The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • C1

Once again, the state of Florida is a major player on the college baseball scene, with two teams ranked in the top six Today poll) and four in the Top 25. Heading into next conference tournaments, we catch up with those teams, taking a look at what done so far and why each has a chance to make some serious postseason noise. No. 4 Florida THE SEASON SO FAR Florida (41-15, 22-8 SEC) claimed a piece of the SEC regular-season championship on Saturday, sharing it with South Carolina and Vanderbilt. One of the best hitting teams in the conference, the Gators have a .309 team batting average and .478 slugging percentage.

WHY THEY COULD MAKE NOISE Emerging as a co-champion in the best conference in baseball sets up the Gators well. Florida, South Carolina and Vanderbilt have been among the top-ranked teams in the country all year. Florida has a solid weekend pitching rotation Hudson Randall, Brian Johnson and Karsten Whitson are 23-6. George NCAA BASEBALL IN FLORIDA SUNSHINEDIAMONDS Tommy Toledo, part of a formidable pitching staff, has a 3.1 ERA, Chase Bradford is 6-1 for UCF, and Jayce Boyd is hitting Florida State. Their teams all have posted notable regular- season campaigns.

LEFT TO RIGHT, STEPHEN M. PHOTOGRAPHER, CARL Pleaseturnto UF, FSU, Miami and Stetson rank among top 25 College baseball schedule, C7 FINAL Sports Daily SIGN UP FOR SPORTS ALERTS! Want to be the first to know scores and breaking sports news? Text SPORTS to 43886. Standard messaging and data rates apply. Horse Index Coaching still key to Osborne, C3 MIAMI Chris Bosh spun on Carlos Boozer, leapt, threw down a two-handed dunk, and pounded his chest with both fists as he turned upcourt in the midst of a fourth-quarter run. The overlooked member of the Big 3 was even more impressive Sunday night than in his 30-point performance in Game 1.

This time 34 points carried Miami to a 96-85 win at AmericanAirlines Arena that gave the Heat a 2-1Eastern Conference finals series lead over Chicago. LeBron James, left, scored 22 for Miami, and Dwyane Wade added 17. The Bulls were led by 26 points and Derrick 20. Game 4 is Tuesday in Miami. More coverage on C4 prevail 96-85 for 2-1 series lead As a lifelong sports fan, glad I grew up when I did.

Before Twitter and Facebook and TMZ and TMI. That really hit home a few days ago when two of my boyhood sports heroes were in the news for two different reasons. Sadly, Harmon Killebrew, the affable slugger of the Minnesota Twins, passed away. Happily, Carlos Alvarez, the electrifying wide receiver at the University of Florida, was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame. When we were kids growing up in North Florida in and we used to play football, baseball and basketball in the back yard and would pretend to be Killebrew or Willie Stargell.

Or Alvarez or his Florida State counterpart Ron Sellers. Or Lew Alcindor or Pete Maravich. Even though we never went to games and rarely saw these players on television, our sports stars were bigger than life. We realize Killebrew was just 5-foot-11and 190 pounds. In our eye, he was Paul Bunyan, swinging from the heels with that pronounced uppercut swing and launching 573 home runs in 22 steroids-free Hall of Fame seasons.

Back then, there was one baseball game a week on television and we rarely saw small-market stars like Killebrew play. He was mostly asmiling face on a baseball card. And a mythical figure in our minds. It was the same with college stars. Back then, college football in the state of Florida was essentially all we had.

There were no Magic or Bucs or Jaguars or Lightning. The Miami Dolphins were the only pro team and most people who grew up in Florida adopted one of the college teams the Gators, the Seminoles or the Hurricanes. What if Killebrew, hadtweeted? Pleaseturnto MIAMI Sunday was supposed to feature a marquee matinee matchup of ace right-handers. Instead, it was a mismatch. The shoulder injury that landed Josh Johnson on the disabled list left Tampa James Shields alone in the starring role.

He embraced it by throwing a three-hitter in a 4-0 victory over the Marlins at Sun Life Stadium. The role of stand-in for Johnson swallowed rookie Jay Buente in his first major-league start. The Marlins were hoping Buente could keep them in the game for five innings. He only lasted three, and his line pretty: five hits, four runs (three earned), three walks and a hit batter. Two doubles and a triple in the third inning sealed an early exit.

lacked command of his fastball. At this level, if you show command of your fastball, in big Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez said. Buente also lacked support in the field that could have helped his cause. With the bases loaded in the second inning, third baseman Greg Dobbs booted a grounder by Shields that could have been an inning-ending double play. It led to two runs.

The next inning, Evan TAMPA BAY RAYS 4, FLORIDA MARLINS 0 Rookie Buente no match forsturdyShieldsinshutout By Craig Davis STAFF WRITER Tampa James Shields struck out a career-high 13 on Sunday. DAVID NUEVO HERALD Pleaseturnto Three months and one week passed since the last time Deltona shortstop Jack Lopez saw his father Juan. In that time, Jack hit his way through his senior season with nine home runs and 32 RBIs and helped the Wolves (23-8) advance to the Class 6A state baseball semifinals against Hialeah at 10 a.m. Monday. Juan spent those days as a bullpen coach with the Cincinnati Reds, through spring training and the start of their season.

When flight landed Saturday afternoon, only a few hours passed before father and son were in the batting cage, together again. mom told me I was born, and a few hours later, I was on a plane to Arizona to see my dad at spring training with the San Francisco Jack said. was at my first ballpark when I was a few hours how it has been for entire life. The University of Miami signee has spent days at major-league ballparks playing with Barry sons. He has been a batboy at Wrigley Field for the Chicago Cubs.

got a lot of friends in said Juan, who previously served stints as the bullpen coach with those teams. Friends such as Carlos Zambrano and Aramis Ramirez of the Chicago Cubs and the Jay Bruce. there when I need them to help Jack said. When he been at the ballpark, he has been around his uncle Onix Concepcion, who played for the Kansas City Royals. Onix lives down the street from Jack, one of three DELTONA HIGH BASEBALL VIES FOR STATE TITLE Cincinnati coach helps son Jack Lopez shine at Deltona Pleaseturnto By Stephanie Kuzydym STAFF WRITER Deltona shortstop Jack Lopez, a University of Miami signee, has Major League Baseball exposure thanks to his father, Cincinnati bullpen coach Juan Lopez.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LOPEZ FAMILY Mike Bianchi Sentinel columnist Product: OS44Broadsheet PubDate: 05-23-2011 Zone: MET Edition: ROP Page: User: wojackson Time: Color: CMYK.