The Troy baseball team will play Alabama to open the 2013 Tallahassee Regional at 11 a.m. CST on Friday. Players, family and fans gathered at Trojan Arena on Monday to watch the NCAA Selections Show.

Top-seeded Florida State, who enters the tournament as the seventh national seed, will play No. 4 seed Savannah State at 4 p.m. All games will be played at Dick Howser Stadium.

It is the second NCAA Regional appearance in three seasons for the Trojans.

“I think its a good regional and a good matchup. We’ve played Alabama once this season but have not been to Tallahassee since I’ve been at Troy. I’m really excited about it, there will four good team there and we should have a good group of fans make the trip with us,” said Troy head coach Bobby Pierce, who played and coached at Alabama and later coached at Chipola Junior College in Florida . “We’re excited to get the opportunity to get to play in the field that we’re playing against, hopefully now we can just get prepared to play our best baseball.”

The Trojans (40-18) will face Alabama (34-26) for the second time this season. The Crimson Tide defeated Troy 11-2 in a midweek game on May 8, but Trojan players are ready for the rematch.

“We’re up for anything, we’re pumped and ready to go,” third baseman Logan Pierce said. “The last time we played them means nothing to us. We’re going to throw our best against them and we’ll see what happens.”

Troy and Alabama have a history not only in the regular season but in the regionals as well. The teams squared off twice in the 2006 Tuscaloosa Regional with the Crimson Tide taking both contests. Alabama also beat Troy in the 1995 Tuscaloosa Regional. Alabama owns the all-time series over Troy  18-8.

The Trojans are 2-14 all-time versus Florida State (44-15) with the last meeting coming in 1999. Troy is 3-1 versus Savannah State (33-21) in program history; the teams haven’t played since 2003.

Troy players sighed as the Nashville Regional, hosted by No. 2 overall seed Vanderbilt, was announced. The Trojans played in the Nashville Regional in 2011 but fell to Vanderbilt and Belmont after defeating Oklahoma State in the opener.

As the Tallahassee Regional was unveiled several players stood and cheered on a matchup with the Crimson Tide.

“It’s an amazing feeling, I’ve never been a part of a team to make it this far before,” right fielder Danny Collins said, who is from Niceville, Fla. “I’ve got a lot of friends that go to Florida State. We’re excited to play Alabama, though. It’s going to be fun to get a rematch with them, we’re rested up and will have our best going against them.”

The most recent regional marks the fifth for Troy at the Division I level. The Trojans also qualified for regionals in 1995, 1997, 2006, 2007 and 2011. Troy is 3-10 in NCAA Regionals all-time.