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College | Story | 4/13/2017

Weekend Preview: Week 9

Patrick Ebert

Jheremy Brown

Mike Rooney

Photo: Ty Russell/OU Athletics

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

While each of the top three teams aren't playing ranked opponents, they are playing opponents that either opened the season in the Top 25 (Washington) or just outside (Georgia Tech and West Virginia), giving Oregon State, Louisville and TCU tough tests this weekend to retain their lofty ranking status. No. 4 Clemson also plays on the road, and against a ranked opponent in Florida State, while No. 5 North Carolina has a tough rivalry series at home against NC State.

Given the depth of talent in the SEC there is always going to be a series each weekend between ranked opponents as South Carolina hosts upstart Mississippi State and Florida travels to Vanderbilt. We will have Perfect Game scouts (David Rawnsley and Brian Sakowski respectively) as each of these series, so stay tuned to Perfect Game over the weekend for first-hand reports. Additionally, Vincent Cervino will be in Atlanta, Ga. to cover Louisville/Georgia Tech.

There are two especially interesting series this weekend that don't include Top 25 ranked teams, although it does include one Top 25 facing another squad that is in the ranking conversation. No. 7 Arizona hosts Oregon in what should be an exciting Pac-12 battle between one of the nation's best offense vs. one of the nation's best pitching staffs. The other series to watch will take place in Ann Arbor, Mich., as the Wolverines host No. 14 Oklahoma. We preview the Michigan/Oklahoma series below.

Top 25 in Action

Rk.	Team	Opponent	Location
1	Oregon State	at Washington	Seattle, WA
2	Louisville	at Georgia Tech	Atlanta, GA
3	Texas Christian	at West Virginia	Morgantown, WV
4	Clemson	at No. 24 Florida State	Tallahassee, FL
5	North Carolina	home vs. NC State	Chapel Hill, NC
6	Texas Tech	at Kansas State	Manhattan, KS
7	Arizona	home vs. Oregon	Tucson, AZ
8	South Carolina	home vs. No. 20 Mississippi State	Columbia, SC
9	Cal State Fullerton	at Southern California	Los Angeles, CA
10	Florida	at No. 19 Vanderbilt	Nashville, TN
11	Houston	at Memphis	Memphis, TN
12	Louisiana State	home vs. Mississippi	Baton Rouge, LA
13	Arkansas	home vs. Georgia	Fayetteville, AR
14	Oklahoma	at Michigan	Ann Arbor, MI
15	Kentucky	at Missouri	Columbia, MO
16	Stanford	home vs. UCLA	Palo Alto, CA
17	Virginia	at Virginia Tech	Blacksburg, VA
18	Auburn	at Tennessee	Knoxville, TN
19	Vanderbilt	home vs. No. 10 Florida	Nashville, TN
20	Mississippi State	at No. 8 South Carolina	Columbia, SC
21	South Florida	home vs. Cincinnati	Tampa, FL
22	Southern Miss	at Rice	Houston, TX
23	Long Beach State	home vs. Arkansas State	Lafayette, LA
24	Florida State	home vs. No. 4 Clemson	Tallahassee, FL
25	Wake Forest	home vs. Notre Dame	Winston-Salem, NC

Battle of the Bigs

One of the more intriguing series this weekend is actually a non-conference matchup between the 14th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners and the Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor, Mich. Oklahoma has one of the better overall records in the nation with a 27-9 mark, however, they are coming off of a midweek loss to Oral Roberts and a weekend series loss at the hands of the Texas Longhorns, while Michigan also has an impressive overall mark at 26-7. Michigan has been on the fringe of consideration for the Top 25 for nearly a month now, although losing their Big Ten opening series at Maryland didn’t help their resume. A series win, at home, against the Sooners could quickly change that.

Michigan boasts a well-rounded ballclub and are strong in all three phases of the game: hitting (.292 team average), pitching (3.08 team ERA) and defense (.983 team fielding percentage). They ranked second, first and first respectively in the Big Ten in each of those three team categories, and they do rank first in runs scored, so they effectively have the most productive offense as well.

Drew Lugbauer has been swinging a hot bat as of late, as he was named the Perfect Game/Rawlings National Player of the Week two weeks ago and leads the team in homers, RBI, total bases and slugging. Ako Thomas has been setting the tone at the top of the order with a patient eye and a contact approach to go along with good wheels on the basepaths while Johnny Slater and Michael Brdar have also been consistent run-producers in the middle of Michigan’s batting order.

The Wolverines’ weekend starting staff has been solid, but not spectacular, as Oliver Jaskie, Ryan Nutof and Michael Hendrickson have combined to go 10-3 with a collective 4.50 ERA, but the bullpen has been sensational, led by closer Jackson Lamb who has yet to give up an earned run in 15 relief appearances spanning 17 1/3 innings.

The Sooners has positioned themselves in a similar fashion, as their 2.73 team ERA is the best in the Big 12, and their .284 team batting average is third. They are also third in runs scored and have a team fielding percentage of .975.

Sensational sophomore outfielder Steele Walker continues to produce at a high level as he leads the Sooners in doubles, triples, homers, RBI and total bases while hitting .346. Four regulars are hitting above .300 and four players have at least four home runs (although none has more than five).

Midseason All-American Jake Irvin was leading the pitching the staff prior to an injury that kept him out for a couple of weeks but he returned to the mound last Saturday. He is now 5-0 on the year with a 1.30 ERA and a 45-to-8 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 34 2/3 innings of work. J.B. Olson is equally valuable at the back end of games, saving six in 17 relief appearances while going 2-0 with a 1.33 ERA in 27 innings. Dylan Grove (2.38) and Austin Hansen (3.03) have each made seven starts providing stability to the staff.

And after piling up a lot of wins to open the season Oklahoma has quickly proven that their success is not a fluke with series wins over Baylor and Texas Tech to open Big 12 play. They did lose their series at Texas last weekend, scoring only eight runs in three games against a stout Longhorns pitching staff.

Michigan has more to gain with a series win, simply because they’re on the outside of the Top 25 looking in, but Oklahoma could add another feather to their cap as they still have to face West Virginia, TCU and Oklahoma State as part of their conference slate. The Wolverines still have Indiana, Ohio State and Michigan State remaining on their own schedule as this series could go a long way as teams jockey for postseason positioning.

– Patrick Ebert

Well oiled Tar Heels

What a difference a year can make if you’re Head Coach Mike Fox and the North Carolina Tar Heels. And that’s not to say the squad from Chapel Hill was down last year as they collected 34 wins, but it did mark the second year in a row that they failed to qualify for the postseason. Jump to 2017 and it’s a completely different story as the offense is clicking on all cylinders and with just over 300 innings the pitching staff has a combined 2.62 ERA, good for the top 10 nationally.

Just how hot is this offense? Over their last four games (three at Boston College before a midweek contest against South Carolina) the Heels have combined to score 68 runs as part of a nine-game winning streak and put up at least 15 runs in each of their last four. Perhaps the biggest difference for the offense, which returns essentially the same lineup, is simply another year’s worth of maturation as several key pieces continue to develop right in front of our eyes.

Take junior shortstop Logan Warmoth for example. After entering the spring as a top-five type shortstop in college baseball, he’s quickly established himself as perhaps the top shortstop in the game, and there may not be a hotter bat in the country. Brian Miller is a threat atop the lineup while sophomores Kyle Datres, Brandon Riley, and Cody Roberts are all building off nice freshmen seasons and have taken the next step offensively.

Junior ace J.B. Bukauskas is electric on Friday nights and has proven to be a bona fide ace with some of the nastiest stuff in the country, showing two plus pitches from the first inning until the final. Jason Morgan, Brett Daniels and Josh Hiatt have all done their jobs and provided incredible depth and experience at the back end of a ballgame.

Take all this talent and factor in Perfect Game’s No. 1 2016 recruiting class (before Ashton McGee decided to enroll early) and you begin to see how this Tar Heels staff has become the well-oiled machine that they are. Righthanders Luca Dalatri and Austin Bergner are two of the top prep arms to make it to campus and they’ve shown little signs of their age on the mound, having joined Bukauskas to form a solid trio of arms on the weekend. A bat who could have come off the board in the top 2-3 rounds this upcoming June, McGee has continued to mash since foregoing his senior season and has already found himself hitting in the three-hole for Coach Fox. He’s a cornerstone type bat who’s hitting .315-4-24 this spring despite being the youngest player on the roster and looks to be one of the premier hitters in the freshman class.

There’s no weak link to this UNC offense as hitters 1-9 bring a mature approach to the plate, work counts and can make opposing pitchers pay for any type of mistake pitch. And when you consider the depth of their bullpen and the fact the starting rotation can carry the ball deep into an outing, it becomes clear as to how this Tar Heels team has what it takes to bring home some hardware from Omaha.

– Jheremy Brown

SEC Battle Royale

If the regular season ended today, and it does not, the SEC would in all likelihood miss out completely on Top 8 National Seeds. There isn’t an SEC team with an RPI better than 10 (Kentucky) right now and that probably doesn’t cut it. History tells us that it’s not just about the RPI for the selection committee. Winning a SEC regular season title is a loud accomplishment that should certainly earn the league’s champion one of those coveted Top 8 National Seeds.

Here’s where it gets interesting: does anyone really know who the 2017 SEC champion is going to be? We are four weeks into SEC play and there are at least 11 teams with a legitimate chance at the title. This 2017 SEC race has been incredibly fun because there isn’t a dominant team this year. There is just a multitude of really good teams. Let’s do a quick diagnosis of the contenders.

Kentucky has the oldest and most dynamic lineup in the league coupled with five very unique and effective arms on the weekend. Can their infield defense hold up and will the lack of pitching depth become an issue?

Auburn offers an older lineup as well and that group has played intelligent, clean baseball. They also play behind arguably the league’s best 1-2 punch in Keegan Thompson and Casey Mize. Will the Tigers lack of power or dearth of pitching depth factor into the equation?

South Carolina features the best pitching staff in the country, top to bottom, and uber-talented closer Tyler Johnson is back. Could the emergence of freshmen Carlos Cortes help the Gamecocks’ offense gain the consistency it needs to win a championship?

Vanderbilt’s sophomore class was the No. 1 recruiting class in the country when that group arrived in Nashville and both Jeren Kendall and Kyle Wright have top-half-of-the-first-round upside. Do the Commodores, whose season has been choppy at best, have a big run in them? If yes, you can bet that Kyle Wright getting hot will be a key.

New skipper Steve Bieser has Mizzou’s offense trending up in a big way, Tanner Houck can neutralize any Friday night arm in the league and freshman T.J. Sikkema may be the very best reliever in the nation, let alone the SEC. Will the Tigers play clean enough defense to contend and does this offense have enough raw talent to match up?

Florida has taken more punches than any team in the country yet the Gators sit at 22-11 with the hardest throwing rotation in the history of college baseball. Can this junior class find its way offensively and will skipper Kevin O’Sullivan find answers in the bullpen?

LSU’s lineup scares you with its depth and dynamic style. On the right weekend, this rotation matches up with anyone. Can Paul Mainieri and Alan Dunn find enough bullpen pieces to survive?

Arkansas is an old-school SEC team with its intimidating size and power. This is also an experienced team with an edge, most likely born of last season’s SEC collapse. Is there enough pitching here and can this defense hold up long term?

Texas A&M features the league’s most exciting freshman in Braden Shewmake and Rob Childress seems to have found the right configuration for his pitching staff. Yet did the Aggies dig too big of a hole for themselves in the first two weekends of SEC play?

Ole Miss has the best freshman class in the conference and this may be the deepest pitching staff Mike Bianco has ever had in Oxford. Does this freshman-heavy team have the stamina to sprint to the end of the SEC’s 30-game gauntlet?

Mississippi State has Brent Rooker. Enough said. Kidding aside, Andy Cannizaro has the Bulldogs believing and Jake Mangum and Ryan Gridley are also having big years. Can pitching coach Gary Henderson work enough magic with this injury-depleted pitching staff?

So those are a bunch of opinions. Here’s the really fun part: over the next six weekends, we get to decide this thing on the field.

– Mike Rooney

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