Gainesville, Charlottesville and Oxford. That’s where the three AAC teams still playing 2016 baseball will be headed this weekend for a double elimination chance at moving forward in the NCAA Baseball Tournament Championship.
Tournament champion UConn, regular season champion Tulane and East Carolina have all been selected to continue their seasons into the postseason field of 64 for a chance at making a run to Omaha and the College World Series.
UConn (37-23) heads to Gainesville to face Yellow Jackets and top-seeded Florida
UConn, the AAC’s tournament champion and automatic bid recipient, will be headed to face the top team in the tournament, the Florida Gators in Gainesville, Florida. UConn will enter the tournament with a 52 RPI while joining Bethune-Cookman (162nd RPI), Georgia Tech (20th in RPI) and Florida (1st in RPI) in the panhandle this weekend.
#UConn opens play at the Gainesville Regional vs. @GTBaseball on June 3 at 1 p.m.
PREVIEW: https://t.co/jIgvaec6IQ pic.twitter.com/HRWZ03izJ3
— UConn Baseball (@UConnBSB) May 31, 2016
First up for the Huskies will be Georgia Tech, which finished the ACC season 13-16, good enough for fourth in the Coastal division. The Yellow Jackets own a 13-12 record away from their home turf and have lost five of their last six games. Their last three losses, however, all came at the hands of top 15 RPI teams: Miami, Florida State and North Carolina State. The Yellow Jackets’ offense is the strength of the team as the team bats over .300 and has a team ERA over 4.5. Tech is 6-1 all-time versus the Huskies.
If UConn chooses to pitch anyone other than Anthony Kay — its ace and AAC pitcher of the year — against Georgia Tech, then its overall tournament success could very well be determined on the first day of action. If the Huskies can win without expending Kay against the Yellow Jackets, then they could save him for a potential second day matchup with regional host Florida.
The problem with that scenario is that Florida has three “Anthony Kay”-type pitchers in their starting rotation in Logan Shore, Alex Faedo and A.J. Puk. None of those pitchers is likely to face Bethune-Cookman on Friday either. Thus, the talented Gators roster will be fully stocked throughout the weekend. Florida is one of only a handful of teams entering the postseason with a sub-3.0 team ERA and has a death-squad reliever rotation for added protection.
If UConn can beat Georgia Tech without the help of Kay, who could then be used to stifle Florida for a game, then the Huskies would need a spectacular outing from either Will Montgomerie or Tim Cate — who have both been spectacular this year — to ward off the Gators one more time to finish off what would be a raving upset in Gainesville.
East Carolina heads north to Charlottesville to face upstart Bryant and powerhouse Virginia
The Charlottesville Regional is set!
UVA vs W&M – 1 pm Friday
ECU vs Bryant – 6 pm Friday
Both air on ESPN3 pic.twitter.com/BMhylYfhr3— Virginia Baseball (@UVABaseball) May 30, 2016
East Carolina, which went 2-and-barbecue in Clearwater last weekend during the AAC tournament, comes into the Charlottesville Regional with a lot to prove. The Pirates, however, will not have the luxury of playing the “small-school-with-moxie” card heading to Virginia as that role will be filled by the Pirates’ first opponent, the Bryant Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs enter the regional with a 28 RPI, nearly matching that of host Virginia (17th in RPI) and besting both ECU (36th) and William & Mary’s (100th) RPI. The Bulldogs finished first in the Northeast Conference with a 26-4 record and swept their way to a conference tournament championship in three straight games. What Bryant hasn’t done a lot of this year is play really good teams. Only eight times have the Bulldogs played a team with a top 100 RPI. Of those eight games, they’ve managed to win only three.
Still, Bryant has a pitching staff that employs four different pitchers with 10-plus starts apiece. Those four starters have registered six complete games in 2016 and adjusted Bryant’s team ERA to a low, low 3.09 mark.
As for the Pirates, they will need every last drop of pitching prowess from their three regular starters: Evan Kruzcynski, Jacob Wolfe and Jimmy Boyd. If they are lucky enough to make it past Bryant, the Pirates will then likely face Virginia who will throw either sophomore Adam Hasely (1.79 ERA, .194 OBAvg) or junior Connor Jones (11-1, 2.29 ERA). Either way, ECU will be hard pressed to falter in any area of its offensive or defensive attack if it wishes to escape with an upset victory over the Cavaliers.
Tulane travels to Oxford trying to steal a regional from Ole Miss
Tulane, which finished the year with a conference-leading RPI of 29, heads to northern Mississippi to face a trio of Power 5 schools in Pac-12 Champion Utah (92nd in RPI), fifth-place Atlantic Division (ACC) finisher Boston College (39th in RPI) and regional host and SEC tournament semifinalist Ole Miss (5th in RPI).
That may be a murderer’s row of conference listings, but hope hasn’t faded for the Green Wave’s chances of moving past this regional. In fact, out of all the remaining AAC teams involved in postseason play, the Green Wave have the most favorable matchups. While East Carolina may have a lesser regional host in Virginia, Tulane has the “advantage” of being in the one regional that is likely the most evenly matched four-team regional in the tournament field. All four teams have similar figures in team batting average and even strength of schedule. Except for Utah — which has a team ERA nearly 1.5 points higher than the other pitching staffs represented — every other team suiting up in this regional has a nearly identical team ERA.
Looking for a full Oxford Regional bracket, #Tulane fans? Look no further. #RollWave pic.twitter.com/BT1XzQ21zC
— Tulane Baseball (@GreenWaveBSB) May 30, 2016
The key to beating Boston College will be getting into its bullpen. BC has a tremendous trio of starting pitchers at their disposal and the Green Wave will want to run the pitch count up early if they want to hold on for an opening game victory. If the Greenies can overcome and beat the Eagles then they will likely take on host Ole Miss.
Luckily for Tulane, Ole Miss has a competent, but not overwhelming, group of starting pitchers. Though Ole Miss’ starters have a high strikeout-to-innings-pitched ratio, none of them have an ERA lower than 3 or an opponents batting average lower than .250. The best way to defeat Ole Miss is to defeat their best hitter, J.B. Woodman. If the Green Wave can somehow stifle Woodman then there is a chance they could walk out of The Grove in victory by stealing the Oxford regional.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
