{"id":18051,"date":"2023-06-06T08:55:53","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T12:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=18051"},"modified":"2023-06-06T12:52:09","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T16:52:09","slug":"2023-cws-regionals-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=18051","title":{"rendered":"2023 CWS Regionals Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/cws2023.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"221\" height=\"228\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/cws2023.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18055\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\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 2023 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 heading into the post-season 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 three have Wake Forest #1 overall, a great feat for the smallest school in any power conference.<\/li><li>Local teams in the rankings: UVA is in the 9-11 range on all polls, Maryland is at the edges of the top 25 in all polls, and DMV adjacent teams like West Virginia, and ECU are there as well.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.warrennolan.com\/baseball\/2023\/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:\/\/www.ncaa.com\/news\/baseball\/article\/2023-06-01\/2023-ncaa-baseball-bracket-mens-college-world-series-scores-schedule\">field of 64 with some great data points at NCAA.com<\/a> (which should be free)<\/li><li>Here&#8217;s D1Baseball.com&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/d1baseball.com\/college-baseball-tournament-central\/\">Tournament Central<\/a>, my favorite place to track the tourney.  <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Your top 8 seeds<\/em><\/strong> and favorites to make Omaha before play started, in order, along with their RPI and their Strength of Schedule (SoS) denoted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Wake Forest (RPI=1, SoS=33)<\/li><li>Florida (4,17)<\/li><li>Arkansas (3,4)<\/li><li>Clemson (6,6)<\/li><li>LSU (5,13)<\/li><li>Vanderbilt (7,5)<\/li><li>Virginia (10,57)<\/li><li>Stanford (15,37)<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Six of the top eight national seeds are also top 8 of RPI, with UVA getting dinged b\/c they typically play such a poor mid-week schedule, and Stanford gets dinged despite crushing the Pac-12 because of a down year in that conference.  The two missing top=8 RPI seeds?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Kentucky at #2 RPI based on their #1 strength of schedule.  They&#8217;re the #12 overall seed, hosting a regional but set to go to LSU in the super regional, a dagger of a matchup for two good teams.<\/li><li>South Carolina at #8 RPI based on their #3 strength of schedule.  They&#8217;re the #15 overall seed, meaning they project into #2 Florida for another potentially brutal all SEC super regional.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Local DC\/MD\/VA local teams in the tourney:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Virginia: a top 8 national seed, slightly over seeded.  They get a somewhat easier regional with Oklahoma as their #2, and project to host Coastal Carolina in a super regional; they have a pretty clear path to Omaha.<\/li><li>George Mason makes the tourney for the first time in years, and for their troubles are a #4 seed heading to Wake Forest.  Brutal draw.<\/li><li>Maryland also heading to Wake&#8217;s draw as that regional&#8217;s #2 seed; why these two teams aren&#8217;t in Charlottesville is kind of beyond me.<\/li><li>West Virginia is heading to Kentucky&#8217;s regional as that #2 seed; hard to see them getting out.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Other local teams who we thought had a chance: Virginia Tech&#8217;s rpi is 48, but they had a 12-17 ACC record.  William &amp; Mary was the next highest ranked DMV team; they were just .500 in CAA play.  Liberty took a big step back this year, as did JMU when they matriculated a 1st round pick.  Kind of a down year for local schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Quick Regional Recaps<\/em><\/strong> of the 16 regional action, ordered by National Seed super Regional matchup<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>#1 <strong>Wake Forest <\/strong>silenced any doubters, winning this regional by a combined score of 48-7, topping the surprising mid-major George Mason in the regional final.<\/li><li>#16 <strong>Alabama <\/strong>made it look easy, cruising to 3 straight wins to take its regional.<\/li><li>#8 <strong>Stanford<\/strong> saved some fact by forcing a Monday decider against TAMU, and then completed the come back to advance.<\/li><li>#9 Miami was outclassed at home by <strong>Texas<\/strong> twice to lose the regional in a battle between two of college baseball&#8217;s most historic programs.<\/li><li>#5 <strong>LSU <\/strong>held serve and moved on in a regional that basically went chalk.  LSU threw Skenes in the opener for some reason and he pitched a complete game versus Tulane (who entered the tourney 19-41).  9ip, 2ER 12Ks 0 walks.  not sure why they didn&#8217;t hold him for Oregon State but it doesn&#8217;t matter since they advanced and he&#8217;ll go game 1 of the super regional.<\/li><li>#12 <strong>Kentucky <\/strong>lost in the winner&#8217;s bracket final but came out of the loser&#8217;s bracket to force the Monday decider.  In that game, they edged Indiana to advance.<\/li><li>#4 Clemson lost a stunner of a 14 inning marathon to last year&#8217;s #1 team Tennessee and it seemed to deflate them; they didn&#8217;t even get back to the regional final as <strong>Tennessee <\/strong>tops Charlotte to advance and knock out the ACC power.<\/li><li>#13 Auburn got beat two straight as a host and Ivy League Penn was in the driver&#8217;s seat until <strong>Southern Miss<\/strong> beat them twice on Sunday to advance.  <\/li><li>#3 Arkansas got embarrassed by <strong>TCU<\/strong>, who beat them 20-5 and 12-4 to take the regional and knock out the national seed.<\/li><li>#14 <strong>Indiana State<\/strong> outclassed a regional with big-conference names to move on as a mid-major.  <\/li><li>#6 Vanderbilt shockingly lost to Xavier in the loser&#8217;s bracket to exit before even the regional final, clearing the way for <strong>Oregon <\/strong>to advance.<\/li><li>#11 Oklahoma State was absolutely shocked at home, going 2-and-out.  The pundits predicted that <strong>Oral Roberts<\/strong> (the 4th seed here) was no slouch and indeed they took out Dallas Baptist to take the regional with relative ease.<\/li><li>#7 <strong>UVA<\/strong> won a regional that went perfectly chalk, as Army got outscored 25-2 and UVA beat ECU twice to move on.<\/li><li>#10 Coastal Carolina took a huge upset loss on the first day but took out Duke in the regional final to force the Monday winner-take-all.  In that game, <strong>Duke<\/strong> turned on the offense and cruised 12-3 into the super regionals.<\/li><li>#2 <strong>Florida <\/strong>bounced back from total embarrassment as the #2 overall seed and beat Texas Tech twice to move on.<\/li><li>#15 <strong>South Carolina<\/strong> battered their way to the regional title, scoring 41 runs in 3 games.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Thus, your Super Regionals are ..<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>#1 Wake Forest v #16 Alabama<\/li><li>#8 Stanford v Texas<\/li><li>#5 LSU v #12 Kentucky<\/li><li>Tennessee v Southern Miss (Shockingly Southern Miss is the host, not the more famous Tennessee)<\/li><li>TCU v #14 Indiana State (TCU = host for some surprising reason)<\/li><li>Oregon v Oral Roberts (Oregon = host)<\/li><li>#7 UVA v Duke<\/li><li>#2 Florida v #15 South Carolina<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Talk about carnage of top seeds.  #3 Arkansas, #4 Clemson, #6 Vanderbilt all out, and without putting up much of a fight along the way.  Just nine of the sixteen hosts advanced.  There&#8217;s two super regionals that feature both regional hosts eliminated (how do they determine who hosts?)  Both of the under-seeded teams by RPI ended up advancing, with South Carolina making a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Super Regional predictions<\/em><\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>#1 Wake over Alabama<\/li><li>Texas upsets #8 Stanford<\/li><li>#5 LSU squeaks by #12 Kentucky (they won 2 of 3 in SEC regular season)<\/li><li>Tennessee takes out Southern Miss.<\/li><li>TCU continues its upset run over #14 Indiana State<\/li><li>Oregon over the Cinderella Oral Roberts<\/li><li>Duke upsets #7 UVA (they won 2 of 3 in Charlottesville in the ACC regular season)<\/li><li>#15 South Carolina over #2 Florida (they swept Florida in SEC regular season play)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Prospect Watch.<\/em><\/strong>  From Nats perspective all eyes are on LSU&#8217;s super regional, since the top two projected picks both play there.  We&#8217;ll revisit prospect watch based on the super regionals and who&#8217;s still playing.  But  your top prospects still playing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>LSU: Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes, projected to go 1st and 2nd overall<\/li><li>Florida: Wyatt Langford, projected top 5 pick, along with another arm in Hurston Waldrep as a 1st round projection.<\/li><li>Tennessee: Chase Dollander, who was in the 1-1 mix but who has struggled, continues to build up draft sock.<\/li><li>Wake Forest: Their RHP Rhett Lowder is a possible top 10.  3B Brock Wilken end of 1st round.<\/li><li>Virginia: their Catcher Kyle Teel and 3B Jake Gelof both top 50 prospects.<\/li><li>Miami: 3B Yohandy Morales is a mid-1st rounder<\/li><li>Stanford: SS Tommy Troy is a mid-1st rounder<\/li><li>TCU 3B Brayden Taylor an end of 1st rounder<\/li><li>Texas RHP Tanner Witt a comp-1st round projection<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So, lots of draft talent on display this weekend.<\/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 2023 post season. First off, some resources for you. Your final top 25 heading into the post-season according to d1baseball, baseballamerica, and usatoday Coaches poll. All three have Wake Forest #1 overall, a great feat [&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-18051","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\/18051","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=18051"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18065,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18051\/revisions\/18065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}