{"id":17585,"date":"2022-05-31T10:07:23","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T14:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=17585"},"modified":"2022-06-01T12:56:03","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T16:56:03","slug":"cws-2022-field-of-64-announced-local-team-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=17585","title":{"rendered":"CWS 2022 Field of 64 announced; Local team preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Its College Baseball post-season time, something we&#8217;ve followed in this space for years.  Here&#8217;s a quick guide to the CWS 2022 post season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First off, some resources for you.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>your final top 25 according to <a href=\"https:\/\/d1baseball.com\/category\/top-25\/\">d1baseball<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseballamerica.com\/rankings\/college-baseball-top-25\/\">baseballamerica<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/sports\/ncaa-baseball\/polls\/coaches-poll\/\">usatoday Coaches poll<\/a>.    All agree; Tennessee is by far and away the best team in the country this year, finishing the regular season 53-7.  <\/li><li>Local teams dot the rankings: Virginia Tech, Maryland, and  UVA all in the top 25 as they have been most of the season.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.warrennolan.com\/baseball\/2022\/rpi-live\">WarrenNolan&#8217;s RPI rankings<\/a> are a very important part of the seeding and selection process, as we&#8217;ll discuss in a bit.<\/li><li>here&#8217;s the <a href=\"https:\/\/d1baseball.com\/columns\/2022-ncaa-field-of-64-bracket\/\">Field of 64 at d1baseball.com<\/a> (which may be behind a paywall).<\/li><li>Here&#8217;s the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncaa.com\/news\/baseball\/article\/2022-05-30\/2022-ncaa-di-baseball-championship-bracket-announced\">field of 64 with some great data points at NCAA.com<\/a> (which should be free)<\/li><li>here&#8217;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncaa.com\/news\/baseball\/article\/2022-05-28\/2022-college-baseball-conference-tournament-brackets-schedules-auto-bids\">nice resource from NCAA.com<\/a> showing the conference winners, past champions, and schedules going forward.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Your top 8 seeds and favorites to make Omaha, in order:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Tennessee (RPI = 1)<\/li><li>Stanford (3)<\/li><li>Oregon State (2)<\/li><li>Virginia Tech (5)<\/li><li>Texas A&amp;M (22)<\/li><li>Miami (15)<\/li><li>Oklahoma State (10)<\/li><li>ECU (8)<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>You can see that the committee stayed pretty true to RPI for the top 4 seeds, then clearly deviated from the RPIs for the rest of the top 8, which is going to leave some of these teams facing really difficult #2 seeds in their regioanls coming up.  Here&#8217;s the rest of the top 10 by RPI and who they&#8217;re facing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>4. UNC: hosting a regional but as the #10 national seed<\/li><li>6. Wake Forest: not even a host, goes to Maryland as that region&#8217;s #2 seed<\/li><li>7. Vanderbilt, this high due to #1 Strength of Schedule, goes to Oregon State as that region&#8217;s #2 seed.<\/li><li>9. Maryland, who spent most of the season in the top 10 of the rankings, gets dropped to a #15 seed in the tournament and has to face Vanderbilt,  who&#8217;s actually got a  higher RPI.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So, this is going to lead us to some very, very good regionals and a ton of upsets.  Here&#8217;s some comments on all our DC\/MD\/VA local teams in the tourney:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Virginia Tech: as noted, #4 national seed, has been ranked as high as #3 this year, strong RPI, dominated in the ACC (which was every bit as good as the SEC this year).   For their troubles they get a very, very easy regional, with #2 Gonzaga coming west-to-east and only ranked #27 by RPI, the Ivy league champ Columbia, and Wright State.  Couldn&#8217;t ask for a better regional.<\/li><li>Maryland: #15 National seed and given the #6 RPI team in Wake Forest coming out of a far better conference as their #2 seed.  Apologies Terps fans; you&#8217;re likely losing this regional on home soil.  I suppose the recent Lacrosse national championship makes up for it.<\/li><li>Liberty gets the #3 regional seed as an at-large in the UFlorida region, an interesting matchup for them since they went to Florida to open the season and won 2 of 3.  They have to contend though with Oklahoma first, a very good Big12 team that nearly made a case to host itself.  Probably the hardest regional<\/li><li>VCU won their conference, and get to head to UNC as that regional&#8217;s #3 seed.  Uphil climb here, since UNC is better than their #10 national seed indicates.<\/li><li>Virginia entered the ACC tourney looking like a top 16 seed\/regional host, but got blown out by Louisville to end any chance; that loss dumped their RPI down to #24 and now they&#8217;re the #2 seed in East Carolina&#8217;s regional.  Which isn&#8217;t bad: ECU&#8217;s got a great RPI (#8) but they&#8217;re from a weaker conference and were just 2-7 against top 50 RPI teams all year.  UVA has to really like their chances in this regional.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Other local teams who we thought had a chance: Old Dominion was one of the last teams cut, coming in at #40 on the RPI but who really needed to win their weaker conference to get in.  The next best team in the area to not make the cut was William &amp; Mary, with an RPI of #84 and who clearly needed to win the Colonial to make it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Quick predictions for the 16 regionals, ordered by National Seed super Regional matchup<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>#1 Tennessee will get a challenge from ACC&#8217;s Georgia Tech, but should advance.<\/li><li>#16 Georgia Southern gets Notre Dame, the ACC finalist and a complete snub for hosting, along with tough Big12 team Texas Tech.  A dogfight of a regional here.<\/li><li>#8 ECU as mentioned has UVA in its region and I think gets upset.<\/li><li>#9 Texas gets an intriguing #3 seed in Dallas Baptist but a weaker #2 seed in C-USA champion Louisiana Tech.  Texas should advance here.<\/li><li>#5 Texas A&amp;M inexplicably gets a #5 national seed despite an RPI in the 20s, but is let off the hook with a weaker regional that includes a TCU team that isn&#8217;t as good as its reputation and the Sunbelt champion Louisiana (aka Louisiana-Lafayette).<\/li><li>#12 Louisville, who will be a tough out, gets a couple of cold weather teams in its regional and should advance<\/li><li>#4 Virginia Tech as discussed above gets a cake-walk of a Regional, all things considered.<\/li><li>#13 Florida gets, as discussed, both Liberty and Oklahoma, one of which has beaten them this season and the other which can beat them.  Florida went just 11-17 against top 50 opponents this year despite its ranking and RPI, and I think they get beat.  A deep regional.<\/li><li>#3 Oregon State cannot be happy seeing Vanderbilt in their regional; upset watch here.<\/li><li>#14 Auburn will, like nearly every SEC team, have to contend with an ACC team in Florida State but won&#8217;t be worried about a weaker Pac12 team in UCLA.<\/li><li>#6 Miami will have fun with two perennial powers in Arizona and Ole Miss, but both of these similarly ranked RPI teams probably cancel themselves out<\/li><li>#11 Southern Miss gets LSU and a tricky Kennesaw State team.  Upset watch here.<\/li><li>#7 Oklahoma State had to be happy to see Grand Canyon as its #2, even if a recent national champion Arkansas is in here as #3.  <\/li><li>#10 UNC gets a relatively easy draw with Georgia and VCU.  UNC played top-50 ranked opponents no less than 36 times out of 57 games, good for the #2 hardest schedule this year behind Vandy.<\/li><li>#2 Stanford, who went 21-9 in the PAC12 but was just 10-9 against top 50 teams, nonetheless won&#8217;t be threatened by its regional but could be in trouble in the supers.<\/li><li>#15 Maryland has to deal with Wake Forest and one of the best cold-weather teams in Uconn, and seems like an upset in the making.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Predictions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>#1 Tennessee <\/li><li>Notre Dame<\/li><li>UVA<\/li><li>#9 Texas <\/li><li>#5 Texas A&amp;M<\/li><li>#12 Louisville<\/li><li>#4 Virginia Tech <\/li><li>Oklahoma<\/li><li>Vanderbilt<\/li><li>#14 Auburn<\/li><li>#6 Miami<\/li><li>LSU<\/li><li>#7 Oklahoma State<\/li><li>#10 UNC<\/li><li>#2 Stanford<\/li><li>Wake Forest<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Super-Early Omaha predictions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>#1 Tennessee<\/li><li>#9 Texas<\/li><li>#12 Louisville<\/li><li>Oklahoma<\/li><li>#6 Miami<\/li><li>#7 Oklahoma State<\/li><li>#10 UNC<\/li><li>#2 Stanford<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Prospect Watch.  Who are the top ranked college prospects to look for?  Borrowing from the mock drafts and ranking boards, here&#8217;s some big names in play for first round action who are in the CWS:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Georgia Tech&#8217;s C <strong>Kevin Parada<\/strong>, who many mock drafters have going to the Nats at #5, is in Tennessee to play (and lose to) the #1 team.<\/li><li>Tennessee is led by two OF 1st round talents in <strong>Jordan Beck<\/strong>, a mid-1st rounder who is tooled up, has a ton of power and can play CF, and the guy who actually IS playing CF for them in <strong>Drew Gilbert<\/strong>, a high-contact hitter who can also pitch.<\/li><li>Arizona&#8217;s C <strong>Daniel Susac<\/strong> is in action but likely goes home early.<\/li><li>Virginia Tech is led by top 15 candidate OF  <strong>Gavin Cross<\/strong><\/li><li>LSU&#8217;s top player is a 1st round projection in <strong>Jacob Berry<\/strong>, but he&#8217;s held back by lack of position and defensive liability.<\/li><li>Texas Tech has a winnable #16 seed region with their star player and 1st rounder <strong>Jace Jung<\/strong>, whos brother <strong>Josh Jung<\/strong> was a top 10 pick in 2019.<\/li><li>Florida&#8217;s #1 starter at the beginning of the year was LHP <strong>Hunter Barco<\/strong>, but he went down with Tommy John and isn&#8217;t pitching (but still might be a 1st rounder).<\/li><li>Florida&#8217;s best hitting prospect is likely OF <strong>Sterlin Thompson<\/strong>, who will be a draft-eligible sophomore with a big bat.<\/li><li>Oklahoma State&#8217;s #1 starter is RHP <strong>Justin Campbell<\/strong>, a likely back of the first rounder<\/li><li>Gonzaga has a top starter in <strong>Gabriel Hughes<\/strong>, with a 33% strikeout rate.  Should make for a fun outing in his regional when he goes.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Its College Baseball post-season time, something we&#8217;ve followed in this space for years. Here&#8217;s a quick guide to the CWS 2022 post season. First off, some resources for you. your final top 25 according to d1baseball, baseballamerica, and usatoday Coaches poll. All agree; Tennessee is by far and away the best team in the country [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4324],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college","category-prospects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17585","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=17585"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17592,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17585\/revisions\/17592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}