The Weekend Set: Week 7

Recap

Another conference weekend is in the books, we had another crazy week of ranked teams falling left and right in their respective conferences.

Arkansas traveled into Nashville to take on Vanderbilt where they would sweep the Commodores, wining their first series in Nashville since 2004, and the first sweep in Nashville under DVH. With the depth of the offense coming around in guys like Charles Davalan and Nolan Souza, this Hogs team is looking primed for an Omaha run.

Georgia’s pitching did it again, this time against a very strong hitting Auburn squad with a clean sweep over the Tigers. While the offense was held down at times, timely hitting and great pitching propel Wes Johnson’s Bulldogs to another series win.

Alabama and Oklahoma faced off in what was the series of the weekend, the Crimson Tide continue to prove their Top 10 status with a 2-1 win over the Sooners.

UCLA continues to be one of the hottest teams in college baseball sweeping Purdue on the road, the Bruins have now won 15 of their last 17 games. There is some voodoo in LA right now, because this team just finds ways to win every week.

Arizona finally hit a wall, dropping a series at home to an unimpressive Baylor team. Errors and walks were the big issue for the Wildcats this weekend, and they laid an egg. Let’s hope it’s the only one we see from them, while Brendan Summerhill heals up they’ve got some cleaning up to do.

Oregon State struggled mightily this weekend against a banged-up Nebraska team allowing an 8 spot in the rubber match in the 7th which capped off their seres loss. With a weekend set against UC Irvine next week, they’ll need a big time bounce back.

Virginia Tech continues to roll as they’ve now taken two weekends in a row from ranked opponents sweeping Wake Forest on the road this past weekend. I’m not sure if they’re for real yet, but they’re playing some great baseball at the moment.

Hawai’i gets the monkey off their back with a road series win at CSUN, thanks to a 10-run 9th innings from the Bows in dramatic fashion to take the rubber match. Kamana Nahaku clubbed four bombs over the weekend, three in game three as the Bows continue to climb our rankings in the hunt for a Big West Title.

Backside Breakouts

Top-25:

Climbing the Ladder

UCLA: The Bruins continue to be one of the hottest teams in the country shooting up our rankings. They’ve now won six straight including a road sweep over Purdue this weekend, and 15 out of their last 17. Headlined on offense by Levu Mulivai, and despite a lot of the wins not being pretty, they just win. Watch out Big 10, UCLA might just be the Champs when it’s all said and done.

Virginia Tech: The Hokies have busted onto the scene thanks to their last two weeks of play, taking series’ from two ranked opponents in Louisville and Wake Forest, and have now won eight of their last nine games. While they struggled early on in conference play with losses to Georgia Tech and North Carolina State, I’m curious to see if the Hokies are just hot, or found something out.

Ole Miss: The Rebels continue to show they might just be back, while they had a down year last year, now sit in our Top 10 thanks to a series win against Florida. While their conference schedule hasn’t been a gauntlet, yet, they’ve impressed in every series to this point, including a loss to Arkansas. The remainder of their SEC schedule is extremely winnable only running into two Top 15 opponents in #1 Tennessee and #11 Oklahoma.

Slump Alert

Oregon State: The Beavers have been one of the tougher teams for me to pin down this year, between the extensive travel early on mixed with unimpressive wins and bad losses. Not being in a conference may prove to hurt the Beavers come June, but suffering a bad series loss at the hands of a depleted Nebraska team is bad for the Beavers. They’ll take on #15 UC Irvine next week in Corvallis in one of the best matchups of next weekend.

Oregon: At times the Ducks have looked dominant this season, but their consistent struggles against teams they should handle concerns me. This past weekend taking a loss to a below average Ohio State team in Columbus is a big knock on the Ducks, and with a feisty Michigan team on deck they’ll look to get right. Wondering if the new travel in the Big 10 is playing a role in this, and how will it effect the West Coast teams through the rest of the season.

Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons have now dropped two straight ACC series’ at the hands of Clemson and now getting swept by Virginia Tech at home. Quite frankly, a really bad stretch for Wake. I’m not ready to hit the panic button on them like some other publications, but this might be the biggest week of the season for them. With #4 Florida State on deck, in Tallahassee, it feels like a must-win weekend in a stretch where they’re playing their worst baseball of the season.

Merch

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