NCAA regional taking two Albany State players close to home

ALBANY — There will be a bit of familiarity to Albany State’s NCAA Division II baseball regional for Roman Oliu and Tyler Morris.

In a sense, they’ll be heading back home. Oliu, from Tampa, and Morris, from Middleburg, Florida, both grew up a fairly short distance from Lakeland, Florida, where the Golden Rams begin play today in the South Regional hosted by Florida Southern.

“I’m looking forward to seeing all my friends and family down there,” said Oliu, who played for Armwood High School in Seffner, located about 25 miles from Lakeland on Tampa’s east side.

Oliu, a starting pitcher, and Morris, Albany State’s starting first baseman and SIAC Tournament MVP, both get a chance to take on teams they grew up near. Another ASU starter, shortstop Chasen Roulhac, is also from Florida, coming from the Panhandle community of Blountstown.

The regional Albany State is entered in presents the Rams with an interesting situation. The seventh seed in the seven-team South Region, Albany State (28-16) enters with the lowest winning percentage of the teams in a regional filled with Division II powers. The teams playing this weekend in Lakeland account for 18 NCAA Division II titles, with the top four seeds all ranked in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Top 25.

The Rams, however, have won nine straight and 12 out of their past 13 games. They also beat their initial opponent, No. 2 seed Tampa, twice in a three-game series in early March.

“Those teams are really good, and we’ve been playing really well,” Morris said. “We’re not going down there thinking we’re just going to go in there and roll over and lose two games. We’re going to compete our butts off and try our best to go in there and win the tournament.”

While Albany State is scoring plenty of runs, putting up 46 in four games in the SIAC Tournament, pitching and defense have also worked well for the Rams in recent games.

ASU had just three errors during the conference tournament. The Rams also didn’t have to go to the bullpen often during the tournament, with starting pitchers Michael Reddick and Tyler Wilcher going the distance in the final two games and just one reliever used in each of the first two contests.

The Rams finished the season with the second-best ERA (5.48) in the SIAC behind Spring Hill, which was ineligible for the conference tournament as it continues its transition into NCAA Division II. ASU also had the conference’s best fielding percentage with a .950 mark.

“We’re doing a little less than one error per game, and that’s our key to winning, limiting free passes and not giving up extra bases and don’t let their 3-4-5 (batters) hurt you into a big inning,” ASU head coach Scot Hemmings said. “Our coaches (Davis Knapp and Aaron Everett) have bought into that and have been phenomenal.”

Inclement weather is expected to cause changes in the tournament schedule as the weekend progresses. As of late afternoon Wednesday, weather.com forecast at least an 80 percent chance of thunderstorms every day through Sunday, with the chances dropping to 40 percent Monday.

ASU’s game against Tampa (39-9) is scheduled for a 3 p.m. start today. Third-seeded Delta State (40-9) opens the regional at 11 a.m. against No. 6 Mississippi College (33-15). No. 4 Nova Southeastern (34-14) and No. 5 Montevallo (35-17) are set for a 7 p.m. first pitch.

A Rams loss today sends the team to an 11 a.m. elimination game Friday against the Delta State-Mississippi College loser. A win by Albany State puts it in a 7 p.m. winners’ bracket game Friday against the Delta State-Mississippi College winner.

The championship game is scheduled for noon on Monday.