The players and coaches Florida Atlantic baseball team woke up this morning and for the first time in a few weeks, didn't have to immediately have to wonder if they would be playing in a crucial game to make it to the Sun Belt Conference Tournament or become the first FAU team since making it to Division I to fail to qualify for the postseason.

If the Owls wouldn't have made it to the tournament, it would have been undestandable. The 2009 season didn't get off to a good start last summer when FAU officials were slow to name a coach and extended the uncertainty past baseball's draft. Without knowing who the coach was going to be, players like shortstop Nick Arata and pitcher Jeff Beliveau couldn't seriously consider coming back for as senior year. By the time John McCormack was named coach in late June, the damage had been done.

I'm not sure what realistic expectations should have been for this team, but given the circumstances, McCormack, in his first-year as a head coach, handled the situation well. That was specially true the last few weeks when he guided a team fighting for its life to series wins against Arkansas State on the road and vs. FIU to make the tournament field.

And once they did make it, the Owls didn't act like they were just glad to get there as they ended the season for Florida International. If you are counting - and they are in Miami no matter how much FIU fans say they don't consider the Owls a rival - that's three consecutive years the Owls have ended the season for the Golden Panthers.

Sending FIU packing certainly takes the sting out the two embarassing losses to top-seeded Middle Tennesse, a team which may earn an at-large bid for the NCAA Regionals if it doesn't win the SBC Tournament (provided it ever stops raining in Troy, Ala.)

McCormack finished with a 30-26 record in his first season and has already began the preparation for 2010. There are some good young players on the team to give reason to believe next season there may not be a mad rush to make the post-season, but it was a fun last few weeks of a succesful season.