Bethune-Cookman Baseball Team Visits Gainesville for The NCAA Regional

The Bethune-Cookman Wildcats are at Gainesville to start their participation in the NCAA Regional. They will face the University of South Florida Bulls. The game is set to start at 1 p.m.

GAMEDAY! #PreyTogether #HailWildcats pic.twitter.com/YVup7BbUrK

— ⚾️B-CU Baseball (@BCUDiamondCats) June 2, 2017

A Journey to Remember

It has been an outstanding journey for the Wildcats to get to this point of the season. They had an overall 33-23 record during the regular season. The Wildcats showed consistency and dominance when they faced their conference rivals – they had a 15-8 record in their conference. Within that record, it is important to take into account that the Wildcats have won every game that they played on a neutral ground (3-0).

Wildcat Offense

Something that the Wildcats need to be confident about entering to the NCAA Regionals is their individual capacity to get on base and score runs. Players like Demetrius Sims, Edney Jameel, Danny Rodriguez and Adonis Lao have been very efficient every time they were at the bat. The batting average of all of those players is over .300. Sims and Jameel lead the team in runs scored – 51 and 45 respectively; Rodriguez is the team leader in home runs (11) and runs batted in (45); Lao leads the team in hits (73).

Wildcat Pitching

In the pitching department, the Wildcats have on their roster a great ace in Anthony Maldonado. The freshman has had an exceptional first season in his college career. After 14 games started, Maldonado has an 8-3 record with an ERA of 2.78. He is also the team leader in strikeouts (60). Thankfully for the Wildcats, Maldonado is not the only pitcher who performed at a high level this year. Tyler Norris has also started 14 games and has an 8-1 record with an ERA of 3.58. Norris has struck out 57 batters and allowed just two home runs this season.

Ivan Coutinho

The player who will have to improve his performance showed during the regular season would be Ivan Coutinho. Coutinho has saved seven games this season in 23 appearances on the mound. He will be crucial for his team to secure games and allow starting pitchers like Maldonado and Norris to rest more innings.

The game is set to start at 1 p.m.