Southern and Bethune-Cookman To Make Short Trips to NCAA Baseball Regionals

SWAC Champion Southern University and MEAC titleist Bethune-Cookman College will make short trips for the first round of the NCAA Division I Baseball Playoffs.

Southern travels across town to face Louisiana State while B-CC visits Florida following bracket announcements for the College World Series.

"Listen we have a great opportunity to go out and do something good, right here in our own back yard against one of the premier programs in the country," said Roger Cador, the Southern Jaguars head coach.

The last time Southern University won in a regional, it was against Smoke Laval, LSU's current coach, when he was skipper of Louisiana-Monroe.

The Jaguars (45-8) will take on the top-seeded Tigers of LSU (40-19) at 2 p.m., while the No. 2 seed Ragin' Cajuns of UL-Lafayette (37-21), will take on No. 3 seed Tulane (35-25) at 7 p.m. beginning Friday at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge.

The Bethune-Cookman baseball team let out a hearty cheer Monday afternoon when they found out where they wouldn't be playing when the NCAA baseball tournament begins this weekend.

After two consecutive trips to Tallahassee, the Wildcats learned they will head to Gainesville to face the Gators, Miami and Florida International.

B-CC (38-20) will take on Florida (43-17) Friday night at 7 p.m. as the fourth-seed in the regional. In their regular season meeting April 17, Florida held off a late rally for a 5-4 victory. B-CC also dropped two games to FIU.

"It's a little disappointing because we've worked hard for a third seed,'' said B-CC coach Meryvl Melendez. "But you can't argue with the committee and their decision. I'm just happy we're going to Gainesville and not Tallahassee.

"We know everyone we'll be playing, but then again, they know us as well," Melendez added. "No one is going to take us lightly, whereever we go."

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