CLEVELAND, Miss. – Nova Southeastern (33-16, 16-8 SSC) knows a thing or two about being seeded third entering the NCAA South Region Tournament. The Sharks were positioned in the exact same spot in 2016 before knocking off West Georgia, West Florida and then Delta State twice en route to the program's first-ever regional title. Fast forward a year, and Nova Southeastern is back with a chance to repeat when postseason play gets underway Thursday against West Alabama (34-19, 21-10 GSC).
After eliminating Delta State last season, the Sharks will now hope for an extended stay on DSU's campus as the Statesmen were selected to host following their Gulf South Conference Tournament championship a week ago. Nova Southeastern entered regionals on a tear in 2016, and has found itself peaking yet again heading into Thursday's opener. The Sharks closed out the regular season by winning eight of nine, while racking up 10.1 runs per game. During that span, head coach Greg Brown's club collected two series sweeps, one of those coming against a Florida Southern team that landed as the fourth seed in the South Region.
There aren't many holes throughout Nova Southeastern's offensive attack that ranks second in Division II with 86 home runs. Among the usual starters, four received All-Sunshine State Conference honors earlier on Wednesday. Together, the bunch consisting of Jancarlos Cintron, Brandon Gomez, Kevin Suarez and Jeremy Vasquez has combined for 37 home runs and 178 runs batted in. Gomez currently ranks tied atop the list for most career homers in NSU history (32), while Suarez led the league in stolen bases with 23. That doesn't even account for Jake Anchia and Dylan Woods, who have collected another 26 dingers and 100 RBI's between the two.
Meanwhile, West Alabama returns to the postseason for the second time in three years after hosting the NCAA South Region tournament back in 2015. The Tigers finished with a record of 6-4 down the stretch before being ousted by Delta State, 6-3, in the GSC title game. At the plate, West Alabama is led by NCBWA First Team All-Region pick Nick Delgado. Heading into the tourney, Delgado is batting .369 with five homers, 32 RBI's and a GSC-best 61 runs scored.
"Our guys are prepared," said Brown. "I think the time off really helped this club. There's some great teams here and we have a lot of work to do, but I like where we're at. If we take care of ourselves, I think we'll be in a great position to succeed."
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