Florida Gators baseball gets No. 2 seed in NCAA Tournament, will host Gainesville Regional

Florida Gators baseball was awarded the No. 2 overall seed in the 2014 NCAA Tournament on Monday, entering the postseason event for the seventh-straight year, but will be faced with a tough road if it wants to advance to the College World Series for the fourth time in five seasons.

The top seed in the self-hosted Gainesville Regional, Florida (40-21) will open play Friday at 7 p.m. against four-seed College of Charleston (41-17). Two-seed Long Beach State (32=24) and three-seed North Carolina (34-25) meet at 1 p.m. in the opening game of the double-elimination regional.

Every game of the Gainesville Regional will air live on ESPN3.com with action continuing through Sunday or Monday (if necessary).

The winner will take on the victor out of the Coral Gables Regional, which features Miami, Texas Tech, Columbia and Bethune-Cookman. If the Gators win, they will host a Super Regional at McKethan Stadium in Gainesville, Florida.

Consensus among experts analyzing Florida’s regional is that UF has an exceptionally difficult field considering it is the second seed in the nation, especially with College of Charleston in as the lowest seed in the bracket. According to Baseball America‘s Aaron Fit, tournament committee chairman Dennis Farrell explained on a conference call held after the bracket’s release that College of Charleston was placed in Gainesville and Bethune-Cookman assigned to Coral Gables due solely to driving distance.

The Gators are making their 30th all-time appearance in regional play but still looking for their first-ever national championship. Florida has reached the College World Series eight times and played for the national title twice (2005, 2011).