First-Round Picks Square Off In College World Series Today

The pressure is off Florida State pitching ace Jonathan Johnson.

It’s time to have fun.

His team battled through its NCAA Regional to get to the College World Series for a second straight year. Johnson (11-3) was named to a pair of All-American first teams and was chosen in the first round of the major league draft Thursday. The right-hander starts today in the 1995 Series opener against defending champion Oklahoma and left-hander Mark Redman, who also was a firstround draft pick and consensus AllAmerican.

“It’s really exciting,” Johnson said. “You really don’t hear much about other guys in the draft, so I didn’t know where Redman was going to go.

“But he went extremely high and that’s great. I think that’s going to make a great matchup.”

ESPN will televise the game at 12:30 p.m. PDT today.

Miami plays Southern Cal in today’s other Bracket One game.

Bracket Two on Saturday opens with Fullerton State against Stanford, followed by Clemson and Tennessee.