Husson College baseball coach John Winkin will again be a tournament director for an NCAA Division I regional.

The former University of Maine coach will run the regional at Georgia Tech in Atlanta that also involves South Carolina, Michigan and Furman (S.C.).

Winkin has been involved in regionals as a coach or director for 31 years and he felt his experience was the reason he was sent to one of the televised regionals.

“I’m familiar with the workings of TV and the NCAA wants to make sure it comes off well. That’s also why they’re sending one of the best umpiring teams to that regional,” said Winkin.

He said because of the TV time constraints, rain delays have to be more closely monitored.

“I know how long it takes the pitchers to get warmed up after a rain delay and how long it will take to get the field ready,” said Winkin.

For the first time, the NCAA regionals are going to be four-day events instead of three-day affairs. There won’t be more than two games any day unless there are weather issues.

Maine is playing in a regional at the University of Mississippi and will take on Ole Miss in their opener Friday. Southern Mississippi and Oklahoma are the other teams.

Winkin said he was impressed with the way Maine fought its way through the America East Tournament.

“It was incredible what they went through, the adversity they overcame on Saturday,” said Winkin, referring to the Bears being one strike away from elimination in the championship game against host Vermont. Maine had blown a 5-0 lead in the first game of the day and lost 6-5.

Winkin led Maine to its last College World Series appearance in 1986 after which the NCAA changed the regional format to ensure a couple of top-20 teams were sent to each regional. There hasn’t been an Eastern team in Omaha since.

He said it is imperative for Maine to win the opener if it is going to win the tournament and advance to the best-of-three super regional the next weekend.

“The hardest thing for teams from the East is, they don’t have a lot of pitching depth and they’ll be facing lineups with a lot of good players,” said Winkin. “That will be Maine’s issue. They can score and they can play defense, although they’ll have to play great defense in the regional.

“If you lose the first or the second game, you’re going to need five starting pitchers because you’ll have to win four games,” said Winkin.

Winkin has been asked to direct a super regional but he said he likely won’t have time because he is coaching Bangor’s American Legion team this summer. He also wants to see high school playoff games so he can recruit for Husson.