Our first 2015 College Baseball post. All the Division 1 conference tournaments wrapped up over the memorial day weekend, so lets wrap up how our local teams did. We’re writing this post ahead of the regional seedings and the CWS field of 64 announcement.
We depend on d1baseball.com primarily for coverage of Division 1 Baseball. Other useful sites include Warren Nolan’s college baseball RPIs and BaseballAmerica’s college coverage.
ACC (local interests: UVA, Virginia Tech).
UVA had a tough season; it started the season ranked in the top 3 by most charts after finishing as national runner-up last year. Then they lost their best hitter (Joe McCarthy) for half the season, and then lost their ace (Nathan Kirby) for the second half. They swept UVA in their final series of the season to salvage a .500 league record, good enough for 2nd place in their division but not enough to avoid the play-in game. They won the play-in to make the ACC tournament, but went 0-3 in pool play. They are on the outskirts of the top 25 and will make the CWS field, but will not host a regional. Lots of well-known names to this blog and the Virginia area contributed for UVA this season: here’s a link to their season stats. UVA finishes with a 34-22 (15-15) record.
Virginia Tech finished just a couple of games behind UVA in the standings, but were no where near the quality. They were eliminated by UNC in the play-in game. Final record: 27-27 (13-16).
Of note in the ACC this year to local fans: Stone Bridge alum J.B. Bukauskas was 5-3 with a 4.09 ERA for UNC this year. He was a weekend starter as a freshman, led the team in starts, got their only win in the ACC tournament, and was named to the All-ACC freshman team. Duke Ace, Georgetown Prep alum and Great Falls resident Mike Matuella went from being talked as a 1-1 pick to undergoing Tommy John surgery. Draft pundits still give him a shot of going in the back end of the first round in the draft. Nats 2014 2nd round pick Andrew Suarez went back to Miami and served as Miami’s saturday starter, going 6-1 with a 3.09 ERA for the nation’s top ranked team by RPI. Suarez likely hasn’t improved his draft stock that much, still projected as a 2nd rounder.
Atlantic-10 (Local interests George Mason, George Washington, Richmond and VCU)
The A-10 tournament, unbeknownst to me until I looked it up for this post, was at Barcroft field in Arlington. Grr. GW’s home field. I certainly would have made an effort to go had I known. Anyway; GWU hung on as the #6 seed until the semis. Richmond was the #3 seed and was eliminated early by GW. VCU as the #5 seed eventually won the A-10, battering their way through conference rivals. GMU finished just outside the qualification rankings to make the post-season conference tournament.
Big South (Local interests: VA schools Liberty, Radford, and Longwood)
Longwood was the #8 seed, losing early in the post-season tournament. Liberty was the #4 seed and was eliminated by Longwood. However Radford entered the tourney as the #1 seed and outlasted several very good baseball programs to win the tournament and clinch their first ever CWS appearance.
Big-10: (Local interest: Maryland)
Does it sound weird to talk about how Maryland makes the Big-10 conference tournament a “local” tournament? Maryland made the final as the #3 seed before falling to the upset-minded Michigan team.
Big East (local interest: Georgetown)
Georgetown went 2 and out as the #4 seed in the Big East tourney.
Colonial Athletic Association (local interests: JMU, William & Mary and Towson)
Towson and JMU both had down years and didn’t qualify for the post-season tournament. W&M did, but were 2- and out as the #6 seed. The CAA came down to 1-2, with 2nd seeded UNC-Wilmington beating #1 seed College of Charleston.
Of note, College of Charleston was ranked most of the year and was led on the hill by friday ace starter Taylor Clarke. Clarke was 13-1 with a 1.34ERA on the season. Clarke hails from Ashburn and went to Broad Run and then Towson before transferring to CofC and becoming a star.
Conference USA: Local team Old Dominion
ODU was the #7 seed in the C-USA tourney and went 2-and out.
MEAC: (Local teams UMES and Norfolk State):
Both teams made the post-season but did not factor in the final.
Patriot: (local interest: Navy)
Navy entered the post-season tourney as the #1 seed but lost in the final to #2 seed Lehigh.
The big news for Navy this year is the matriculation of a Navy grad to the majors for the first time in nearly a century. RHP Mitch Harris also has some very personal ties: he played for the Fairfax Nationals in the (now defunct) Clark Griffith summer wood-bat league and was housed by none other than my father for the summer.
SoCon (local interest: VMI)
VMI fought hard as the #4 seed, losing in the tourney semis.
Other local players of interest: Madison alum Andy McGuire and his Texas team had to win the Big-12 tournament to get into the CWS, and they did. McGuire went to Texas as a SS/3B but now is in the bullpen for the Longhorns.
The College World Series field of 64 will be announced just after the Memorial day weekend, upon the completion of all the college tournaments. We’ll post again with the matchups and some quickie predictions.