{"id":15165,"date":"2018-06-24T18:57:01","date_gmt":"2018-06-24T22:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=15165"},"modified":"2018-06-24T18:57:01","modified_gmt":"2018-06-24T22:57:01","slug":"2018-cws-group-winners-and-cws-final-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=15165","title":{"rendered":"2018 CWS Group Winners and CWS Final preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/CWS-2018_calendar-narrow.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14875\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-14875\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/CWS-2018_calendar-narrow.jpg\" alt=\"CWS-2018_calendar-narrow\" width=\"234\" height=\"272\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a recap of our CWS coverage so far for 2018:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14873\">Field of 64 announcement<\/a>\u00a0with Regional predictions and highlights of top-end draft prospects.<\/li>\n<li>2018 Draft Preview\u00a0with coverage of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=11117\">Local College-age eligible players of note<\/a><\/li>\n<li>2018 CWS tournament:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14985\">Regional Results, Super-Regional Pairings<\/a><\/li>\n<li>2018 CWS <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=15059\">Super-Regionals recap<\/a>, CWS field and predictions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Lets review the CWS group play.\u00a0 The CWS plays just one or two games a day; a far cry from the first weekend, where 64 teams played hundreds of games over the course of a long weekend.\u00a0 So this post has been written in one or two sentence increments for a week and a half\u2026<\/p>\n<p>My pre-CWS predictions were #1 Florida from the top and #3 Oregon State from the bottom, but noting that Arkansas and Mississippi State in particular were going to be tough outs.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>In the Top\u00a0Bracket<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0(#1 Florida, #9 Texas Tech, #5 Arkansas, #13 Texas)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>In the opening games<\/strong> Arkansas put up 8 in the 6th to easily down Texas 11-5.\u00a0 Madison HS&#8217;\u00a0<strong>Andy McGuire<\/strong> was called upon for mop-up duty by Texas.\u00a0 In the nightcap, Texas Tech got to Florida ace\u00a0<strong>Brady Singer<\/strong> and downed the #1 seed 6-3.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In the first elimination game<\/strong>, #1 Florida whacked Texas 6-1 behind 1st round pick\u00a0<strong>Jackson Kowar<\/strong> to eliminate Texas.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In the winner&#8217;s bracket game<\/strong>, #5 Arkansas scored early and often and was in control throughout over Texas Tech.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In the play-in game<\/strong>\u00a0to the group final, Florida got some revenge and eliminated Texas Tech to force their way into the group final.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In the group final<\/strong>, <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Arkansas<\/strong> <\/span>got a dominant start from #3 starter\u00a0<strong>Isaiah Campbell<\/strong>, who shut down Florida and got Arkansas to their first CWS final since 1979.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Final Group standings: Arkansas, Florida, Texas Tech, Texas<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>In the Bottom\u00a0Bracket<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0(#3 Oregon State, #6 UNC, Mississippi State, Washington)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>In the opening games<\/strong>, UNC got to OSU&#8217;s stud\u00a0<strong>Luke Heimlich<\/strong> for 6 runs early, then the game turned into a slow slog eventually won by UNC.\u00a0 In the night cap, Mississippi State got a walk-off RBI single to squeak by Washington 1-0.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In the first elimination game<\/strong>, Oregon State blasted Pac-12 rival Washington 14-5 to make them the first team eliminated.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In the winner&#8217;s bracket game<\/strong>, Mississippi State destroyed UNC 12-2 to continue its amazing late-season run and put themselves in the driver&#8217;s seat of this bracket.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In the play-in game<\/strong>\u00a0to the group final, Oregon State scored 8 runs in the last two innings to get revenge and eliminate UNC 11-6.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In the group final<\/strong>, Oregon State destroyed Mississippi State 12-2 to force the decider.\u00a0 There, <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Oregon State<\/strong><\/span> took advantage of some iffy coaching to score 5 two-out runs early and made it stick to advance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Final Group standings: Oregon State, Mississippi State, UNC, Washington<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>CWS finals discussion<\/strong><\/span>: Games 1,2,3 set for June 25th-27th.<\/p>\n<p>Pitching Match-ups:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Game 1: Monday 6\/25\/18: Arkansas&#8217;s #1 <strong>Blaine Knight<\/strong>\u00a0on 8 days rest vs Oregon State&#8217;s #1\u00a0<strong>Luke Heimlich<\/strong> on 4 days rest<\/li>\n<li>Game 2: Tuesday 6\/26\/18: Arkansas #2\u00a0<strong>Kacey Murphy\u00a0<\/strong>on 5 days rest vs Oregon State&#8217;s #2\u00a0<strong>Bryce Fehmel<\/strong>\u00a0on 4 days rest<\/li>\n<li>Game 3: Wednesday 6\/27\/18: Arkansas #3 <strong>Isaiah Campbell<\/strong> on 4 days rest vs Oregon State&#8217;s #3 freshman\u00a0<strong>Kevin Abel<\/strong> on 3 days rest (if necessary)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Advantage Arkansas here; their rotation is rested and has been successful in the CWS.\u00a0 Oregon State cannot say the same:\u00a0 Heimlich has gotten knocked out early in both his CWS starts and Fehmel didn&#8217;t get out of the 4th in his most recent start.\u00a0 Abel was fantastic against Mississippi State in the decider &#8230;. but even if they get to him he&#8217;ll be on just 3 days rest and may not even be available.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Prediction<\/strong><\/span>: Arkansas in 3.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>College CWS tournament references<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>d1baseball.com&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.d1baseball.com\/daily\/today.htm\">daily scoreboard<\/a>\u00a0is my go-to link<\/li>\n<li>d1baseball&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/d1baseball.com\/regional-tournament-central\/\">Tourney Central<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Baseball America&#8217;s\u00a0College coverage home page<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.collegebaseballdaily.com\/\">CollegeBaseballDaily.com<\/a>\u00a0has coverage as well.<\/li>\n<li>CollegeBaseballCentral.com has coverage as well.<\/li>\n<li>Ncaa.com&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncaa.com\/interactive-bracket\/baseball\/d1\/2018\">interactive full 64-team bracket<\/a><\/li>\n<li>NCAA\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncaa.com\/stats\/baseball\/d1\/current\/individual\/200\">Individual player stats<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Warren Nolan.com&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.warrennolan.com\/baseball\/2018\/index\">College Baseball RPI<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Warren Nolan&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/warrennolan.com\/baseball\/2018\/conferencerpi\">Conference RPI rankings<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a recap of our CWS coverage so far for 2018: Field of 64 announcement\u00a0with Regional predictions and highlights of top-end draft prospects. 2018 Draft Preview\u00a0with coverage of\u00a0Local College-age eligible players of note 2018 CWS tournament:\u00a0Regional Results, Super-Regional Pairings 2018 CWS Super-Regionals recap, CWS field and predictions Lets review the CWS group play.\u00a0 The CWS [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1654,3564,3653,3912,3910,3767,3911,3913,3559],"class_list":["post-15165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college","tag-andy-mcguire","tag-blaine-knight","tag-brady-singer","tag-bryce-fehmel","tag-isaiah-campbell","tag-jackson-kowar","tag-kacey-murphy","tag-kevin-abel","tag-luke-heimlich"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15165"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15240,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15165\/revisions\/15240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}