Last Eight In: South Alabama, Arizona, Rice, Tulane, Long Beach State, Houston, Duke, Kentucky
First Eight Out: Tennessee, Notre Dame, USC, Missouri, Wake Forest, Cal Poly, Michigan State, Cal State Fullerton
Clemson and North Carolina State enter the field in this week’s projections after having very successful weekends. After dropping their contest with in-state rival South Carolina on Friday, Clemson rebounded with back-to-back wins to take the series. The Tigers lost a lot from last year’s team, including long time Had Coach Jack Leggett, but they haven’t missed a beat this season. Under Monte Lee’s guidance, Clemson is off to a solid 8-2 start. ACC foe North Carolina State is also off to a great start at 10-2 on the year. Key to this success has been the Wolfpack bats. As a team, NC State has already hit 18 home runs, including seven by senior catcher Chance Shepard.
UC Santa Barbara is another notable team in the field as they move into a host position. Coming off a tournament victory in San Diego last weekend, the Gauchos won a midweek game against UCLA and went up to Oregon and stole a game from a very good Oregon Ducks program. With a very tough part of the schedule out of the way, UC Santa Barbara should continue to rack up the wins as they head towards conference play.
ACC: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia
American: Houston, Tulane, East Carolina
Big East: Creighton
Big 12: Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech
Big Ten: Maryland, Michigan
Pac-12: Arizona State, Arizona, California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA
SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
A-10: Richmond
America East: Stony Brook
A-Sun: North Florida
Big South: Coastal Carolina
Big West: Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara
CAA: Charleston, UNC Wilmington
C-USA: Florida Atlantic, Rice
Horizon: Wright State
Ivy: Columbia
MAAC: Rider
MAC: Kent State
MEAC: Florida A&M
MVC: Dallas Baptist, Missouri State
MWC: Fresno State
NEC: Bryant
OVC: Southeast Missouri
Patriot: Holy Cross
Southern: Wofford
Southland: Southeastern Louisiana
Summit: Oral Roberts
Sun Belt: Louisiana, South Alabama
SWAC: Alabama State
WAC: Seattle
WCC: BYU
