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College  | Story  | 2/14/2019

Weekend Preview: 2019 Kickoff

Patrick Ebert      Mike Rooney     
Photo: Drake Fellows (Vanderbilt Athletics)

2019 College Baseball Staff Predictions | 2019 College Baseball Preview Index

Baseball is back. With the return of college baseball we are happy to debut the weekly weekend previews as we look ahead to the game action, profile the Top 25 in Action and identify key series and other stories to follow. Since many of the northern states are still snow-covered as temperatures struggle to creep over the freezing mark the national attention will remain in the southern states with Arizona in particular playing host to numerous talent-packed tournaments.

Major League Baseball is hosting a tournament in Scottsdale with four loaded teams, including No. 3 Vanderbilt. The Angels College Classic in Tempe will have No. 7 Stanford among several other quality programs while No. 2 Oregon State will kick things off in Surprise, as they always do, with three strong opponents of their own. All of these events are previewed in greater detail below.

The most impactful three-game series will take place in Lakeland, Fla., as eighth-ranked Louisville and No. 20 UConn face off in what should be a fun series to follow.

If you missed any of our 2019 preview content be sure to visit the link to the index as shared just above. There you can find links to all 31 Division I conference previews, top prospect lists by class, the Preseason Top 25 and All-America teams as well as detailed previews for the NCAA Divisions II and III, NAIA and junior college levels. We wrapped up the preview content by making our annual staff predictions, a feature that is also linked just above.

Similar to past season all of our scouting reports on players will be shared in the Perfect Game College Player Database. Each week during the season, in tandem with our partners at Rawlings, we will continue to identify a Player and Pitcher of the Week. And stay tuned for the return of Perfect Game College Baseball on ESPNU Radio on SiriusXM channel 84 with co-hosts Daron Sutton and Mike Rooney. The first program will be aired on Monday, February 25.

Stay tuned to Perfect Game throughout the weekend as Vinnie Cervino and Mike Rooney will be in Arizona covering the numerous top-ranked teams in attendance including No. 2 Oregon State, No. 3 Vanderbilt and No. 7 Stanford.


Top 25 in Action
Rk. Team Opponent Location
1 Louisiana State home vs. ULM, Army, Air Force Baton Rouge, LA
2 Oregon State vs. New Mexico, Gonzaga, Minnesota Surprise, AZ
3 Vanderbilt vs. Virginia, Cal State Fullerton, No. 16 TCU Scottsdale, AZ
4 UCLA home vs. St. John's Los Angeles, CA
5 Texas Tech home vs. Oregon Lubbock, TX
6 North Carolina home vs. Xavier Chapel Hill, NC
7 Stanford vs. Ball State, Wichita State, Pepperdine Tempe, AZ
8 Louisville vs. No. 20 UConn Lakeland, FL
9 Florida home vs. Long Beach State Gainesville, FL
10 Ole Miss home vs. Wright State Oxford, MS
11 East Carolina home vs. Radford Greenville, NC
12 Baylor home vs. Holy Cross Waco, TX
13 Arkansas home vs. Eastern Illinois Fayetteville, AR
14 Florida State home vs. Maine Tallahassee, FL
15 Auburn home vs. Georgia Southern Auburn, AL
16 Texas Christian vs. Cal State Fullerton, Virginia, No. 3 Vanderbilt Scottsdale, AZ
17 Mississippi State home vs. Youngstown State Starkville, MS
18 Oklahoma State at UTRGV Edinburg, TX
19 Michigan vs. Binghamton Port St. Lucie, FL
20 Connecticut vs. No. 8 Louisville Lakeland, FL
21 NC State home vs. Bucknell Raleigh, NC
22 Georgia home vs. Dayton Athens, GA
23 UC Irvine home vs. Washington Irvine, CA
24 Clemson home vs. South Alabama Clemson, SC
25 Coastal Carolina home vs. VCU, Maryland, Campbell Conway, SC


Desert dominance

The Phoenix area is the place to be this weekend as the 2019 college baseball season kicks off. There will be four teams in the Top 25 playing in Arizona over the weekend, three of which are ranked in the Top 10, and a handful of other teams that were in the rankings discussion.

It begins with the MLB4 Collegiate Baseball Tournament at Talking Stick with No. 3 Vanderbilt, No. 16 TCU, Cal State Fullerton and Virginia. With two games per day between the four teams in the round robin event there will be no shortage of talent and scouts are sure to flock to the fields.

It will begin with a matchup between TCU junior lefthander Nick Lodolo and Fullerton sophomore rigthhander Tanner Bibee with Vanderbilt and Virginia facing off in the nightcap, a pair of teams that squared off against one another in the CWS Finals in back-to-back years (2014-15). The Commodores are the headliner of the event as the third-ranked team in the nation with a roster full of impact talent. Drake Fellows, a projected early pick, is expected to get the ball first for the ‘Dores.

In nearby Tempe the Angels College Classic will also have an impressive collection of teams competing against one another. No. 7 Stanford is the highest ranked participating team with host Grand Canyon, Wichita State, Pepperdine, California, Ball State, Northwestern, BYU and CSU Bakersfield. The six teams will play games at two different parks, GCU’s Brazell Field and Tempe Diablo Stadium (Northwestern and BYU will play a more traditional three-game series on Friday and Saturday at Sloan Park in Mesa).

Prospect-wise Stanford may have the most loaded team but Cal’s Andrew Vaughn, the reigning Golden Spikes Award winner, and GCU’s Quin Cotton will draw the biggest scouting crowds as a pair of hitters that will get plenty of early looks as they continue to build their resumes for the 2019 MLB Draft.

On the opposite end of town in Surprise, the defending national champion Oregon State Beavers along with three other teams – New Mexico, Gonzaga and Minnesota – will square off against one another over the weekend.

Adley Rutschman is certain to draw a big crowd by himself as he enters the year as the early favorite to go first overall in the June draft. He’s not alone from a talent perspective, with three young sophomores – Kevin Abel of Oregon State as well as Minnesota’s Patrick Fredrickson and Max Meyer – that are best poised to dazzle on the mound.


Go big or go home

As part of the annual preview content we spend a lot of time scanning rosters, bios and schedules as we build up to the beginning of the season. During that research five teams stood out for the schedules they put together, especially early in the season, in an effort to not only prepare their teams for the long months ahead but to also improve their season-long RPI standing with the postseason in mind.

Coastal Carolina is always one of the best teams to follow non-conference play. They schedule aggressively prior to the beginning of their Sun Belt schedule, taking advantage of the weather the Myrtle Beach, S.C. area has to offer, not to mention the home ballpark of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Chicago Cubs Class A affiliate) in addition to their own field.

To kick things off three competitive teams come to town in VCU, Maryland and Campbell. The following weekend the Chanticleers host Michigan State, Kent State and No. 21 NC State followed by Indiana, Illinois and No. 20 UConn. Sprinkled in between the weekends are mid-week games against Clemson, UNC Wilmington, College of Charleston and a two-game set against Wake Forest before they hit the road for the Seattle Baseball Showcase to play San Diego, Washington and Oregon State.

Aside from their trip to Seattle, Coastal Carolina has the luxury of spending the first month at home, and they always seem to hold their own, at the very least, in these early season tournaments. The team on paper appears to be their best since their 2016 national championship sqaud and a quick start to the 2019 season could push them up the Top 25 rankings quickly as they open the year right at No. 25.

Speaking of aggressive scheduling the Texas Longhorns have the opportunity to prove us wrong quickly given that they open the season outside of the Top 25 after making the College World Series a year ago. They open the year in Lafayette, Louisiana against the Ragin’ Cajuns before heading to Houston for a mid-week contest against Rice. From there they host Purdue, Sam Houston State and No. 1 LSU before traveling to Stanford for a four-game set against their long-time rival.

When the Big 12 season opens the Longhorns play Texas Tech and TCU, as well as a two-game mid-week series against Arkansas, all before the month of April arrives.

UCLA fans have a lot to be excited about this year. They enter the season ranked fourth and are on the short list of teams that are the favorites to capture a national championship. And their early season schedule will get them battle tested for that potential run as they open the year at home against a tough St. John’s squad that returns a very capable pitching staff.

The Bruins then travel to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech and, along with USC, will host No. 18 Oklahoma State and No. 19 Michigan as part of this year’s Dodgertown Classic before the Pac-12 Conference schedule begins in mid-March. When it does, the defending national champion Oregon State Beavers come to town followed by Arizona, USC, No. 7 Stanford and No. 11 East Carolina.

After a brutal spring weather-wise in 2018, which essentially added an extra month (or two) of winter, Minnesota doesn’t really know what it’s like to play at home, although they did host a Regional in June of last year once the snow finally thawed. To continue that theme the Gophers are going to spend quite a bit of time on the road again this year, and they’re doing so against some especially tough opponents.

They open the year against Gonzaga, New Mexico and Oregon State in Surprise and will play non-conference road series against Dallas Baptist, NC State and Long Beach State. They’ll play Oregon State again, along with San Diego and Washington, as part of the Seattle Baseball Showcase in early March. They also host Oklahoma in mid-April and will play a particularly difficult Big Ten schedule that includes series against Michigan, Illinois and Indiana.

Minnesota obviously proved a year ago that they have what it takes to win a lot of games, and on the road, but how they emerge from this season, particularly the first five weeks of the year, will be especially telling.

And while Long Beach State isn’t ranked, in the Top 25 or the Top 40, to open the season, they may have the toughest schedule of anyone. They open the year at Florida and two weeks later travel to Oxford to face Ole Miss. They host TCU, Minnesota and Cal State Fullerton and have mid-week contests against UCLA, USC and Michigan, all before the Big West schedule opens on the road against UC Irvine.

– Patrick Ebert



#GoTime

The preseason is full of prognostication and conjecture. Yet no real answers are available until it all gets settled on the field. In honor of February 15 and opening day let’s examine 15 questions that are top of mind as we kick off the season.

1. Will it be Jake Mangum (78 hits away) or Antoine Duplantis (85 hits away), or neither, who takes down Eddy Furniss (352 career hits) of LSU as the SEC all-time hits king? Or will it be both?

2. Can TCU’s elite coaching staff turn seven junior college transfers (six in the lineup and one in the rotation) into a national title contender?

3. Does projected first pick overall Adley Rutschman have enough help for the Oregon State offense to be viable?

4. Is this the year a very deep Conference USA returns to Omaha for the first time since the league’s streak of five straight seasons with a team in the CWS (2005-09)?

5. Will Vanderbilt’s uber-talented pitching staff throw enough strikes to play deep into June?

6. Will East Carolina’s 30th trip to the NCAA Tournament be the one that leads to Nebraska?

7. Is it UCLA or Stanford who has the best lineup on the West Coast? Or is it Arizona State?

8. Is the SEC West going to send six teams to Regionals?

9. Is UC Irvine the team to carry the Big West banner this year?

10. Is there a Big Ten team that will separate itself from the pack in 2019?

11. Will it be Oklahoma State’s deep pitching or Texas Tech’s lethal combination of team speed and premium velocity that carries the day in the Big 12? Or will it be Baylor’s very complete roster?

12. Does Florida have another wave of first rounders coming?

13. Can the West Coast go back-to-back national championships? Again …

14. Is a very deep ACC capable of 10 NCAA Tournament teams?

15. Is Mike Martin’s glorious career in Tallahassee destined to end with a dog pile?

– Mike Rooney
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