Strange weekend, eh boys and girls? North Carolina losing to Duke in a sport other than basketball? Texas and its world-class pitching staff losing three games to a basketball school? Missouri finally reaching .500? Well, that was a long time coming actually.
It makes you wonder what we’re in for the rest of the season. What’s next, Team A scoring 29 runs in seven innings on Team B, who is 18-3?
Notice how Aaron Baker is smiling huge in this picture? You would be too if you just scored 431 runs on a really good Kansas State team.
On an absolutely unrelated note, Oklahoma leads our teams of the week honors for this week.
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MIDWEST:
- Oklahoma (3-1)
W8-7 at No. 22 TCU
L9-1, W12-11, W29-4 at Kansas State
It looks to me like the Sooners are tired of being a bubble team and getting controversial at-large bids. And you knew it was going to be a good week when the Sooners rallied with four runs in the 9th inning to take down the Frogs. J.T. Wise was the MAN all week, getting the game-tying two-run single at TCU, then tying a school record with five hits in the Sunday’s getaway rout in Manhattan. The Sooners are never out of any game, having won 14 of their 20 wins in come-from-behind variety.
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Honorable Mention:
- UT-Arlington (4-1)
W6-2, W12-5 vs. Minnesota
W5-0, W4-2, W16-0 vs. Northwestern State
After near-misses at Texas (a 10-inning 4-3 loss) and Illinois (a 3-2 loss), the Movin’ Mavs left nothing to chance here, beating a very good Minnesota team twice and then taking down one of the SLC favorites in three straight over the weekend. UTA is now 12-9 overall.
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WEST:
- New Mexico (6-0)
W10-6, W9-6 at No. 6 Texas A&M
W11-6, W16-12, W10-6, W13-4 vs. Northwestern
People, lemme tell ya’ something. Los Lobos can play. They improve to 22-3 with the six stout wins last week, including the two-gamer at Texas A&M. It’s nice to see UNM getting some love in the national polls (though some still have them either not ranked or below A&M, but whatev.). This marks the best start to a season for the Cherry and Silver since 1973. Keep in mind New Mexico hasn’t played in the NCAA tournament since 1962. And I loved coach Ray Birmingham’s quote after the A&M wins, “We went into that game thinking, ‘Let’s see where we’re at.’ As the game went on, I was thinking, ‘Heck, we’re better than them.’” Beauty.
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Honorable Mention:
- Loyola Marymount (4-1)
L12-6 at Long Beach State
W8-7, W7-6, W7-3, W11-7 vs. Fresno State
So far, the Lions are 12-12 and have played the 8th toughest schedule in the country, which is pretty typical of them. But this weekend may have been a turning point, sweeping the defending national champions and looking sharp doing it.
LMU did a lot of celebrating in their sweep of the champs.
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SOUTH:
- Middle Tennessee (4-1)
L9-4, W11-3 vs. Southern Illinois
W7-2, W5-4, W14-6 vs. Florida Atlantic
This was a showdown of expected Mid-Major monsters, but the Raiders sent the Owls home with snake-eyes – if you follow what I’m saying here. Much of the cause goes to dual-threat Bryce Bentz, who threw a complete-game, nine-hitter on Friday night and then turned around and hit the jog-off home run to win Saturday’s game in the 9th inning. There were heroes all around for the Blue Boys as a pair of seniors put their names in the record books. Nathan Hines hit a grand salami to key the offense on Friday and then Rawley Bishop became the school’s RBI leader with a two-run single on Sunday. MTSU now hits the road for a nine-game stretch.
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Honorable Mention:
- Mississippi Valley State (4-0)
W5-2 vs. Tugaloo
W3-2, W3-1, W4-2 vs. Jackson State.
Yeah, I know, it doesn’t look great when a team named Tugaloo is on your ledger. But against the SWAC East favorites, the Delta Devils held a team that came in averaging 10.5 runs per game in its last eight games to just five runs. Also, MV is now 6-0 in SWAC play.
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EAST:
- Duke (5-1)
W12-4, W5-2 vs. UM-ES
L8-5, W5-4, W10-9 at North Carolina
It’s hard to conceive that this really happened, but Duke apparently has had it with all the attention and love UNC is getting in recent years. This was the Devils’ first series win over the baby blues since 2001. Andrew Wolcott was named ACC pitcher of the year, improving to 4-0 with six solid innings on Saturday. His ERA is now down to 1.27. Alex Hassan gets some props too, picking up saves in both weekend wins. This will be interesting to see what happens the rest of the way out for DU, who improved to 14-7 on the season. Despite some curious losses (LaSalle, High Point, Liberty), right now, you have to like what you see.
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Honorable Mention:
- Miami (4-1)
W8-0 vs. St. Thomas
W11-1 vs. UMBC
L9-4, W4-3, W7-5 at Virginia
Miami has been a roller-coaster so far, great one week, questionable the next. Now they’ve gone out and handed UVa its first two losses of the season, keyed by getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the 9th inning of game two. Now Ohio State and Georgia Tech are on the horizon.
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alex kovaler says:
No love for Fullerton after three staright weeks as the West team of the week or are you just giving others a chance to shine too?
Jeremy says:
With the Big 12 North teams more or less taking the the South to the woodshed this weekend, are we prepared to say the Big 12 is all-around that good, or all-around that bad?
I’m tempted to call it the former.
By the way, I was at the heartbreaking Creighton-Kentucky NIT game lastnight in Omaha. What a weird night! It started out with some pretty nasty March tornado warnings, moving everyone into the lower bowl of the Qwest. Then Creighton whooped up on Kentucky for 39 1/2 minutes, outplaying them in ever facet (Kentucky hung around out of pure talent only. Creighton played much better basketball). Then a Bluejay team that ranks near the top in FT% missed four FTs and handed Kentucky the game… Regardless, however, the crowd was rockin’.
Still a young team in a young league. Some good things should happen for the Jays and the Valley in the next few years.
Ryan R. says:
Damn. I wanted to be able to name a small school each week that deserves consideration, but you got my picks in New Mexico and Middle Tennessee St. I would have gone with Army, who beat Illinois and UCF, but they lost two to Ohio St. Hmmm.
Bulldog says:
Eric, As usual your coverage of college baseball is outstanding! I am a big Oklahoma fan and even I will admit what happened Sunday caught me by surprise. I appreciate you highlighting them this week but my honest evaluation of this team is that they are a good college baseball team but not great. I have seen them start hot like this before, just look at last year, and then cool off once they get into the Big 12 part of the schedule. Like most college teams, I believe OU’s weakness is their starting pitching. They can hit with about anybody but we all know good pitching beats good hitting all day. Now, with that being said, I do believe they can get better and I have a feeling this team will do this especially if they get Stephen Porlier back into the starting rotation. No matter what I will follow them and hang on every pitch. I also look forward to reading you summations throughout the week and weekend. Its like my Christmas in the spring! Keep up the good work!
Bulldog
Stitch-head says:
Damn Bulldog… you da’ man. Thanks for chiming in. And for those of you reading it, I swear Bulldog is NOT a member of my family or anything. He wrote on his own recognizance. And yes, that win over Kansas State, with those howling 35mph winds, was difficult to watch. The Sooner offense is awesome enough, even without the help of Mother Nature, could give Sam Bradford and Co. a run for its money. We’ll see how OU turns out, but right now, I’m not going to bet against them.
Scott says:
How about East Carolina? 5-0 90Runs 98Hits and the team batted over .400 as a team on the week..
Stitch-head says:
Ya’ gotta beat somebody with a pulse bub. Not that I’m not paying attention to the Pirates, they’re bitchin’ so far.