State Baseball is the No. 7 National seed and the Tallahassee Regional is set.#RoadToOmaha pic.twitter.com/hYgvF51NHF
— FSU Baseball (@FSUBaseball) May 28, 2018
Samford ended its season on a four-game winning streak and landed the No. 4 seed.
📸 from the @NCAACWS Selection Show Watch Party!
Gallery: https://t.co/34BQW8NhkF#SamfordStrong🐶🐾 pic.twitter.com/URZnXOeh0o
— Samford Baseball (@samfordbaseball) May 28, 2018
Prediction
The Bulldogs won the SoCon Tournament with back-to-back wins over Mercer (10-3 and 14-4) this past weekend. This may seem like a lopsided matchup, but there is quite a bit of parity in this bracket. It would not be shocking if a team other than FSU made a run.
Samford has a heck of a baseball team this year. https://t.co/6v2PxgLkeP
— Brian T (@TannPhoto) May 28, 2018
MSU’s head-to-head record in NCAA Tournament:
vs. Florida State: 6-4
vs. Oklahoma: 1-1
vs. Samford: 0-2
— DAWGS’ Baseball (@mwnbaseball) May 29, 2018
Our pick, however, is the favorite: Florida State. The Seminoles are surging when it matters most, and they’ve taken on tests this season, and come out on the other side better, in the challenging Atlantic Coast Conference. FSU has won 11 of its past 12 matchups.
The winner of this regional will play the winner of the Clemson regional.
CLEMSON REGIONAL
1️⃣ Clemson
2️⃣ Vanderbilt
3️⃣ St. John’s
4️⃣ Morehead State#RoadToOmaha pic.twitter.com/wjTS4h2rpG
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) May 28, 2018
Cal Raleigh led Florida State this season with 54 RBIs. He added 13 home runs.
The Bulldogs will also attempt to slow down the powerful Jackson Lueck, who had 15 home runs and 45 RBIs.
For Samford, Anthony Mulrine had 68 hits and 47 RBIs. Brooks Carlson had 76 hits and 44 RBIs.
Florida State will look to continue its dominance across the NCAA sporting landscape with a College World Series run.
Updated: 12 Power 5 teams made a bowl game, the NCAA basketball tournament, and the NCAA baseball tournament.
Auburn
Clemson
Duke
Florida State
N.C. State
Ohio State
Oklahoma
Purdue
Texas
A&M
Texas Tech
UCLA
— Matt Smith (@MattSmithCFB) May 28, 2018
