The Weekend Set: Week 6

Recap

Yet again, we wrapped up another fantastic week of baseball as postseason pictures start to clear up the further we get into conference play.

Georgia traveled into The Swamp where they picked up a convincing sweep over #5 Florida, outscoring the Gators 40-13, and with their 5-1 record, it’s the best start since 2019. Florida also set a record, but not for a good reason, the first time in 24 years they have been swept in consecutive SEC weekends.

#2 Texas traveled into #6 Texas to take on the Longhorns, and despite taking game one, Texas came out on top winning games two and three. Talk about an Omaha matchup, it was this one.

Texas A&M continues to slide with yet another sweep at the hands of the Vanderbilt Commodores and are now 0-6 in SEC play. We may be approaching hot seat conversations for Head Coach Michael Earley, as insane as that sounds given the narrative around that hire last Summer.

In a big Top 15 ACC matchup, Wake Forest traveled to Clemson where the Tigers capped off a series win on a walk-off passed ball. In Saturdays matchup, Wake would go up 10-0, Clemson was able to battle back but fell short losing 12-10, further showing me this Clemson squad is really good, cream of the crop in the ACC.

We had some disappointing results in the ACC, with Louisville losing their series to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, and Stanford hitting the road at Cal, and getting swept. Two teams I’m still trying to pin down, but a pair of bad weekends.

Rounding out west, UC Irvine goes into ranked UCSB and handles business with a clean sweep, the Anteaters may just be the best mid major in the country.

Finishing off with the Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors, they picked up a series win against UC Davis last night thanks to a 16-0 win and another shutout performance from Keith Zuniga’s staff. Shortstop Jordan Donahue is finally healthy and back in the lineup, adding one more piece of the puzzle for an already extremely good Bows team.

Backside Breakouts

Top-25:

Climbing the Ladder

Georgia: The Dawgs are off to a 5-1 start in SEC play, their best start since 2019. This weekend, they traveled into The Swamp and man-handled the Gators in a sweep, with two wins by way of 10-run rule. Outscoring the former #5 team 40-13, blasting 15 home runs, Georgia not only hit the way we anticipated against a banged-up Florida pitching staff, but they found some consistency on the mound.

Texas: The Longhorns picked up a huge series win in Austin over former #2 LSU, in what felt like a Super Regional all weekend. Both of these teams are clearly top-10 teams, and they exchanged blows all weekend, LSU taking game one 8-2, and Texas taking both Saturday and Sunday 11-7 and 6-2. Based on what I saw, I could very easily see this being a Super Regional matchup come this Summer, and boy would that be a fun series.

UC Irvine: Eaters Gonna Eat. UC Irvine traveled into former #17 UC Santa Barbara and pulled off a big time sweep, leaving no doubt that the Anteaters may just be the best team in the Big West. Notching wins against Tyler Bremner, Jackson Flora, and dominating game three, UC Irvine shot up our rankings, and even we’ll admit, we dropped the ball not having them in last week.

Slump Alert

Florida: With the Gators historic 0-6 start in SEC play, the first time in 24 years they’ve been swept in consecutive conference weekends, they’re certainly taking their lumps. While their sweep at the hands of the #1 Tennessee Volunteers was hard fought and respectable, they got it taken to them all weekend, at home, against rival Georgia. I don’t want to panic just yet because Florida is dealing with a lot of injuries on the mound, but their inability to score runs against a struggling Georgia pitching staff was a big red flag. They take on #4 Florida State on Tuesday and travel to Oxford next weekend to take on #17 Ole Miss, and things could get out fo hand quick if they don’t come away with some wins.

UC Santa Barbara: A rough start for the Gauchos as they drop their second straight Big West series and drop out of our Top 25. The strength of the Gauchos coming into the season was their pitching, with clear first-round pick Tyler Bremner, and too many other quality arms to count behind him. Pitching to a 3.90 ERA, and only hitting .265 as a team is somewhat expected with the style of play they do rely on, but the timely hitting just hasn’t been there.

Stanford: The Cardinal started off red hot in their debut season in the ACC, sweeping ranked opponents in North Carolina and Duke in back-to-back weekends. We thought we slept on a team that was in Omaha just two years ago, and 2024 was just an outlier. Well, Cal came into their barn and swept them, with two wins being of nine runs or larger, and dropping Sunday in extra innings. I’m putting Stanford on fraud watch for the time being, and their staff 5.39 ERA may finally come around to bite them. They’ll take on Virginia next weekend in Charlottesville, a Cavs team desperate to right the ship.

Merch

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