National Notebook: May 5 | Video Vault
This weekend is littered with huge conference matchups as the 2015 college baseball regular season nears the end. Below we have identified 13 series, 12 of which are between conference foes with significant conference tournament and postseason ramifications. The biggest of which will occur in Louisville, Ky., as No. 8 Florida State tries to knock off the ACC leading and third-ranked Cardinals.
Jheremy Brown will be at Sunday's tilt between the two top teams in the ACC, and he'll also be in Nashville, Tenn., this weekend to take in a similarly big SEC series between No. 7 Florida and No. 12 Vanderbilt. Scott Zine will be in Fullerton, Calif. to watch the highly anticipated matchup between UC Santa Barbara's Dillon Tate and the Titans' Thomas Eshelman.
Top 25 in Action
| Rk. |
Team |
Opponent |
Location |
| 1 |
Louisiana State |
home vs. Missouri |
Baton Rouge, LA |
| 2 |
Texas A&M |
home vs. South Carolina |
College Station, TX |
| 3 |
Louisville |
home vs. No. 8 Florida State |
Louisville, KY |
| 4 |
Illinois |
home vs. Rutgers |
Champaign, IL |
| 5 |
Texas Christian |
home vs. Kansas |
Fort Worth, TX |
| 6 |
UCLA |
at No. 13 Arizona State |
Phoenix, AZ |
| 7 |
Florida |
at No. 12 Vanderbilt |
Nashville, TN |
| 8 |
Florida State |
at No. 3 Louisville |
Louisville, KY |
| 9 |
UC Santa Barbara |
home vs. Coastal Carolina |
Tallahassee, FL |
| 10 |
Miami |
home vs. NYIT |
Coral Gables, FL |
| 11 |
Dallas Baptist |
home vs. San Francisco |
Dallas, TX |
| 12 |
Vanderbilt |
home vs. No. 7 Florida |
Nashville, TN |
| 13 |
Arizona State |
home vs. No. 6 UCLA |
Phoenix, AZ |
| 14 |
Florida Atlantic |
home vs. Rice |
Boca Raton, FL |
| 15 |
Oklahoma State |
home vs. West Virginia |
Stillwater, OK |
| 16 |
Oregon State |
home vs. Utah |
Corvallis, OR |
| 17 |
Southern California |
home vs. Stanford |
Los Angeles, CA |
| 18 |
Missouri State |
at Southern Illinois |
Carbondale, IL |
| 19 |
Iowa |
home vs. Minnesota |
Iowa City, IA |
| 20 |
North Carolina |
at Notre Dame |
South Bend, IN |
| 21 |
College of Charleston |
home vs. UNC Wilmington |
Charleston, SC |
| 22 |
Arkansas |
home vs. Tennessee |
Fayetteville, AR |
| 23 |
Nevada |
at Creighton |
Omaha, NE |
| 24 |
Houston |
home vs. East Carolina |
Houston, TX |
| 25 |
Maryland |
at Ohio State |
Columbus, OH |
ACC
D.J. Stewart (Photo: Florida State)
No. 8 Florida State at No. 3 Louisville
Like
most series this weekend, the Florida State/Louisville matchup could
solidify some things atop the Atlantic Division of the ACC. With the
newest members of the ACC currently in first place with a 21-3
conference record, the Louisville Cardinals have answered most
questions that they faced in the preseason with Kyle Funkhouser
leading the pitching staff (team ERA of 2.99) and sophomore
outfielder Corey Ray (.328-11-46, 28 steals) stepping up offensively.
The Cardinals haven’t lost a weekend series since doing so against
Arkansas State in week two, and have swept numerous clubs in the ACC.
Behind them in second place, though five games back, are the
Seminoles, who like Louisville had their own question marks prior to
the season. However, like most of Coach Mike Martin’s clubs, they
had no reason to worry. They’ve amassed a 36-14 overall record this
spring and have received steady offensive contribution from their
reigning ACC Player of the Year, D.J. Stewart (.333-12-45). The
‘Noles have received solid pitching up front from Mike Compton and
Boomer Biegalski who have helped the team win 10 of their last 12
after being swept by Notre Dame in early April.
No. 20 North Carolina at Notre Dame
After
a wobbly start to the season North Carolina has righted the ship and
gone 13-2 in the last month. The Tar Heels understandably dropped a
series to UCLA in the early second weekend of the season and dropped
a few midweek games since, but also faltered in early ACC play,
losing to Pittsburgh, Miami, and Clemson. Since their series loss to
Clemson they've been very hard to beat (although some are still
scratching their head about last week's loss to UNC-Greensboro), and
at 13-10 are comfortably situated in second place in the Coastal
Division. Notre Dame has had an uneven campaign in their second taste of the ACC, but there have been impressive flashes and the
Fighting Irish sit at 12-12 in conference play (a dramatic improvement from last year when they were 9-21 in the ACC) and in third place in
the Atlantic Division. Having already swept Florida State and with
another series win over N.C. State in South Bend, Notre Dame will be
hoping for more of the same against the Tar Heels and their
formidable weekend rotation of senior Benton Moss, freshman J.B.
Bukauskas, and sophomore Zac Gallen. The Fighting Irish pitching
staff is formidable in it's own right, as Notre Dame trails only
fellow ACC newcomer Louisville with a team ERA of just 2.99.
SEC
Missouri at No. 1 Louisiana State
Since
winning three straight SEC series (against Florida, Tennessee, and
Alabama) the Missouri Tigers have been scuffling a bit. Although, to
be fair winning at Vanderbilt in conference play is no easy task –
and midweek losses to solid Missouri State and Southeast Missouri
State programs are nothing to sneeze at either. Still, Missouri is
3-7 in their last 10 games and have the unenviable assignment of
traveling to Baton Rouge to take on the No. 1 team in the country.
LSU has been red-hot recently, and it is hard to pick out many faults
in their game, although it should be noted that the only series that
the Tigers (Bayou edition) have dropped this season was in the
friendly confines of Alex Box Stadium to a SEC East opponent;
Kentucky. While Missouri currently sits in third place in the East
Division with a 14-10 record, they could sneak their way out of at
least one of the two teams ahead of them – Florida and Vanderbilt –
who play each other this weekend. On the other side of things,
despite not being in any real danger of losing it's status as a
potential nation seed, LSU is still tied with Texas A&M with a
16-7 record in the SEC West standings and could look to separate
themselves for good with another series victory, or perhaps sweep.
A.J. Puk (Photo: Tim Casey)
No. 7 Florida at No. 12 Vanderbilt
Everything
you look for in a baseball game, whether you’re a scout or fan, can
be found in Nashville this weekend as the Florida Gators head north
to Vanderbilt for a Thursday through Saturday series. All three
pitching matchups offer a look at the present and future as
Vanderbilt will send three draft-eligible arms to the mound, led by
righthander Carson Fulmer who has proven to be nearly unhittable as
of late while carrying his mid-90s fastball deep into outings. Coming
out of the other dugout will be three underclassmen for the Gators,
with heralded lefthander A.J. Puk taking the ball Friday as he looks
to build off his 11-strikeout performance from last weekend in
Athens. Both clubs have premier shortstops in Vanderbilt’s Dansby
Swanson and Florida’s Richie Martin and plenty of premium bats
throughout each order. While it’s a who’s who of prospects, the
series has bigger implications on the overall feel of the SEC Eastern
Division as Vanderbilt is currently two games ahead of the Gators at
the top of the standings.
American Athletic
East Carolina at No. 24 Houston
Another
seemingly evenly matched series takes place at Cougar Field when
Houston plays host to East Carolina. The Cougars and Pirates both
enter the weekend tied atop the American Athletic Conference
standings with an 11-7 record. Both sides have also been playing well
lately, with an 8-2 record over their last 10 contests. Despite not
having ace Jake Lemoine, Houston has been just fine as Andrew
Lantrip, Seth Romero, Kyle Dowdy, Patrick Weigel, and David Longville
have all provided quality innings. Offensively the Cougars have put
together a well-rounded attack with junior Chris Iriart hammering a
conference-best 14 home runs and junior outfielder Kyle Survance
swiping 28 bases. East Carolina meanwhile has weathered a rough patch
in late March and early April in which they lost six out of eight
games and head into the weekend having won their last three weekend
series. Senior Reid Love pitched well for the Pirates last season,
but has taken his game to another level this spring and is coming off
of a complete game victory last weekend against Connecticut. The
southpaw leads the team in saves, is second in wins and is third in
hitting and has firmly established himself as a two-way threat.
Memphis at UCF
One
of the more exciting conferences to follow down the stretch is the
American Athletic as seven of the eight teams are within four games
of each other, making these remaining conference weekends all the
more important. After a red-hot start to 2015, UCF has cooled of late
but is a team that can’t be taken lightly and could erupt at any
moment. With an offense led by Tommy Williams and Dylan Moore, UCF is
currently in seventh place in the AAC,
but with a series victory could jump back towards the top of the
standings with a couple of weeks remaining. The Knights took two out
of three last weekend against South Florida who they will face once
again next weekend in the final week of play. Memphis is coming off a
series loss to Cincinnati but just a week prior took two out of three
against UConn. The only other series loss this spring came in an
earlier matchup to Cincinnati, who clearly have the Tigers' number.
With a 32-15 overall record, Memphis have received solid contribution
on both sides of the ball, particularly from Kane Barrow, who leads
the team with a .365 average, and Tucker Tubbs who has 14 long balls
on the year.
Pac-12
No. 6 UCLA at No. 13 Arizona State
The
battle in the desert should be a good one as two of the top teams
square off. UCLA started 2015 off on the right foot and haven’t
looked back en route to finding themselves atop the Pac-12 standings
with a 16-5 record in conference play, and an overall mark of 34-11.
Right on their heels though is ASU, a team that has performed well
during Coach Tracy Smith’s first season (29-15) at the helm, and
with a series victory will be tied with UCLA and a sweep would give
them sole possession of first place. A sweep is easier said than done
though as the Bruins have arguably the best staff in the country,
with a combined ERA of 2.20, and one of the game's best closers in
righthander David Berg. The Sun Devils will counter with a steady
dose of offense though led by their eight everyday starters batting
over .300 on the year and feature a dominant closer of their own in
former Perfect Game All-American Ryan Burr.
Big Ten
No. 25 Maryland at Ohio State
Maryland
represents the second of three really tough Big Ten opponents for the
Buckeyes to close out the 2015 regular season, coming after their
series loss against Illinois at home last weekend and leading up to
their series against an opportunistic Indiana squad in Bloomington.
Ohio State, who was ranked 24th last week, could find
themselves back in the rankings come Monday with a series win,
especially coming off of their 20-7 trouncing of Miami (Ohio) on
Tuesday – a game in which sophomore slugger Ronnie Dawson went
4-for-6 with a double, grand slam, five runs scored and eight RBI.
Maryland narrowly managed to hold onto their placement in the Top 25
after getting swept by the aforementioned Hoosiers. Only a game
separates the two in the Big Ten standings, as third-ranked Ohio
State (12-6) has a one-game edge over the Terps (11-7) heading into
their series in Columbus.
Big West
No. 10 UC Santa Barbara at Cal State Fullerton
This
series will be higlighted by the Friday night showdown between UCSB's
Dillon Tate – who some believe will go with the first overall pick
in this year's draft – and Fullerton's command specialist Thomas
Eshelman. While the seats behind home plate will undoubtedly be a
who's who type of event for the scouting community, it will have a
more immediate impact on the Big West standings as the Gauchos,
Titans and the Anteaters of UC Irvine are all currently tied with an
11-4 conference record. Fullerton has been much stronger against
their in-conferences foes this year as they have been out of
conference, which included series sweeps at the hands of Indiana and
Maryland in mid-March and April respectively. The Gauchos on the
other hand haven't been picky on who they beat up, with a 34-11-1
overall record and their current standing as the ninth-ranked overall
team in the nation.
Colonial Athletic Association
UNC Wilmington at No. 21 College of Charleston
At
33-12 overall with a 15-2 conference mark, UNC Wilimington has been
knocking on the door for inclusion on the Top 25 for several weeks.
The Cougars of Charleston have been better, at 35-9 overall and a
16-2 mark in the Colonial Athletic Assocation, pushing themselves
into the rankings two weeks ago. Charleston is hitting .316 overall
as a team with a whopping .498 slugging percentage, but it may be the
1-2 punch of Taylor Clarke and Brandon Glazer on Friday and Saturday
– who are collectively 20-2 with a 2.03 ERA over 145 innings –
that could prove to be the difference makers in this series. The
Seahawks are hitting .309 as a team, although they don't have quite
the thump in their lineup that the Cougars do, and they don't have
the same established starters to match Charleston's. However, Friday
starter Nick Monroe is coming off of one of his best outings of the
year in which he struck out nine Delaware batters in 8 1/3 innings to
open last weekend's series win against the Blue Hens.
Big South
Liberty at Coastal Carolina
Liberty,
who opened the year as PG's favorite to win the Big South head to
Conway, S.C., for a crucial in-conference matchup with Coastal
Carolina. Both teams are currently in a three-way tie with Radford
for the Big South lead with a 14-4 record. Coastal's Friday and
Saturday starters, Mike Morrison and Austin Kerr, got hit hard
against Florida State last weekend, and they've been without their
ace, Alex Cunningham, for the past two weeks due to soreness in his
pitching arm with no clear timetable for his return. Freshman Bobby
Holmes did salvage the series on Sunday with strong strong innings of
relief. While Liberty didn't play last weekend, Friday starter Jared
Lyons was phenomenal in his last start, a complete game one-hit
shutout over Gardner-Webb on April 24. Victor Cole followed that up
with eight strong innings of his own, and the two lefties – who are
a combined 12-2 this season ERAs of 1.40 and 2.00 respectively –
face a predominantly lefthanded Coastal Carolina lineup.
Conference USA
Rice at No. 14 Florida Atlantic
The
Rice Owls head to Boca Raton this weekend to square off against No.
14 Florida Atlantic in a pivotal Conference USA matchup. Rice, the
defending regular season and conference tournament champions, are
within reach of an amazing 20th straight conference crown (across the
Southwest Conference, WAC, and Conference USA). However, it won't be
easy for Wayne Graham's squad, as Florida Atlantic has only dropped
one series all year – a tilt with conference leaders Middle
Tennessee State. Both Rice and Florida Atlantic trail Middle
Tennessee State by only one game in the conference standings. At 17-7
in conference and 35-11 overall, FAU has already markedly improved
upon last season's campaign (28-25) thanks to an extremely strong
offense. In fact, Florida Atlantic and Rice are 1-2 in the conference
in hitting, with both sides boasting team batting averages over .300,
at .308 and .306, respectively. With that in mind, it will be
interesting to see how the pitching staffs deal with deep lineups and
star performers like Florida Atlantic's junior infielder Brendon
Sanger (.368, 6 home runs) and Rice's senior catcher John Clay Reeves
(.340, 7 home runs).
Non-Conference
No. 23 Nevada at Creighton
This
is the only non-conference matchup of the series' we have identified
as the most important ones to follow this weekend. While Nevada has
already wrapped up the Mountain West Conference, it will be
interesting to see how their high-powered lineup, led by sluggers
Austin Byler and Ryan Howell – who have combined for 28 of the
team's 52 home runs – fare at spacious TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha.
While the Wolf Pack aren't going to simply roll over and let the
Bluejays have this series, Creighton does have a lot more to play
for. They are currently second in the Big East with a 10-4 conference
record, following only St. John's (11-3), and finish the season at
home with a midweek contest against Arkansas before hosting Villanova
to wrap up their Big East regular season schedule.
National Notes:
• It's
nice to see Kansas outfielder Connor McKay end his college career on
a high note. A very highly regarded and recruited prospect coming out
of Regis Jesuit High School in Colorado, McKay tore up his knee
during his senior year playing football. That alone may have allowed
McKay, who was ranked 105th in the nation in the high
school class of 2011, to end up in Lawrence given his exciting
combination of tools, highlighted by 6.5 speed and a very strong arm
from the outfield. McKay also battled nagging hamstring issues during
both his sophomore and junior years, but now is fully healthy and is
one of the Big 12's most productive hitters. He's hitting
.364/.413/.563 this season with 20 doubles, three triples and five
home runs to go along with six stolen bases in eight attempts, and as
a senior he could find himself going in the top 10 rounds of the
draft given his overall prospective value.
• Grant
Palmer hit a pinch-hit three-run home run in the 10th inning on Tuesday to give UC Irvine an 8-5 win over No. 17 USC. Although the Anteaters jumped out to an early 4-0
lead, they entered the ninth inning down by one run, but once again
rallied late to push across the tying run that forced extra innings.
It was UC Irvine's third come-from-behind victory in four games,
taking two of their three games in a sweep over Minnesota on the road
in dramatic fashion.
• Although
he hasn't pitched since April 19, and was scratched from a potential
start against Oklahoma State a week later, Texas Tech senior Corey
Taylor's phenomenal season deserves recognition. The righthander was
a big part of the Red Raiders' tremendous success and postseason run
last year, and this season he currently leads all Division I pitchers
in ERA with a paltry 0.36 ERA. Used predominately out of the bullpen
last year, Taylor has only been featured in relief, but was scheduled
to make a Sunday start against Oklahoma State in a crucial Big 12
matchup only to be scratched before first pitch with an undisclosed
injury. There are rumblings that he should be available for Texas
Tech's series against West Virginia next weekend, but even if he's
not, his outstanding work up to this point – just two earned runs
in 50 innings pitched – should be applauded.
• Andrew
Benintendi of Arkansas has deservingly received a lot of attention
and praise for his breakout 2015 season. However, it is another
outfielder that was overlooked and undrafted out of high school that
now leads the nation in home runs. Kyle Nowlin of Eastern Kentucky
went 3-for-6 with three home runs in Sunday's game against
Jacksonville State to give him 17 on the season. Nowlin, a junior
from Harrison, Ohio was rated by Perfect Game as the Coastal Plains
League's 28th best prospect last summer, and his experience this
summer combined with his outstanding performance this spring and
stellar freshman and sophomore seasons for Eastern Kentucky should
make him an interesting name to keep an eye when the draft rolls
around in June.
• Maybe
it’s due to their geographical location, or perhaps because they’re
just freshman, but the state of Rhode Island has two young arms who
will be must-sees in two years for all scouts. Bryant’s righthander
James Karinchak and Rhode Island’s lefty Tyler Wilson, both
Northeast prep products, have done anything but look like freshmen
this spring, locking down weekend roles from the onset of the 2015
season.
Listed
at 6-foot-2, 180-pounds, Karinchak hails from New Jersey and if he
continues his string of success the Northeast Conference (NEC) may
rename the Rookie of the Week award to the “James Karinchak Award.”
Over the past four weeks, Karinchak has gone 4-0 with four complete
game victories and has picked up four consecutive awards at the end
of each week, with five overall on the year. Last weekend at Sacred
Heart he captured his latest piece of hardware as he worked in the
88-93 mph range with his heater, scattering just five hits over seven
shutout innings with six strikeouts.
Not
too far from Karinchak is lefthander Tyler Wilson who holds ones of
the nations lowest ERAs amongst starting pitchers. After an early
commitment to the Rams, Wilson has continued to show development
since his prep days – where he would work in the mid-80s, touching
higher – as he now works at 88-91 mph, touching 92, with big
deception and feel for his off-speed pitches. The numbers across the
board support that Wilson is a difficult arm to face, as his ERA is a
diminutive 1.43 with 53 strikeouts while hitters have just a .153
average against.