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College  | Story | 2/18/2016

Weekend Preview: 2016 Kickoff

Patrick Ebert
Jheremy Brown
Mike Rooney
Andrew Krause
Photo: Scott Chandler




2016 College Baseball Staff Predictions | 2016 Perfect Game College Baseball Preview Index

The 2016 college baseball season is set to begin, and unlike last year, the weather is looking favorable across the nation with record highs expected in parts of Texas and Oklahoma on Friday.

The biggest series to open the 2016 season has No. 22 North Carolina traveling to Los Angeles to play No. 14 UCLA. The biggest tournament will be played in Myrtle Beach, S.C. as No. 21 Coastal Carolina hosts the Caravelle Resort Tournament which will include No. 9 Virginia, No. 13 NC State, Kent State, Old Dominion and Appalachian State.

One of the other more intriguing series has San Diego traveling to Nashville to take on No. 4 Vanderbilt, although it remains to be seen which arms will be available to Commodores Head Coach Tim Corbin as detailed below.

Scouts will be treated to a dynamic matchup between two of the more interesting college hurlers this weekend as Daulton Jefferies and No. 8 California will square off against Duke's Bailey Clark on Opening Night. Details on this matchup, the UNC/UCLA series and the Caravelle Resort Tournament are provided below.

LakePoint will be in action to open the college baseball season as well as part of Perfect Game's Spring Swing. Nebraska-Omaha will play at LakePoint for the first of three weekends as they take on Eastern Michigan and NJIT. Follow all of the action from Emerson, Ga. in the Scouting Notes from LakePoint blog.

Stay tuned to Perfect Game throughout the weekend as Jheremy Brown will be on hand to cover the Caravelle Resort Tournament, Andrew Krause will be in Gainesville, Fla. providing reports from No. 1 Florida's opening series against Florida Gulf Coast and Mike Rooney will provide observations on No. 6 Oregon State from the Surprise Tournament.


Top 25 in Action
Rk. Team Opponent Location
1 Florida home vs. Florida Gulf Coast Gainesville, FL
2 Louisville home vs. SIU Edwardsville Louisville, KY
3 Texas A&M home vs. Hofstra College Station, TX
4 Vanderbilt home vs. San Diego Nashville, TN
5 Louisiana State home vs. Cincinnati Baton Rouge, LA
6 Oregon State at Surprise Tournament Surprise, AZ
7 Oklahoma State at UTA Tournament Arlington, TX
8 California at Duke Durham, NC
9 Virginia at Caravelle Resort Tournament Myrtle Beach, SC
10 Louisiana home vs. Sam Houston State Lafayette, LA
11 Miami home vs. Rutgers Coral Gables, FL
12 Oregon at San Diego State San Diego, CA
13 NC State at Caravelle Resort Tournament Myrtle Beach, SC
14 UCLA home vs. No. 22 North Carolina Los Angeles, CA
15 Missouri vs. Seton Hall Fort Myers, FL
16 Houston home vs. Villanova Houston, TX
17 Mississippi State home vs. FAU, South Dakota State Starkville, MS
18 Texas Christian home vs. Loyola Marymount Fort Worth, TX
19 Oklahoma home vs. Northeastern Norman, OK
20 Florida State home vs. Rhode Island Tallahassee, FL
21 Coastal Carolina Caravelle Resort Tournament Myrtle Beach, SC
22 North Carolina at No. 14 UCLA Los Angeles, CA
23 Michigan vs. Canisius Port St. Lucie, FL
24 Notre Dame at Santa Clara Santa Clara, CA
25 Texas Tech home vs. Wisconsin-Milwaukee Lubbock, TX


Marquee Matchup

No. 22 North Carolina at No. 14 UCLA
Zac Gallen (UNC Athletic Communications)
In 2013, UCLA and North Carolina were the epitome of elite college baseball programs. The Tar Heels entered NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed while the Bruins went on to win the National Title. In the two seasons since, both programs have logged one missed NCAA Tournament each as well as a Regional loss. In fairness to the Bruins, injuries crushed their 2014 season and they entered the 2015 tournament as the No. 1 overall seed.

North Carolina has trended down, however, and chemistry was rumored to have been a big issue. Having said that, this position player group certainly has a blue-collar feel to it and Mike Fox is still the same coach who took the Tar Heels to a remarkable six CWS appearances in the nine seasons from 2006-2013.

This series features two pitching staffs with exceptional 1-2 punches at the front of the rotation. North Carolina will lead with an accomplished strike thrower in Zac Gallen followed by one of the best arms in all of college baseball in J.B. Bukauskas. UCLA counters with the plus breaking ball of Grant Dyer on Friday night with Griffin Canning and his elite fastball command going in game two.

A key matchup in this series will be the North Carolina running game versus UCLA's true freshman catcher Jake Hirabayashi. Hirabayashi, who is a recently converted infielder, has been thrust into the starting role as a result of starter Darrell Miller, Jr. being out for the season with labrum surgery on his non-throwing shoulder. It will also be interesting to see if this affects the Bruins pitching staff. 

Mound Matchup

Bailey Clark (Duke) vs. Daulton Jefferies (California)

 Friday nights in the spring often feature exciting pitching matchups and it’s no different this week as there are plenty of quality battles to choose from on opening weekend. The most tantalizing ace vs. ace showdown would appear to be in Durham as two righthanders with rising draft stocks toe the rubber.
Bailey Clark (Reagan Lunn)
California junior righty Daulton Jefferies has been a known commodity since his high school days, and he elected to attend Berkeley after being selected in the 39th round of the 2013 draft by the Marlins. While he may not own the prototypical starting pitcher frame, evaluators from professional organizations have been impressed with the righthander’s athleticism, stuff and results in his two seasons with the Golden Bears. After a strong freshman campaign in 2014, Jefferies took another step forward last season, missing bats at an improved clip (8.33 strikeouts per nine innings) and walking just 17 in 80 innings pitched. Jefferies’ draft stock and profile was only helped with a strong summer campaign that saw him pitch well in both the Cape Cod League and for Team USA. Armed with a steady low-90s fastball that has touched as high as 96, and a breaking ball and changeup that both show above average, Jefferies has positioned himself as one of the premier righthanded arms in the 2016 college draft class.

Bailey Clark’s draft stock has been on a similar upward trajectory in the last few months. The strongly-built 6-foot-5, 210-pound righty didn’t pitch much during his freshman season at Duke, but he was extremely effective last year while displaying and ability to miss bats with a lively fastball and quality slider. Last summer Clark, like Jefferies, plied his trade both on the Cape and with Team USA. He’s continued to make strides and show more consistent command of both his slider and changeup in recent months and has also ran his fastball up to 96-97 mph in short stints already this spring.

There will certainly be plenty of scouting heat in to see the two righties, as both are well on their way to being early round (possibly first round) selections this June, but it’s important to keep in mind that the result of the game (and series) will also be key for the respective programs as California looks to build upon a strong 2015 that saw them advance to Regional play, and the Blue Devils will hope that their strong pitching staff can carry them into the postseason. Those in attendance in Durham certainly seem to be in store for an Opening Day treat.


Tournament Spotlight

Caravelle Resort Tournament (Myrtle Beach and Conway, S.C.)

Teams:
No. 9 Virginia, No. 13 NC State, No. 21 Coastal Carolina, Kent State, Old Dominion, Appalachian State

Prospect Watch (players ranked among PG’s top 100 juniors):
Connor Jones, rhp, Virginia (No. 13); Eric Lauer, lhp, Kent State (No. 22); Cory Wilder, rhp, NC State (No. 35); Matthew Thaiss, c, Virginia (No. 43); Daniel Pinero, ss, Virginia (No. 69); Andrew Knizner, c, NC State (No. 96).
Eric Lauer (David Dermer)
The Caravelle Resort Tournament features three teams in Perfect Game’s Preseason Top 25 in the defending National Champions No. 9 Virginia, No. 13 North Carolina State and No. 21 Coastal Carolina, as well as one of the top mid-majors in the Kent State Golden Flashes.

The Friday afternoon pitching matchup between Virginia’s ace Connor Jones and Kent State’s lefthanded surgeon Eric Lauer is one game that’s been circled on professional scouts’ calendars for quite some time as both open the spring with first round aspirations. And while this may be the marquee game of the tournament there’s no doubt that the stands will be filled until the conclusion of Sunday’s contests as every team in attendance has quality talent for this June’s draft and beyond.

Something that will be interesting to follow not only this weekend but throughout the spring will be Virginia’s pitching as they lost three of their top arms off of last season’s championship team. Jones is a bona fide ace and gives the advantage to the Cavaliers pretty much every Friday night, and while the other two-thirds of the rotation will be new the spots will be filled with talented arms – freshman lefthander Daniel Lynch and sophomore righthander Tommy Doyle – to open the season.

The Wolfpack of NC State are a particularly interesting team and one that opens up at No. 13 in the PG rankings as their roster features a nice blend of seasoned vets and quality underclassmen who are ready to take the next step. Catcher Andrew Knizner has been as consistent as they come and showed no trouble making the transition behind the plate last year and hopes for sophomore slugger Joe Dunand are high, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.

Coastal Carolina advanced to a Regional in 2015 and they not only look to return but to move deeper into the postseason. The pitching staff features two of the more intriguing arms in the tournament with junior Alex Cunningham and freshman Jason Bilous, both of whom show big velocity and are each capable of bumping 95 mph. A player to keep an eye on throughout the tournament and the rest of the spring is their starting shortstop, Michael Paez, who may be small in stature (listed 5-foot-9, 175-pounds) but shows big-time ability on both sides of the ball.


National Notes

• We’re still a couple of days away from the official start of the 2016 season and the No. 11 Miami Hurricanes have already received some bad news. On top of the dismissal of righthander Derik Beauprez, a talented junior who was projected to be a big piece either in the rotation or out of the ‘pen, the Canes also lose another weekend starter indefinitely in righthander Enrique Sosa to injury.  And if losing two arms who were projected to be impact pieces wasn’t enough starting senior shortstop Brandon Lopez and outfielder Justin Smith were suspended indefinitely as first reported by the Miami Herald Monday afternoon.

• Oregon State has three of the nation's best shortstops in Trever Morrison, Nick Madrigal and Cadyn Grenier. And that leads us to the one question on everyone's mind: who is going to be the Beavers' primary shortstop? Pat Casey is a master at creating roster depth and there's a strong possibility that we see all three of them at shortstop in the first month of the season. There are whispers that Grenier will open at third base with Madrigal at shortstop, and Morrison at second as that would seem to be the most likely combination. Meanwhile, these young freshmen (Grenier and Madrigal) may get a rude introduction to college baseball as they will face Ball State ace righthander Zach Plesac right out of the shoot.

• For the second time in three years, Stanford may be starting a true freshman on Friday nights. Tristan Beck, the 17th ranked freshman by Perfect Game, is rumored to have won that job and the reports are glowing. Beck features a three-pitch mix with a fastball in the 91-94 mph range and outstanding mound presence. Junior Chris Viall may end up being the closer and he appears to have turned a corner. The massive Viall (6-foot-9, 230-pounds) has struggled badly with command (career walks per nine innings of 6.27) but he has been up to 96 mph in recent scrimmages with a wipeout slider.

• Although Vanderbilt fans may be disappointed that Kyle Wright, John Kilichowski, and exciting freshman Donny Everett will not pitch this weekend due to various injuries, the good news is that the maladies don't appear to be serious and the trio are expected back shortly.

• Mitchell Traver was expected to lead the TCU rotation this spring, but his season debut will be halted, at least for the time being, due to a muscle strain in his back. He's expected to miss approximately 4-6 weeks, and the Horned Frogs will most likely turn to junior righty Brian Howard, lefty Rex Hill, a junior college transfer who impressed the coaching staff this spring, and freshman phenom Luken Baker in their weekend rotation.

• Brandon McIlwain and Seth Beer spent the last few springs standing above the competition at their respective high schools, and both young outfielders will look to make their mark in their first opening weekends. McIlwain (South Carolina) and Beer (Clemson) graduated from high school a semester early and enrolled in their respective colleges at the beginning of 2016 so that they could play baseball this spring. While they'll certainly get to know each other well over the course of the next three seasons, McIlwain and the Gamecocks open up with Albany and Beer's Tigers play host to Maine.

• Houston opens the season with high expectations and they'll begin the year without one of their biggest assets, star sophomore lefty Seth Romero. Slated as the Cougars No. 2 starter, Romero was suspended indefinitely and will be out for at least the team's opening weekend series against Villanova. A top prospect for the 2017 MLB draft, Romero is currently ranked No. 13 in Perfect Game's top 100 sophomore rankings as he shows a fastball that peaks in the mid-90s while showing command of his full arsenal throughout the zone.

• Year in and year out Cal State Fullerton always schedules one of the toughest non-conference schedules early in the season. They may have out-done themselves this year as they open the year at Stanford, return home to play Indiana, travel to Texas Tech for the third weekend and then come back home to host Wichita State, Maryland and Long Beach State (in a non-conference series) before opening their Big West Conference slate on April 1. During this time they will also play mid-week contests against Arizona State, Arizona, San Diego State, Southern California and USC. For a young team that lost some huge pieces from their 2015 CWS team that level of competition will serve as a huge barometer for the Titans, who open the year ranked as Perfect Game’s 32nd best team in the nation.

• No. 27 Rice opens the season hosting Arizona and it will be interesting to see what wins out between the Owls’ impressive weekend staff or the dynamic 1-2 duo in the middle of the Wildcats’ order. Bobby Dalbec and J.J. Matijevic may very well replicate the seasons that Miami’s David Thompson and Zack Collins enjoyed a year ago. Dalbec already enjoyed a huge season at the plate as a sophomore but Matijevic struggled to find consistent contact during his freshman season. If he picks up where he left off from last summer on the Cape he could make the 2015 season seem like a distant memory while taking advantage of the friendly offensive conditions Hi Corbett Field has to offer. But first, they must navigate their way past Blake Fox, Jon Duplantier and company.

• Maryland also has an intriguing opening season matchup as they travel south to Tuscaloosa to face Alabama. Mike Shawaryn, one of the favorites to claim 2016 Pitcher of the Year honors, is expected to face off against Geoffrey Bramblett and his big-breaking curveball on Friday to open the series. Reports out of Alabama so far are encouraging, with two pitchers in particular drawing high praise. Nick Eicholtz, who went 3-1 as a spot starter last year, has reportedly been up to 94 mph this spring and makes it look easy. Thomas Burrows, the Tide’s closer, has also been impressive. Burrows, a 6-foot-2, 225-pound lefthander, may be set for a much bigger junior campaign after saving seven games a year ago in 27 relief appearances.

• Another marquee mound matchup this weekend will see Illinois righthander Cody Sedlock square off against Tulane’s Corey Merrill in New Orleans on Friday. Merrill was one of the best pitchers in the American Athletic Conference a year ago while Sedlock is one of the nation’s fastest rising prospects. Replacing the production lost from a year ago will be no easy task for the Illini, but Sedlock’s improvements – he reportedly has been clocked as high as 97 mph and in the mix for the first round of this year’s draft – will make some of those losses easier to swallow.

• Two other series bound to generate attention, with the potential to effect the national rankings in the weeks to come, will see Iowa visiting Dallas Baptist and College of Charleston hosting Nebraska. All but Nebraska finished the 2015 season in PG’s final Top 25 team rankings, with the Huskers spending a brief amount of time in the rankings after their sizzling start to the 2015 season.
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