The Super Regionals are set and we are one step closer to the College World Series which will be played from June 16-27 in Omaha.
After regional play ended, there were upsets of the number 6, 13, 15, and 16 ranked teams There are still plenty of great teams playing as 1-5 stayed alive and there are a couple of unseeded teams that could be making a run to the College World Series.
The Best of the Rest
Tennessee is the most talented team in the bunch this year. The Vols have been dominant all-year long and now hold the number one seed,. They went 53-7 during the regular season and they breezed through the regional rounds.
Stanford had a rough go of it in the regional rounds. The number two team in the nation nearly saw their season end early a few times during the early stages. They had a tough time getting through UC Santa Barbara and Texas State and there was certainly a weakness shown that we hadn’t seen from the Cardinals.
Oregon State, the third-ranked team, had a very tough slate in the regional round. They had to get through a Vanderbilt team that is very talented year-in and year-out. The Vandy boys couldn’t get the upset done, but Oregon State was put on notice and will have to play a hot Auburn team in the super regionals in Corvallis.
Virginia Tech, our fourth-best team, is playing in their first-ever Super Regional and maybe they will be the newcomer team that will make it to Omaha. They dominated in the ACC this past season and they cruised through the regional round.
Teams that have us concerned
Texas A&M is at the top of this list for me. Despite being the fifth-best team in the country, they have not played their best during the beginning stages of postseason play. They have the advantage of playing this next round at College Station for a second-straight weekend, but they will need to figure it out on the field and on the base paths if they want to book their flights to Omaha.
Louisville is another team that struggled to get to this point and should feel very lucky that they will be playing in the Super Regionals (more on that in a minute.) The Cardinals had a great regular season, and they have great pitching and a stacked lineup, but they showed weaknesses in the regional round that they need to clean up quickly.
Umps MUST be better
It was an umpire show all weekend long during regional play. Michigan and Maryland fans should be writing their local NCAA reps because they were absolutely robbed of making the Super Regionals. Louisville was given two gifts in one inning against the Wolverines that resulted in a four-run Cardinals inning which included a botched-replay review.
The Terps found themselves in a similar situation against UConn where a Maryland runner was called out at first for interference and a runner, who previously scored, was returned to third-base on one of the worst calls I have ever seen.
The umps HAVE TO clean it up so these kids are getting a fair shake.