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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The No. 9 Nova Southeastern baseball team (31-9, 11-6 SSC) will compete in its final regular season road series against the No. 2 Tampa Spartans (35-8, 15-6 SSC) in Tampa, Fla. The series will begin Friday at 6 p.m. and conclude Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
The Sharks face the Spartans in arguably the most important weekend of the 2012 Sunshine State Conference regular season. The Spartans lead the conference in win percentage, .714, and will look to win the programs’ 14th SSC title, just three-shy of Florida Southern all-time. In order to clinch the title, the Spartans will look to sweep NSU. The Sharks cannot clinch a SSC Championship this weekend, but a series win or sweep would keep the team’s chances of winning its first SSC Championship alive.
Away from Tampa, Fla., the Lynn Fighting Knights will finish its season at home against Saint Leo. If the Knights pull off a sweep against Saint Leo, a team that was swept by Tampa and NSU this year, they would only require one loss from either Tampa or NSU for the rest of the season in order to clinch its first SSC title.
In the larger picture, this weekend’s series will pit two teams that are likely headed in the same direction regardless of the outcome. With the Spartans ranked first in the region and the Sharks ranked third, both teams are heavy favorites to be selected to participate in the NCAA South Region Tournament. Outside of the SSC title race, the series winner will likely have the most momentum headed into the postseason of any SSC team.
In order to defeat the Spartans, the NSU offense must be ready for its toughest challenge to date. The Spartans hold the third-lowest ERA in the nation at 2.37, just 0.06 points off national leaders St. Mary’s (Texas) and Southern New Hampshire. The team only allows 2.15 walks per nine innings, ranking second in the nation. However, the Sharks have proven that they are up to the challenge. The Sharks are the third best home run team in the nation (1.13 HR/gm) and the 10th best in slugging percentage at .496.
Individually, two players will continue to chase history this weekend.
Carlos Asuaje (So., Weston, Fla.) enters the weekend tied for the program single-season record in batting average at .447. The record was set by Gary Horen in 1996 and only J.D. Martinez has come within 20 points of the record since. Asuaje is also three doubles away from Guillermo Munuz’s single-season NSU record of 24 doubles, a record that has gone untouched for over 20 years.
Areo Regoli (Sr., Homestead, Fla.), who was honored this week as NSU’s Male Athlete of the Year, is chasing the program’s home run record. Regoli has 15 home runs this season, making him the sixth player in NSU history to reach the mark. He is two homers away from the record set by Bryan Cook in 2008 and Ed Mackie in 1993.
As a team, the Sharks will be looking to win their first SSC series at Tampa. The Sharks have played three SSC series at Tampa since joining the conference before the 2005 season, going 1-8 at the Tampa Baseball Field. NSU’s only win at Tampa in conference play came on March 28, 2008, when the Sharks won, 13-5.
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