Last Eight In: UCF, Illinois, North Carolina State, USC, Tennessee, Cal Poly, Cal State Fullerton, Washington
First Eight Out: UC Irvine, Arizona, Dallas Baptist, Georgia, Duke, Fresno State, Florida International, Baylor
The first weekend of the season is in the books and there is now a good feeling of where teams stand. The top teams took care of business to start the season, as 14 of the 16 regional hosts in this weeks bracket won their opening series. The lone exceptions were Rice and Texas, who split in a four game series. The Owls and Longhorns weren’t the only teams in the field to square off over the weekend, as there were three series and four individual matchups that took place between teams in the field. Arizona State and Oklahoma State played a three game series that was won 2-1 by ASU, and South Carolina and Charleston did the same with South Carolina taking two of three. Indiana and Stanford met in what might have been the biggest series of week one, as it was a rematch of the Bloomington Regional final last season. The Hoosiers got revenge for last seasons defeat with two wins to open the weekend before Stanford won game three. In other action, Cal State Fullerton rebounded from a 0-2 start to defeat Louisville on Sunday, while Kennesaw State split two games with St. John’s and defeated Liberty. New Mexico topped Oregon State in Surprise, Arizona and the two schools will meet for a second game on Monday.
The conference winner for the weekend was the Big Ten. We currently have four Big Ten teams in the field, but as many as nine teams could be in the mix for one of those spots. The Big Ten is very deep this season and has a number of teams returning significant portions of their production from last season. Nebraska, Maryland and Indiana all were regional teams last year, although Maryland was an ACC member at that time, and all three teams return enough talent to make a return trip. Illinois just missed a regional berth and they return nearly everyone from last season. The Fighting Illini are off to a 3-0 start and sit in great shape. Ohio State, 3-0, and Michigan State, 2-1, are two teams creeping down their neck. The Buckeyes went 3-0 against fellow cold weather climate teams and feature a relatively light non-conference schedule that could help them rack up wins before conference play starts. The Spartans went 2-1 to open their season with wins over MWC favorite New Mexico and Northwestern. Their loss was an extra innings defeat to Oregon State. Michigan lost their opening series to Long Beach State, but they have a lot of talent on their roster and could be in the mix this year. Iowa and Minnesota are dark horse candidates, but both showed promising signs over the weekend.
While the Big Ten had a great showing, the Big West didn’t. Of this year’s projected top four teams, UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara, only one team finished with a winning record. Irvine was swept by Fresno State, Baylor swept Cal Poly and Cal State Fullerton lost to both South Florida and Alabama State. That’s not a good start from a conference that is known for producing high-level baseball teams. This is a long season with plenty of opportunities to improve, but it’s not the start that those schools were looking for.
See the Projected Baseball NCAA Tournament Bracket
ACC: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia
American: Houston, UCF
Big East: St. John’s
Big 12: Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech
Big Ten: Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska
Pac-12: Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington
SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
A-10: St. Joseph’s
America East: Stony Brook
A-Sun: Kennesaw State
Big South: Liberty
Big West: Cal Poly, Cal State Fullerton, UC Santa Barbara
CAA: Charleston
C-USA: Rice
Horizon: Wright State
Ivy: Columbia
MAAC: Canisius
MAC: Central Michigan
MEAC: Bethune-Cookman
MVC: Missouri State
MWC: New Mexico
NEC: Bryant
OVC: Southeast Missouri
Patriot: Army
Southern: Western Carolina
Southland: Sam Houston State
Summit: South Dakota State
Sun Belt: Louisiana
SWAC: Jackson State
WAC: Sacramento State
WCC: Loyola Marymount
See the Projected Baseball NCAA Tournament Bracket
