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College | Story | 4/6/2017

Weekend Preview: Week 8

Patrick Ebert

Jheremy Brown

Mike Rooney

Photo: Coastal Carolina Athletics

Perfect Game Top 25 | PG/Rawlings Player/Pitcher of the Week | Midseason Awards
College Spotlight | PG College Player Database

Starting at the midpoint of the season we often see teams start to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. The teams that still have a little bit to prove will either embrace those opportunities or start to fall back to earth, and the same is true for the players that are performing at a high level, including those named to the PG/Rawlings Midseason All-American teams.

The Midseason Player of the Year, Brendan McKay, will take the mound on Friday night as No. 2 Louisville hosts No. 23 Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons are new to the rankings this week, coming off of their fourth consecutive ACC series win. We profiled the lethal Wake Forest lineup in last week's Weekend Preview, however, they haven't faced a pitching staff like what McKay and the rest of the Louisville arms have in store. Another series win for the Deacs, on the road, would make a huge statement in the college baseball landscape.

In the SEC Arkansas hosts LSU in a series between two clubs that appear to be going in opposite directions. LSU has lost their last two weekend SEC series while Arkansas has won all three of theirs. The Razorbacks are now 7-2 in the SEC and 16-1 at home, which would make a series win for the Tigers somewhat of an upset. However, without a series win and they run the risk of falling out of the Top 25 come Monday after opening the season as the second-ranked team in the nation.

Vanderbilt is also at risk of losing their ranked status as they travel to South Carolina to take on the Gamecocks.

One of the more intriguing series this weekend has the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns traveling to Conway, South Carolina to take on the defending National Champion Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. The Chants are new to the Sun Belt Conference this year, where the Cajuns have reigned supreme for the past three years. We break down both teams just below, and will also have David Rawnsley in Conway to cover the series.

Perfect Game will also have Brian Sakowski in East Lansing, Mich., as Fresno State travels East to take on Michigan State, and Jheremy Brown in the Northeast to cover North Carolina at Boston College. Stay tuned to Perfect Game for updates throughout the weekend.

Top 25 in Action

Rk.	Team	Opponent	Location
1	Oregon State	home vs. Utah	Corvallis, OR
2	Louisville	home vs. No. 23 Wake Forest	Louisville, KY
3	Texas Christian	home vs. Murray State	Fort Worth, TX
4	Clemson	home vs. Virginia Tech	Clemson, SC
5	North Carolina	at Boston College	Boston, MA
6	South Carolina	home vs. No. 21 Vanderbilt	Columbia, SC
7	Texas Tech	home vs. Baylor	Lubbock, TX
8	Florida	home vs. Tennessee	Gainesville, FL
9	Arizona	at Washington State	Pullman, WA
10	Arkansas	home vs. No. 18 Louisiana State	Fayetteville, AR
11	Oklahoma	at Texas	Austin, TX
12	Cal State Fullerton	home vs. UC Davis	Fullerton, CA
13	Kentucky	at Mississippi State	Starkville, MS
14	Houston	home vs. East Carolina	Houston, TX
15	St. John's	at Creighton	Omaha, NE
16	Florida Gulf Coast	at Stetson	Deland, FL
17	Auburn	at Texas A&M	College Station, TX
18	Louisiana State	at No. 10 Arkansas	Fayetteville, AR
19	Stanford	at Southern California	Los Angeles, CA
20	Louisiana	at Coastal Carolina	Conway, SC
21	Vanderbilt	at No. 6 South Carolina	Columbia, SC
22	Florida State	at NC State	Raleigh, NC
23	Wake Forest	at No. 2 Louisville	Louisville, KY
24	Southern Miss	home vs. Florida International	Hattiesburg, MS
25	South Florida	home vs. UCF	Tampa, FL

Sun Belt supremacy on the line

This weekend Sun Belt newcomer Coastal Carolina will host Louisiana in a series that could represent a change in the guard in power at the top of the conference standings. It could also represent which of the two teams are ranked in the Top 25 come Monday.

Coastal Carolina of course are the defending National Champions, although they did so as a member of the Big South Conference. The Ragin’ Cajuns have won each of the last three tournament championships to earn automatic postseason berths. It should be pointed out that Texas State in the West Division and South Alabama in the East Division currently have 6-3 Sun Belt records, just like Louisiana. Coastal leads the way in the East with a 7-2 mark.

The Chanticleers, who opened the season ranked 24th in the nation but quickly fell out of the rankings, are 19-10 overall and are coming off of consecutive weekend sweeps of Arkansas State and Georgia State. However, they lost to Texas State, on the road, to open conference play this year, and overall are lacking a signature win, making this weekend’s series against the Cajuns that much more important.

Staff ace Alex Cunningham has tossed back-to-back complete game shutouts and is now 4-0 on the year with a 1.97 ERA. However, he’s the only regular starter with an ERA under 4.00. Last year’s CWS hero Andrew Beckwith has been inserted into a more versatile swing role but the results haven’t been as favorable (5.71 ERA in 9 games, 5 of which are starts).

The bullpen for the most part is doing its job, as Bobby Holmes and Austin Kitchen are the go-to arms with each making 11 relief appearances.

And despite losing nearly their entire starting lineup from a year ago the offense continues to produce big numbers in key areas. As a squad they have already hit 41 home runs and have stolen 53 bases (in 65 attempts), staples to Gary Gilmore’s club, and both are among the top 10 nationally. Kevin Woodall is leading the team with 10 bombs and 29 RBI despite hitting only .250, while Billy Cooke continues to lead the offense with a .337/.504/.584 triple slash line to go along with 13 stolen bases.

Louisiana is currently ranked 20th despite a relative ho-hum 16-12 record. However, they are getting the job done during their weekend series. They have yet to lose a weekend series and have wins over Sam Houston State, Southern Miss and South Alabama. Where the Cajuns have run into problems is during their midweek contests with key losses to Southeastern Louisiana, Houston and Tulane.

They’re getting it done with a contrasting style to Coastal Carolina as their staff ERA is 3.24, and while they’re hitting .267 as at eam they only have 15 home runs and 25 swipes in 36 attempts. Wyatt Marks and Dylan Moore both have 13 appearances out of the bullpen and have been lock-down options late in ballgames, combining for a 77-to-24 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 49 innings of work.

Friday ace Gunner Leger continues to carve up opposing hitters, as is Sunday starter and former PG All-American Hogan Harris. That duo is a combined 8-1 on the year with a 1.30 ERA, while Saturday starter Nick Lee has a respectable 4-3 mark with a 4.93 ERA, but still has the talent to turn in productive starts after a promising freshman season. Possibly most important are the 18 home runs the pitching staff as a whole has given up all season long, as well as the .205 batting average against, as keeping the Chanticleers bats quiets will be priority No. 1 for the Cajuns.

There will be no shortage of intrigue in Conway, South Carolina this weekend and Friday’s duel between Cunningham and Leger could very well be the deciding factor for the entire three-game series.

– Patrick Ebert

Rise of powers in C-USA

The Rice Owls entered Conference USA for the 2006 Baseball season and for the next 10 years Wayne Graham’s program won either the regular season title or the conference tournament title in every season. The 2016 season saw that streak come to an end as Florida Atlantic won the regular season and host Southern Miss won the tournament championship. At 10-21 Rice currently sits in last place in the league and it is clear that a changing of the guard is happening.

Southern Miss is the class of the conference at this point and the Golden Eagles lead the league in home runs, batting average and team ERA. Southern Miss sits at 24-6 with just one series loss on the season to Louisiana-Lafayette.

Florida Atlantic continues to be one of the premier programs in the league with rival Florida International on the rise under the leadership of new head coach Mervyl Melendez. Both schools have series wins over Rice already on the books for 2017 and FIU also has two wins over Miami.

Old Dominion and Charlotte are schools located more on the northern boundaries of the conference and both are having excellent seasons. Old Dominion in particular has garnered national attention with their 22-7 start.

Louisiana Tech is off to a rough start in league play (2-7) but the Bulldogs overall record of 19-10 includes wins over Arkansas, Mississippi State and Louisiana-Lafayette. Plus, Louisiana Tech has a respectable RPI of 61 currently.

Heading into this weekend, Conference USA is the No. 6 conference in RPI. The league has averaged three NCAA Tournament bids per year over the last six seasons and that number could be even higher in 2017. 2009 was the golden year for this underrated baseball conference: three teams won a Regional and Southern Miss, led by Brian Dozier, advanced to the College World Series. Despite the struggles of a proud Rice program, Conference USA appears ready to send another school to Omaha.

– Mike Rooney

Hot Huskers, Terps ready for Big Ten clash

Though neither Maryland nor Nebraska are ranked within the Top 25, this weekend’s Big Ten showdown at Hawks Field in Lincoln should prove to be a doozy as a surging Maryland squad looks to hand the Huskers their first conference loss of the spring. That could of course be easier said than done as Head Coach Darin Erstad’s club is 7-2 at home while the Terrapins are 4-5 on the road so far in 2017.

After a shaky 1-5 start to open the season Head Coach John Szecf has rallied the troops and his Maryland squad is certainly on an upswing, going 17-3 over their next 20 games. Draft-eligible sophomore outfielder Marty Costes continues to hurt the baseball as he’s slashing .362/.452/.600 and he’s tied for the team high in home runs with six, matching shortstop Kevin Smith who has begun to turn it on with the bat. Senior Brandon Gum has been an excellent pickup as he transferred in from George Mason and hasn’t stopped hitting (.317) while providing quality athleticism at first base and serving as an anchor on both sides of the ball.

Heading into the weekend both teams are hitting .260 as a unit, and while Nebraska relies more on bat-to-ball skills as opposed to power (just seven home runs compared to Maryland’s 24), this series should prove to be a quality matchup. Both Angelo Altavilla (.345) and Scott Schreiber (.320) are hitting a healthy clip above the .300 mark and will be counted on by Erstad as they’re set to face a solid Terrapin staff. A Preseason PG All-American, Jake Meyers has lived up to the early season accolades as he’s hitting .298 thus far with a team-high 10 stolen bases and solidifies the back end of the weekend rotation as the Sunday starter.

Meyers, Jake Hohensee and Derek Burkamper – the Husker’s three-man weekend rotation – have a compiled a 2.48 ERA over the first six weeks and have fronted what has turned out to be a solid Nebraska staff. Now 9-5 on the year, the trio has proven they can take the ball well into the middle innings of games before giving way to a slew of trusted relief options. One of these options is hard-throwing closer Luis Alvarado, who like Meyers is also one of the team’s starting outfielders, who comes in pumping easy low-90s heat with a feel for his secondaries.

It’s also worth noting that Nebraska’s overall record may not jump out, but consider this: over their last 12 games the Huskers have gone 9-2-1 and seem to be morphing right in front of our eyes.

It’s always comforting to know you have a reliable, experienced arm going for you on Friday nights and that’s exactly what Szecf and Maryland have in 6-foot-5 junior righthander Brian Shaffer. Armed with a low-90s sinker, Shaffer is putting together a remarkable 2017 campaign as he’s now 4-1 with a 1.70 ERA while averaging more than a strikeout per inning. Shaffer shows the biggest fastball of Szecf’s trio as both Taylor Bloom and Tyler Blohm rely more on command and pitchability but together they are a combined 12-5 over 21 starts.

Andrew Miller and Ryan Selmer have proven to be one of the more formidable bullpen duos in the country, giving the coaching staff the ability to shorten games by an inning or two whenever both are available to go.

– Jheremy Brown

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