Easy as … SEC
The dominance of the Southeastern Conference is not limited to football. Led by No. 1 overall seed Tennessee, six of the 20 teams with the best odds to win the NCAA Division I baseball tournament come from the SEC according to the NCAA baseball odds.
The pairings were announced on Monday with few surprises.
Tennessee’s SEC rival, Texas A&M, which didn’t even qualify for the SEC tournament a season ago, earned a No. 5 overall seed. The Pac-12 saw Stanford and Oregon State come in as the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds.
Mississippi State is the defending champion. The regionals begin on Friday. The 16 remaining teams will advance to the eight Super Regionals. The regionals will feature a double-elimination format, with the Super Regionals being best-of-three series. The College World Series will begin on June 17.
Volunteers Eye First Championship
Recently crowned SEC tournament champion Tennessee doesn’t seem to have many weaknesses. Eight players have at least 10 home runs this season, led by Trey Lipscomb’s 21. Drew Gilbert leads the team with a .385 average while Seth Stephenson and Luc Lipcius have combined for 32 stolen bases.
Pitchers Chase Dollander, Drew Beam and Chase Burns are a combined 25-1 while the best earned run average among the starting pitchers is owned by Zander Sechrist, who is 4-0 with a 1.47 ERA. Every pitcher with at least 10 innings pitched has an ERA under 3.00.
Tennessee leads all Division I teams in slugging percentage, home runs and ERA.
This is not going to be an easy team to eliminate as the NCAA baseball predictions favor Tennessee to win it all at +225. The Volunteers open with Alabama State. Campbell and Georgia Tech are also in the Knoxville Regional.
Beware Oregon State, Stanford
While Southern California has the most College World Series titles with 12, two other Pac-12 teams could do the most damage in this year’s tournament. Three-time champion Oregon State is listed by the NCAA baseball odds as having the second-best chance to win it all at +900. Conference rival Stanford (+1200) isn’t far behind.
Stanford topped Oregon State 9-5 in the Pac-12 title game on Sunday.
Carter Graham leads Stanford with 20 home runs and 70 RBIs while five of his teammates have at least 10 homers. Alex Williams tops the Stanford pitching staff with an 8-1 record and 1.98 ERA while Quinn Matthews has a team-high 99 strikeouts.
Jacob Melton is hitting .375 with 17 home runs and 77 RBIs for Oregon State. Cooper Hjerpe and Jacob Kmatz are a combined 18-3. Hjerpe averages 14.2 strikeouts per nine innings.
Contenders Trying to Rebound
Many of the teams expected to contend for the national title had more rest than expected heading into the start of the NCAA Tournament.
Oklahoma State (+1800) failed to reach the Big 12 title game, Arkansas (+2800) was eliminated early in the SEC tourney while Virginia Tech (+1600), Miami (+2200) and Virginia (+2800) had to watch as North Carolina topped North Carolina State in the ACC final. Vanderbilt (+3300) and Texas Tech (+5000) also failed in their bids to win the conference tournament championship.
Virginia Tech earned the No. 4 national seed followed by Miami at No. 6 and Oklahoma State at No. 7. One team that was thought to have a chance to host a regional but will play on the road is Notre Dame, which will play in the regional hosted by No. 16 seed Georgia Southern.
Future Pros on Display
One of the more bizarre practices was having the Major League Baseball Draft held during the NCAA tournament. It certainly helped bring attention to the matches when top draft picks were taking part in the College World Series. However, it kept scouts from seeing the draft-eligible college players on the biggest stage until the draft was over. That has been changed with the draft now in early July.
Georgia Tech catcher Kevin Parada is the No. 6 overall prospect according to MLB.com. LSU’s Jacob Berry, Jace Jung of Texas Tech and Gavin Cross of Virginia Tech are also top-10 rated players. It is not a great draft to be a college pitcher as the top-rated player at the position is Gonzaga’s Gabriel Hughes, who comes in at No. 20. Five high school pitchers have rated ahead of him.
Georgia Tech’s Chandler Simpson leads all Division I players with a .421 batting average. Ivan Melendez of Texas is the national leader with 28 home runs and is second with 85 RBIs.
Kyle Griggs of Louisiana Tech and Stanford’s Williams are among the starting pitchers in the tournament field with an ERA under 1.70.
