OMAHA, Neb. -- It's one of the most unlikely winners’ bracket matchups in College World Series history.
Maybe the most unlikely.
Both Michigan and Florida State were No. 3 seeds in their regionals. They were two of the "Last Four In" for the entire NCAA Tournament. One had to go beat a Top 8 national seed on the road and then win at LSU to get to the College World Series. The other had to go knock off the No. 1 overall seed UCLA Bruins, a team that hadn't lost a single series all season.
Then they both had to knock off national seeds in their College World Series openers on Saturday.
And neither team knew heading into Selection Monday that they were even in the tournament when the bracket was revealed.
So yeah, you could make a serious case for this being the most unlikely winners’ bracket matchup that Omaha has ever seen.
"It's really important that our guys maintain the same approach they've had," FSU head coach Mike Martin said on Sunday. "The last thing you want to see happen is for them to think we got it all figured out. We don't have anything figured out. We just know that Michigan is a heck of a baseball team. You don't do what they've done if they're not a heck of a baseball team.
"So we know we have to play well to advance."
Florida State will be pitching sophomore C.J. Van Eyk, who has been the Seminoles' best starter all season and has shown flashes of pure dominance since the postseason began. He has gone at least six innings in each of his last four starts, and the four runs he surrendered against LSU were the most he's given up in a game in two months.
Van Eyk (10-3, 3.80 ERA) will face a balanced Wolverines lineup that features four batters hitting over .300 and four batters with 12 home runs.
Michigan could very well go with its No. 3 starter, junior left-hander Tommy Henry (10-5, 3.54 ERA in 106.2 innings pitched) against the Seminoles. The Wolverines used No. 2 starter Jeff Criswell for a two-inning save on Saturday against Texas Tech. The sophomore right-hander threw 37 pitches to record the six outs.
Martin said even if the Wolverines did go with Henry, who was selected in the second round of this month's MLB Draft, he'd likely keep the same lineup, which means senior walk-on Tim Becker would still be in left field (the Seminoles haven't faced a lefty starter the entire postseason).
And the veteran head coach, who has been out here 16 times before, knows just how important a victory tonight would be for his club.
The winner will get three important days off and won't have to play again until Friday, while the loser will be back in action Wednesday night in an elimination game.
"We know that this is a game that if we were to lose we would still be in it," Martin said. "But certainly if we could win it, it would put us in a position we haven't ... well, it's been a long time since we've been in that position."
The last time Florida State won its first two games at the College World Series was 1989.
Clyde Keller, the current Seminoles' pitching coach, was the winner on the mound for FSU in that second game 30 years ago, limiting eventual national champ Wichita State to just four hits and two runs in a complete-game performance.
This is the Wolverines' first CWS appearance since 1984. Although they won national championships in 1953 and 1962, they had never before reached Omaha in the Super Regional era.
FSU and Michigan will play at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.
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