College Baseball
Swinging For Omaha
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
College Baseball National Top Sixteen Seeds came out this week and they are listed below for the NCAA Baseball Tourney.
The top 16 seeds host a regional and then the winners of the regionals go to the Super Regionals the following week with the 8 winners advancing to the College World Series in Omaha on June 15th.
Sixty-four teams are chosen for the NCAA baseball tourney. Top 16 Seeds:
- UCLA (47-8) 2. Vanderbilt (49-10) 3. Georgia Tech (41-17) 4. Georgia (44-15) 5. Arkansas (41-17) 6. Mississippi St. (46-13) 7. Louisville (43-15) 8. Texas Tech (39-17) 9. Oklahoma St. (36-18)
- East Carolina (43-15) 11. Stanford (41-11) 12. Ole Miss (37-25) 13. LSU (37-24)
- North Carolina (42-17) 15. West Virginia (37-20) 16. Oregon St. (36-18-1)
Regional Winners:
UCLA: Top ranked Bruins look very good in 2019. Baylor could pose a problem but look for UCLA to advance to the Supers.
Vanderbilt: Vandy should coast through the Nashville regional.
Georgia Tech: The Jackets have Coastal Carolina and Auburn in the Atlanta regional. This one could get interesting. Give me GT to move on the Super Regional.
Georgia: The Dawgs have a future major league rotation playing currently in college. FSU in Mike Martin’s last year could cause some issues. Mercer playing in the Athens regional has nothing to lose. What if the UGA/Mercer game comes down to a Randon Jernigan vs Will Bowdoin matchup of former Glynn Academy Red Terrors teammates? Dawgs move on to host a Super Regional.
Arkansas: Are the Hogs on a mission in 2019? They were a foul ball catch away from being National Champs in 2018. Hogs win the Fayetteville Regional.
Miami: The Canes upset Mississippi State in the Starkville regional. State will choke at home.
North Carolina State: The Wolfpack beat East Carolina on their home turf to win the regional. This is a sleeper team folks and not a huge upset in the Greenville Regional.
Stanford: The Cardinal get a scare from UC Santa Barbara but move on.
Clemson: The Tigers win the Oxford regional over Ole Miss who have no business hosting a regional with 25 regular season losses.
Arizona State: Call me crazy but I think ASU beats LSU in the Baton Rouge regional.
Tennessee: The Vols shock the Tar Heels in the Chapel Hill regional and move to the Supers.
Louisville: The Cardinals coast through the regional they host.
Oklahoma State: Solid baseball program that will win their home regional and move on.
Oregon State: The Beavers have a great baseball program and will have no problem at home.
Texas Tech: The Red Raiders are solid, but the committee sent Florida to Lubbock. Texas Tech advances.
Texas A&M: The Aggies win the Morgantown Regional and send West Virginia packing. Solid pitching for A&M
Super Regionals Best 2 of 3:
Vanderbilt hosts Texas A&M: SEC Matchup. The Commodores are thinking Omaha and National Championship. Vandy in 2
NC State at Louisville: Wolfpack wins in 3
Miami at Stanford: Canes have to travel too far and get swept in 2.
Tennessee at GT: Going to be a great Super. Give me the Jackets in 3.
Oregon State at UCLA: Pac-12 matchup. UCLA in 2.
Oklahoma State at Texas Tech: Big-12 matchup. Give me Oklahoma State in 3 in an upset.
Clemson at Arkansas: The Hogs beat Clemson in 2, and roll into Omaha.
Arizona State at Georgia: Dawgs pitching gets by the Sun Devils in 2.
College World Series Teams:
Vanderbilt
NC State
Stanford
Georgia Tech
UCLA
Oklahoma State
Arkansas
Georgia
Your 2019 National Champions: Vanderbilt. College baseball is a great game to watch.
Diamond Dominance
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
When it comes to sports in this country football is the top dog. The NFL is the most popular league and the only thing more fanatical than a college football fan is a southerner when asked “Ford or Chevy?”
Next in line is basketball. Even if you don’t watch any NBA regular season games, I imagine you’ve tuned into at least one playoff game this year, if not more. And is there a sporting event anywhere here that garners more attention and attraction from random people than March Madness?
After football and basketball comes baseball, of course. Major League Baseball may have seen a decline in overall ratings as it becomes a more “regional” sport, so they say, but I still watch every October regardless of who is playing.
Which leads me to college baseball; the one sport that is oftentimes ignored- especially compared to all the others I just mentioned- but where the SEC and ACC have seen even more success than, dare I say, football and basketball, respectively.
Over the past ten years an ACC or SEC school has won the College World Series six times. Ok, full disclosure, that’s a little misleading because five of those championships belong to the SEC. Over that same 10 year span, a team from either conference has made it to the finals in 9 of those years. The one time neither did was in 2015, when Coastal Carolina won the whole thing.
The dominance between both conferences is no different this year. Out of the 64 teams that made the regionals, 16 of those teams are from the ACC or SEC.
Out of the 16 site hosts for those regionals, half of them have been hosted by a team from either conference. (The split between the number of teams hosting their regional is actually four and four, just so you know that both conferences are carrying their weight equally.)
It probably goes without saying, but just in case you’re wondering, all eight of those teams finished the regular season in the Top 10. We haven’t seen this type of dominance since Joey Chestnut was introduced to hotdogs.
There are some great storylines among these teams, too. Can Florida, the overall number one seed, repeat as CWS champions for the first time since South Carolina repeated in 2010 and 2011?
You have Georgia, trying to get back to the CWS for the first time in a decade. And how about North Carolina, who is tied with Northern Colorado for the most World Series appearances (10) without a championship. Will this finally be the year?
Then there’s Duke, who hadn’t won a College World Series playoff game since what felt like the invention of baseball, until they defeated Campbell.
That doesn’t include teams like South Carolina or LSU, who have a long history of success.
Look, I get it; with all the other things going on in our daily lives it’s nearly impossible to keep up with every single sporting taking place. Up until a couple of days ago I couldn’t have told you anything about college baseball this year, not even the name of a single player on a single team. I wouldn’t have even known the playoffs had begun if someone hadn’t told me.
And shame on me, because as much as I love watching football and basketball, there may not be a sport our area dominates more than NCAA baseball. I mean, when was the last time a Coastal Carolina won a championship in either football or basketball.
The Streak
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Let’s just go ahead and get this out in the open; I know next to nothing about college baseball and I am perfectly fine with that.
I don’t watch any games during the regular season. I don’t follow it at all during the tournament. I’m not even sure I could name a current player or coach. I’m about as knowledgeable about college baseball as and member of Metallica is about playing the piccolo.
So, why in the hell would someone who has absolutely no interest in a particular sport spend his time writing about it? Because, even I can appreciate when something extraordinary is happening.
