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College  | Story | 4/21/2016

Weekend Preview: Week 10

Patrick Ebert
Jheremy Brown
Photo: Rice Athletics




Field of 64 | National Notebook | Perfect Game Top 25 | Video Vault | Perfect Game College Baseball on SiriusXM College Sports

There's only one series this weekend that pits fellow ranked teams against one another, and not surprisingly Mississippi State is one of those teams involved. The Bulldogs travel south to Baton Rouge to face an LSU ballclub that is extremely hot right now, winning 10 of their last 12 games which includes a series win over Vanderbilt and a weekend sweep over previously ranked Missouri. Mississippi State is looking to get back to their own winning ways after being swept at the hands of Texas A&M, at home, last weekend.

Arguably the most intriguing series this weekend has one of the newest members of the Top 25, Rice, traveling to Hattiesburg, Miss., to take on Southern Miss, who was bounced from the rankings this past week after losing their series a weekend ago to UAB, although they still boast an impressive 27-11 record and the 22nd best RPI in the nation. The Owls have turned their season around (24-11) after losing their opening series to Arizona and going 0-3 at the Houston College Classic. Rice has since gone 21-6 since that difficult performance in Houston and are two spots ahead of Southern Miss in regards to RPI.

Stay tuned to Perfect Game this weekend for first-hand reports from Jheremy Brown, who will provide details from the Louisville/Boston College series, and Brian Sakowski, who will see Western Michigan ace lefthander Keegan Akin.


Top 25 in Action
Rk. Team Opponent Location
1 Miami home vs. Virginia Coral Gables, FL
2 Florida home vs. Georgia Gainesville, FL
3 Texas A&M home vs. Alabama College Station, TX
4 Texas Christian at Oklahoma State Stillwater, OK
5 Mississippi State at No. 13 Louisiana State Baton Rouge, LA
6 Vanderbilt at Tennessee Knoxville, TN
7 Louisville at Boston College Boston, MA
8 Florida State home vs. Notre Dame Tallahassee, FL
9 NC State home vs. North Carolina A&T Pullman, WA
10 Texas Tech home vs. Texas Lubbock, TX
11 South Carolina home vs. Missouri Columbia, SC
12 Oregon State at Utah Salt Lake City, UT
13 Louisiana State home vs. No. 5 Mississsippi State Baton Rouge, LA
14 Mississippi home vs. Auburn Lubbock, TX
15 North Carolina at Wake Forest Winston-Salem, NC
16 Coastal Carolina home vs. High Point Conway, SC
17 UC Santa Barbara at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, CA
18 California home vs. Arizona Berkeley, CA
19 Florida Atlantic at Florida International Miami, FL
20 BYU home vs. Creighton Provo, UT
21 Michigan State home vs. Indiana East Lansing, MI
22 Michigan at Iowa Iowa City, IA
23 Rice at Southern Miss Hattiesburg, MS
24 Dallas Baptist at Indiana State Terre Haute, IN
25 Kentucky home vs. Arkansas Lexington, KY



Marquee Matchup #1

No. 5 Mississippi State at No. 13 Louisiana State

The Mississippi State Bulldogs have been covered in weekend previews a handful of times already as they continue play, and win, at a high level and their opponents have been of equal high quality. The Louisiana State Tigers are trending in the right direction at the right time in the season, meaning Mississippi State faces another tough test and will be forced to do so in the not-so-friendly confines of The Box in Baton Rouge.

Yes, the Bulldogs were swept at home by Texas A&M last weekend in a three-game set, allowing 30 runs while plating just 14, but something was bound to give with the high level of play they’ve been showing thus far this spring.
Alex Lange (Louisiana State)
Coach John Cohen could welcome back his sparkplug this weekend with Jacob Robson who has been out the last two series, but even if he doesn’t several other players have stepped up recently including former Perfect Game All-American and freshman Elih Marrero. After starting the year slowly with the bat Marerro has continued to see his average rise to a modest .292 while giving scouts a name to remember for the 2018 MLB draft.

Speaking of 2018 draft prospects, Louisiana State offers an elite freshman of their own in Antoine Duplantis who entered the spring with almost unrealistic expectations. He has not only met those but may have even exceeded them. The Tigers top hitter from the first game of the year, the lefthanded hitting Duplantis is hitting .365 while showing strength to the gaps and speed on the bases while playing flawless defense in the outfield.

While the offense – which had a lot of holes to fill from last year’s club – was expected to develop over the course of the spring, the pitching staff was supposed to be LSU’s strong suit from the get-go, and if that unit continues to improve this is a club that will be scary come the postseason.

That begins with star sophomore Alex Lange, who hasn’t been able to fully regain the magic from his freshman year. However, his stuff is still plenty good, and should he continue to fine-tune his command there is no reason to believe he won’t be able to accumulate wins at an fast pace once again. Friday night starter Jared Poché has led the team on the mound once again and the Tigers have greatly benefitted from transfer and former Akron Zip John Valek, who has an incredible feel for the strike zone.

The Tigers are certainly trending in the right direction as they followed up their series victory over Vanderbilt with a three-game sweep of Missouri on the road last weekend, and should the pieces continue to fall into place there’s no reason Coach Paul Mainieri’s club won’t continue to rise up the rankings.


Marquee Matchup #2

No. 23 Rice at Southern Miss

Jumping into the national rankings for the first time this year, the Rice Owls are on the upswing and head into another conference weekend against a surging Southern Mississippi squad that is 27-11 on the year and 12-3 in Conference USA. Tied for the lead atop the conference standings, the Owls are 24-11 themselves and are winners in nine of their last 10 games.

Heading into the spring the outlook on the Owl’s pitching staff was positive with senior lefthander Blake Fox leading the way. What wasn’t as clear was the role that flame-throwing junior Jon Duplantier would play coming off of an injury that cost him the entire 2015 season. He has more than picked up where he left off as over nine starts he is tied for eighth in the country with 77 strikeouts. His draft stock continues to rise with every start and he can help set the tone early with another strong performance Friday night.
Dylan Burdeaux (Southern Miss Athletics)
As a staff it’s difficult to find a hole in the weekend rotation as both Blake Fox and Ricardo Salinas have thrown the ball exceptionally well. And as good as the trio has been, closer Glenn Otto has been near unhittable, closing out seven games in 18 appearances, logging almost 40 innings on the year in 18 relief appearances.

The Rice offense isn’t one that can consistently burn a pitching staff with the long ball, as they have just 10 as a team, but it’s a highly athletic group who can do the little things well and work the gaps. The Owls have been without leading hitter, Charlie Warren, each of the last two weekends, but freshman Ford Proctor and sophomore Ryan Chandler have stepped up in a big way hitting in prominent spots in the lineup.

Opposite of the Owls offense, the Golden Eagles have already slugged 44 home runs as a team, 10 of which have come off the bat of sophomore Taylor Braley, who has missed the last few weeks with a knee injury. Tim Lynch and Dylan Burdeaux have connected for six and eight home runs respectively and are both hitting well above the .300 mark at .384 and .335. Jake Sandlin (.384) and Nick Dawson (.373) have also been consistent performers in everyday roles.

Long story short, this is an offense that’s capable of putting up a crooked number in any inning and can easily dictate the outcome of the game.

Similar to the offense, the pitching staff offers an experienced group with plenty of depth led by senior righthander Cord Cockrell who is 6-0 on the year and has only issued five free passes in nearly 54 innings. The bullpen is capable of shortening games in the backend, especially once closer Nick Sandlin enters the ball game (6 saves, 1.59 ERA in 16 appearances).

This series not only has huge implications for Conference USA play but also relative to the national rankings as the two teams essentially traded places in Perfect Game’s most recent update of the Top 25. A win for Rice obviously pushes them further up the ranks, while a series win for Southern Miss would likely help the Eagles trade places once again with their C-USA foe, with one team looking from the inside out, and the other from the outside in.



Marquee Mound Matchup

A.J. Puk (Florida) vs. Robert Tyler (Georgia)

This could be the pitching matchup of the year in what likely will be a who’s who event among the scouting community behind home plate in Gainesville as a pair of 2012 Perfect Game All-Americans will lofty draft aspirations – Florida’s A.J. Puk and Georgia’s Robert Tyler – square off against one another.

After missing roughly a week and a half after being removed from a game against Texas A&M on Sunday, April 3 due to back spasms/tightness, A.J. Puk returned to the mound last Thursday in a contest against Arkansas in Fayetteville. The move proved to be somewhat fortuitous for coach Kevin O’Sullivan, as it allowed him to keep the rest of his weekend rotation intact with Logan Shore and Alex Faedo keeping their Friday and Saturday assignments respectively.
Robert Tyler (Georgia Sports Communications)
Although Puk struggled with his command, and his release point, early in the game, his stuff was dominant, sitting in the mid-90s over five innings while peaking at 97 mph and striking out nine Razorbacks. While he threw mostly fastballs in that game his slider also showed it’s nasty two-plane shape, breaking hard down and in on righthanded batters and down and away from lefty hitters. Although he did give up a pair of runs in his fifth and final inning of work nothing hit off of him was squared up solidly as the opposing hitters of a formidable Arkansas lineup had difficulty catching up to his heat.

Robert Tyler was inserted into the Friday ace role two weeks ago following his dominant near no-hitter over Alabama on April 1. His next two outings weren’t nearly as clean, as a potent Texas A&M lineup chased him from the game after four innings and he lasted only 3 1/3 against South Carolina, although in that game only one of the three runs he allowed were earned.

However, in that near no-hitter Tyler showed just how dominant he can be when his fastball/changeup combination are working at their best. He uses his size well to throw on a downhill plane, making his mid- to upper-90s fastball that much harder to hit. Against Alabama he sat in the 93-95 range throughout the game, touching 98/99 early in the contest and still was throwing 92-94 mph in the ninth inning. The only hit he allowed in that game came with two outs in the ninth, a solo shot on a fastball off the bat of pinch hitter Georgie Salem.

It was clear that Tyler was running out of gas even if the radar gun readings didn’t indicate it, and he probably should have thrown more changeups as the ‘Bama hitters were looking dead red, as one of the three outs recorded in the ninth was a deep fly ball hit hard to straightaway center field. His changeup is a special pitch, thrown in the mid-80s with the exact same arm action and speed as his fastball before he pulls the string on the pitch causing it to fade over the plate.

Unlike Puk Tyler struggles to find a consistent feel for his breaking ball, a knuckle curveball that he continues to toy with to better spin on. In this game, and when he’s on overall, his fastball/changeup prove to be plenty to deal with, but the progression of that third pitch will obviously be key to his overall development at the professional level.

Their performances against one another could go a long way in determining their eventual draft placements, as Puk is still in the mix for the first overall pick while Tyler’s special arm strength is certainly first-round worthy as well.


National Notes

• To look at the matchup between No. 1 Miami and the defending National Champion Cavaliers in the simplest of ways look no further than the pitcher/hitter matchup between a pair of projected first round picks in game one. Hurricanes slugger Zack Collins can elevate the ball with the best of them, as compared to Virginia ace Connor Jones, who throws low- to mid-90s bowling balls to the bottom of the zone. Collins is slashing an unworldly .413/.578/.702 with eight home runs, but even more impressive is his outstanding ability to stay within the strike zone and lay off of pitchers’ pitches, walking 44 times compared to just 24 strikeouts. Jones has been excellent in leading a relatively young weekend rotation going 7-1 over nine starts and has limited opposing hitters to a .212 batting average. When he’s on and the fastball is sinking he’s near unhittable, especially as he begins to mix in both his slider and splitter. Scouts will be able to see how both react to one another as it will resemble a game of chess as both Jones and Collins are grandmasters at their craft and are extremely polished in what they do.

• Indiana has quietly rebounded from a slow start to compile a 21-14 record and a 6-3 mark in the Big Ten, which puts them fifth in the conference and well within shooting distance of Michigan State’s 7-2 conference record. The Hoosiers travel to East Lansing to take on the Spartans this weekend, which will prove to be Michigan State’s toughest Big Ten opponent so far. Michigan State forced their way into the Top 25 this week thanks to a 26-8 overall start to the year, and are currently leading the conference in both batting and ERA with a well-rounded team. Indiana sits in roughly the middle of the pack in both categories, but a series win, on the road, would be a huge statement for a team that entered the season with legitimate postseason aspirations.

• Despite the number of players they lost from last year’s CWS club Texas Christian keeps on rolling, heading into the weekend with a 27-8 overall record as the fourth-ranked team in the nation. They travel to Stillwater to take on Oklahoma State this weekend in what could be a defining series for both clubs. Oklahoma State rebounded well last week after falling out of the Top 25, sweeping Baylor after being swept by a red-hot Texas Tech squad the weekend before. The Cowboys’ pitching staff has helped make up for a surprisingly lack of offensive production for a team that was expected to post big numbers one through nine, which could bode well for the Horned Frogs given their continued dominance on the mound (2.95 ERA) and improved productivity at the plate (.316 batting average, 30 home runs, 52 stolen bases).

• After surging into the Top 25 a few weeks ago BYU could be looking at a relatively quick exit if they aren’t able to contain a strong Creighton team that also is putting together a strong postseason resume. This series will come down to both teams’ strengths, as BYU sports one of the more lethal and patient lineups in the nation, although they were effectively shut down by St. Mary’s last weekend, and Creighton boasts one of the best pitching staffs. The Cougars are hitting .331 as a team, led by their powerful middle-of-the-order presence, Colton Shaver. However the Bluejays have a cumulative 2.29 team ERA and they’re holding opposing hitters to just a .201 average. Expect a trio of low-scoring affairs with the potential for some late-inning heroics.

• Although Notre Dame entered the year ranked within Perfect Game’s Top 25 they were one of the first teams removed. However, they have righted the ship recently, and are riding a seven-game winning streak into their series against the eighth-ranked Seminoles in Tallahassee, which includes a midweek 1-0 win over No. 21 Michigan State on Tuesday and a come-from-behind win against Central Michigan on Wednesda. Wednesday’s win – in which freshman Matt Vierling provided nearly all the heroics with a three-run bomb that tied the game, the go-ahead RBI single while also working the final two innings on the mound to pick up the win – allowed the Irish to move to 23-12 on the season. However, continuing that streak will be no easy task as Florida State is 20-6 at home and are 10-4 in the ACC, which includes a big series win over Louisville, also in Tallahassee, two weeks ago.

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