FSU vs. UCLA: Regional Preview, Guide, NCAA Tournament Stream

The Seminoles (33-23) travel to the Auburn area for their 44th straight NCAA postseason appearance. After a shaky end to the regular season, FSU finished third in the region. The host Auburn Tigers are the one seed, with FSU’s first opponent UCLA Bruins as the second seed and the Southeastern Louisiana Lions as the fourth seed.

On Friday, Florida State defeated UCLA 5-3 while Auburn defeated Southeastern Louisiana 19-7. The Seminoles then faced the Tigers on Saturday, falling 7 runs back in the fourth inning en route to a 21-7 blowout win – a trend in the region that saw UCLA beat the Lions 16-2.

The Seminoles and Bruins now face off at 2 p.m. Sunday, with the loser eliminated and the winner securing at least one game against Auburn. Should the FSU vs. UCLA winner beat Auburn, they must defeat the Tigers again in a back-to-back game on Monday.

Breakdown of the Auburn Regional

Chestnut Tigers (38-19)

Maroon top performers

• 1B Sonny DiChiara: 0.378 AVG/ 0.787 SLG/ 18 hrs
• 3B Blake Rambusch: .349 AVG/ .457 SLG/ 16SB
• RF Bobby Pierce: .312 AVG/ .584 SLG/ 7 hrs
• RHP Joseph Gonzalez: 6-2, 2.74 ERA, 3.9 K/BB
• RHP Blake Burkhalter: 4-2, 3.76 ERA, 13 saves

Auburn boasts the best offense in the region with good pop and average across the lineup and not a ton of strikeouts. DiChiara is certainly the highlight of the Auburn offense. The senior does everything you could want from someone at the plate. He punches for average and strength, but goes a lot further than punches. The key to dealing with DiChiara is making sure his bases are empty when he hits the plate.

Pitching is a different matter with Auburn. They don’t really have a great pen, but a few pieces here and there. Burkhalter is probably her best arm out of the pen with a high K-rate and low average. However, he was vulnerable to long ball. Auburn will throw their Friday night starter Trace Bright on Friday, which means if FSU were going to face Auburn on Saturday, they’d likely be going against Gonzalez. Gonzalez isn’t much of a strikeout guy, but he does a good job of playing on his defense and the Tigers have one of the best in the country.

UCLA Bruins (39-23)

UCLA top performers

• SS Cody Schreier: 0.293 AVG/ 70 hrs/ 9 hrs
• RF Michael Curialle: .326 AVG/ 72H/ 25XBH
• 1B Jake Palmer: .314 AVG/ .395 SLG/ 69H
• RHP Max Rajcic: 8-4, 3.08 ERA, 5.1 K/BB
• RHP Kelly Austin: 4-3, 4.33 ERA, 4.2 K/BB

The Bruins could be the best team top-to-bottom in the region if it weren’t for their injury woes. UCLA had a very good class early in the year and saw some good results from that class before losing players here and there. The line-up probably won’t excite fans, but they’re a typical West Coast team who can play some good small balls and deliver difficult outs from one through nine. Freshman shortstop Schrier is probably their most dangerous hitter but missed the Pac-12 tournament with an injury. He is expected back this weekend.

Another player who missed the second year of the Pac-12 tournament, Rajcic had an impressive season. He is expected to face FSU and make up the other half of what is likely to be the best pitching duel of the day as he meets Parker Messick. UCLA has a good pen and they’ll be tough, but they could struggle as the region goes on due to injury holes in their staff.

Southeast Louisiana Lions (30-31)

SE Louisiana top performers

• 1B Preston Faulkner: 0.343 AVG/ 0.685 SLG/ 17 hrs
• 3B Shea Thomas: .294 AVG/ .435 SLG/ 6 hrs
• SS Evan Keller: 0.259 AVG/ 0.455 SLG/ 10 hrs
• RHP Will Kinzeler: 4-2, 3.60 ERA, 1.9K/BB
• RHP Spur Trahan: 4-4, 4.15 ERA, 11 saves

The Lions wouldn’t win the tournament on record alone, but they were able to win both playoffs from conference headliner McNeese State to earn a postseason spot. Ace Kinzeler will likely pitch against Auburn and their initial pitching tends to fall off after that.

Similarly, their hitting falls to Faulkner, but he’s a good hitter. Southeastern Louisiana will try to cause problems on the base paths as they walk quite a bit. Anything can happen in a regional league and the Lions are certainly hot right now.

Friday schedule

FSU vs. UCLA

Florida State wins 5-3

From TomahawkNation.com:

The Seminoles scored in the first and Parker Messick threw five strong innings to give the FSU a 5-3 opening game win in the Auburn area.

Messick’s line of five innings, two runs, four strikeouts and two walks doesn’t look good, but he was dominating through the fifth inning. UCLA is a talented team and not one that will hit much, but Messick has induced many weak contacts. All in all, he finished the game on a good start and relinquished his peg the game with the lead, and that’s all you can ask from a pitcher.

From UCLA:

UCLA right-hander Max Rajcic (8-5) absorbed the loss, allowing four runs and five hits in six frames.

“It was a hard fought game, I think both teams did a really good job putting two pretty good pitchers in some tough situations,” said UCLA head coach John Savage. “We had some chances, though [Florida State] used their opportunities a bit more than we did.”

box score

Auburn vs. Southeast Louisiana

Auburn wins 19-7

From Auburn:

Cole Foster cracked three of Auburn’s seven home runs and drove nine away to lead the Tigers to a 19-7 win on Friday’s opening day of standing-room Auburn Regional at Plainsman Park. Ahead of Auburn’s first home game in Auburn in 12 years, head coach Butch Thompson called the Tigers’ recent offensive problems “the elephant in the room.” Auburn responded quickly to those concerns by hitting 11 first-inning runs and matching the Tigers’ combined performance of their previous four games in just one inning. “Great night for us,” Thompson said. “The whole lineup came out swinging. We looked for it. When you see them invest in something and get rewarded for it, it feels good.”

From Southeast Louisiana:

Evan Keller and Tristan Welch led SLU with two hits each on the record. Keller and Shea Thomas each had two runs while Tyler Finke hit a solo home run for the Lions. The Tigers outplayed SLU starter Adam Guth (4-2) in the bottom of the first inning. After a leadoff single from Blake Rambusch, Cole Foster launched a home run high over the 30-foot left field wall to give AU the early advantage. Two batters later, Bobby Peirce padded the lead with a two-run shot over the centerfield fence. Later in the frame, Foster cleared the bases with a grand slam while co-SEC Player of the Year Sonny DiChiera followed with a solo home run of his own. All in all, the first eight Auburn batters reached and SLU fell in an early 11-0 hole in an inning that saw 14 Tigers hit the plate.

Southeastern put on a crooked number for the second straight inning in the top of the third. A double single by Thomas pulled the Lions inside 13-3. SLU added to their tally at the top of fourth as back-to-back doubles from Christian Garcia and Welch cut Auburn’s lead to 13-4. Auburn added to his tally by the end of the fourth inning. Foster’s third home run of the contest — a three-run shot over the right field fence — pushed the Tigers’ lead to 16-4. Nate LaRue’s second home run of the game extended Auburn’s lead to 17-4 after six innings.

Saturday schedule

Southeastern Louisiana vs. UCLA, 1 p.m. ET

From UCLA:

The 2nd-seeded UCLA baseball team scored 19 total hits in a 16-2 win over 4th-seeded Southeastern Louisiana in a playoff game Saturday afternoon at Auburn’s Plainsman Park.

Five UCLA pitchers combined to limit Southeastern Louisiana (30-31) to two runs and three hits over nine innings. Additionally, UCLA’s 16 runs were the most in an NCAA tournament game since a 17–7 triumph over Oklahoma on June 5, 2004.

“It’s an elimination game, so you have to fire,” said UCLA head coach John Savage. “We did a good job swinging the bats. I thought we matched a lot of good bats, we hit some balls hard. I thought we were patient when we needed to be patient and we were aggressive when we needed to be aggressive.” The Bruins scored in six of nine innings and hit base in each of the first eight frames. Overall, four UCLA players finished Saturday’s game with at least three hits.

Florida State vs. Auburn, 7 p.m. ET

From TomahawkNation.com:

The Florida State baseball team struggled from the start and never seemed to find a foothold in the Auburn Tigers’ loss to the Seminoles. Auburn went over seven runs in the fourth inning en route to a 21-7 Florida State blowout.

It was clear from the first shot that Bryce Hubbart’s control wasn’t there tonight. He seemed to be struggling with his grip and his off-speed pitches were either in the middle or well outside of the strike zone. Auburn was able to sit on the fastball and make Hubbart pay. The sophomore lasted just 2.1 innings with a line of 4H, 3R, 2ER, 2K, 3BB.

After Hubbart, the bullpen fared no better. Whittaker lasted .2 innings, Dunn allowed three hits and four runs without recording an out, and McMullen went five batters. Armstrong walked three and dropped two and eventually Simmons allowed two home runs in ninth place. A total disaster of one night for the FSU pitchers.

Saturday schedule

Florida State vs. UCLA, 2 p.m. ET

UCLA/Florida State vs. Auburn, 7 p.m. ET

Tomahawk Nation will have updates in the game thread and on ours Twitter.