College softball: FGCU denied NCAA tournament berth despite 39 wins and an RPI of 33

Dana Caldwell | Naples

Florida Gulf Coast University came up short in its quest to win the Atlantic Sun softball tournament at Stetson, but the Eagles still felt they had a very strong at-large shot to get into the NCAA draw.

FGCU (39-17) entered the ASUN tournament with an RPI of 33 bolstered largely by the conference's No. 6 RPI. Last year, teams with RPIs in the 40s were among the 32 at-larges included in the 64-team field.

The Eagles did not get in Sunday night, meaning FGCU still hasn't had an at-large NCAA tournament bid for any program.

FGCU's David Deiros on ASUN SB tournament The FGCU coach talks about his team heading into the tourney at Stetson.

Florida drew a second overall seed and Florida State a sixth seed, but the Eagles were not added to those regionals. Atlantic Sun champ Kennesaw State, Auburn and Jacksonville State are in the Florida State pod, and Bethune-Cookman, Ohio State and South Florida (which had an RPI of 42, was swept by FGCU and got an at-large bid) will be in Gainesville with the Gators.

The Eagles watched the Selection Show on ESPN2 together from the video room of Alico Arena late Sunday night.

"Well, I'm a numbers guy and it's very difficult for me to go ahead and rationalize some of the decisions that are being made," said FGCU program-founding coach David Deiros. "I spent a lot of time -- we had a 3 1/2-hour bus ride home (from Stetson) -- so I crunched a lot of numbers and looked at a lot of things. I'm also on the Southeast Region ranking committee, so basically we give advice to the Selection Committee on all the teams that are in our region -- the American Athletic, the SEC, the ASUN, the Big South, the Southern Conference, the MEAC. So I was privy to a lot of information as far as what the committee wants to go ahead and do and what they're looking at.

"With that being said, I don't have a good rationalization. I don't know what to tell our players. The only advice I have for them is, 'You're letting an arbitrator make a decision instead of taking care of business itself.' The lesson to be learned is when you have an opportunity to take care of it yourself, take care of it yourself. Don't let a third party go ahead and dictate what's going to happen."

FGCU was the second seed in the ASUN tournament at Stetson and opened with a convincing 6-1 win against third-seeded USC Upstate on Thursday morning.

But the Eagles were eliminated on Friday with a 4-2 loss to top-seeded Kennesaw State and a 6-3 setback against USC Upstate.

FGCU held a 2-1 lead on KSU in the bottom of the seventh, but Maddie Roth smacked a two-out, three-run home run off Eagles freshman closer Taylor Bauman.

The Eagles had a 3-2 fifth-inning lead against the Spartans, but fell in 10 innings.

KSU took its first-ever ASUN tournament title with an 8-4 win against USC Upstate on Saturday, giving the Owls the conference's automatic NCAA tourney berth.

FGCU was one of the last four out of the field along with Louisville, Nebraska and Pittsburgh. USF, Houston, Notre Dame and Wisconsin were the last four in.

"They were in the discussion," Selection Committee chairman Natalie Shock said on ESPN2 of the final four left out. "It was very tough. It kind of boiled down to strength of schedule. The teams that we put in at the end had a better strength of schedule than the four teams that we left out."

In FGCU's only NCAA tournament experience, the 2012 team -- the first postseason eligible group -- knocked off fifth-ranked Florida, 2-1, in Gainesville in the opener before falling, 8-3, to South Florida and 6-2 to the Gators. Those Eagles had won their second straight ASUN regular season title and had swept their three foes in the conference tournament.

"You take a look at our record, 39 wins, and then you compare that with teams that had lower RPIs or significantly less wins ... I know they're looking at signature wins and those kinds of victories for a tournament type of atmosphere, but we're talking about they're putting more weight on one thing than another.

"It's just hard to go ahead and rationalize."