{"id":18521,"date":"2024-06-11T09:45:57","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T13:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=18521"},"modified":"2024-06-11T09:45:58","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T13:45:58","slug":"2024-cws-coverage-super-regionals-review-and-cws-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=18521","title":{"rendered":"2024 CWS Coverage &#8211; Super Regionals review and CWS Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We&#8217;re through the super regionals, and have a CWS field that is, frankly, stacked. It&#8217;s going to be a great CWS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Resource links to help with this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<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>\n\n\n\n<li>ESPN&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-sports\/story\/_\/id\/40137717\/college-baseball-2024-mcws-ncaa-tournament-watch-schedule-scores\">tournament coverage home page<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Here&#8217;s the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncaa.com\/news\/baseball\/article\/2024-05-26\/2024-ncaa-baseball-bracket-mens-college-world-series-scores-schedule\">NCAA.com field of 64<\/a> with some great data points at NCAA.com<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>First, lets recap the Supers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>#1 Tennessee vs Evansville: Tennessee won game one 11-6, but the underdog shocked the #1 team in the nation in game two to force the deciding 3rd game.  In the decided <strong>Tennessee <\/strong>turned it into a laugher, winning 11-1 to move on and avoid a massive upset<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>#8 Florida State vs UConn: <strong>Florida State<\/strong> came to hit in this series, winning the first game by the astounding score of 24-4, then holding on for a 10-8 game two to move on.  <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kansas State vs #12 Virginia: <strong>UVA<\/strong>, who got hosting privileges as the higher seed, cruised to two straight wins to be the first team to punch their ticket.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>#4 UNC vs West Virginia: <strong>UNC <\/strong>had a bone-chilling come from behind win in game one, blasting two homers in the bottom of the last to go from a one-run deficit to a walk-off win.  In game two, Tar Heel Star Honeycutt scored both runs in a 2-1 squeaker to send UNC to Omaha.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>#3 Texas A&amp;M vs Oregon: <strong>TAMU <\/strong>held serve in game one despite losing its superstar Montgomery, then cruised to a 15-9 win to head to Omaha.  I sense some sports cliche &#8220;do it for Braden&#8221; stuff going on here.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>#6 Clemson v Florida: Florida upset the hosts in game one 10-6, then the two teams played an epic 13-inning thriller that featured a 3-run rally in the top of the 9th by Clemson to send it to extras, then a walk-off double from <strong>Florida <\/strong>in the 13th to send them to the CWS.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>#7 Georgia v #10 NC State: NC State embarrassed Georgia on its home turf 18-1 in game one. Georgia rebounded to crush the Wolfpack 11-2 in game two, sending it to the decider.  There, <strong>NC State<\/strong> held on with an 8-5 win to upset Georgia and head to Omaha.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>#2 Kentucky v #15 Oregon State: <strong>Kentucky <\/strong>blanked OSU in game one 10-0, then won a close one 3-2 to move on.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Super Regional Predictio<\/em>ns <em>versus Actuals<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>predicted Tenn, FSU, UVA, UNC, TAMU, Florida, NC State, Kentucky<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>actuals: Tenn, FSU, UVA, UNC, TAMU, Florida, NC State, Kentucky<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Not bad on my predictions: I went 8 for 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Stats\/Observations of the 8 Super Regionals.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>6 out of 8 Super Regional Hosts to advance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2 regionals went to the 3rd\/deciding game: Tennessee\/Evansville, Georgia\/NC State<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Conference Breakdown of the eight Advancers: Four from the SEC, four from the ACC.  Is anyone surprised based on the dominance of these two leagues this year?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So, your 2024 CWS Field (with original national seeds driving the teams):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Group 1 (1,4,5,8): #1 Tennessee, #8 Florida State, #12 Virginia, #4 UNC.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Group 2 (2,3,6,7): #3 Texas A&amp;M, Florida, #10 NC State, #2 Kentucky<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Clearly this is an ACC-SEC centric tourney, and interestingly the way the brackets bear out its mostly ACC teams in group 1 (except for #1 Tennessee) and its mostly SEC teams in Group 2 (except for NC State).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Performance of 1st Round projected players in the Super Regionals:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s a quick run through just the 1st round projected players who were active, using primarily <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/prospects\/draft\">MLBPipeline&#8217;s draft rankings<\/a> for candidates. They&#8217;re listed in rough order of the way they&#8217;ll likely go in the 1st round in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Charlie Condon<\/strong>: 3B\/OF, Georgia: 0-3 with a BB in game one blowout loss. 1-4 in game 2, 1-4 with a solo HR in game 3.  <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Travis Bazzana<\/strong> 2B\/SS: Oregon State: 0-3 with a BB in game one.  1-4 with a BB and 2Ks in game 2.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Jac Caglianone<\/strong>, 1B\/LHP Florida: 2-4 with 3-RBI and HR in game one.  1-3 but with 3BB and another HR in game two while also getting the start and giving up 4ER in 5 2\/3rds.  Great super, but his bat is clearly playing more than his arm (consistent with scouting).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Braden Montgomery<\/strong>, OF, Texas A&amp;M: Walked in his first AB, then <a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/article\/texas-am-outfielder-braden-montgomery-suffers-gruesome-ankle-injury-against-oregon-in-super-regionals-232663088\/\">suffered a really bad-looking ankle injury<\/a> trying to score later on in the inning.  Twitter reports called it a &#8220;clean break&#8221; of his ankle.  What a dagger of an injury for the player, a projected top-5 pick who likely falls in the draft because of this.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>J.J. Wetherholt<\/strong>, 2B\/SS, West Virginia: 1-4 with a R in game one.  0-4 with nothing in game 2.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cam Smith<\/strong>, 3B, Florida State: 3-4 with 2R in game one blowout, 2-5 with 2R and 2BB in game 2.  <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>James Tibbs<\/strong>, OF, Florida State: 2-5 with 2BB and 4RBI in game one blowout,   5-6 (!!) with 3R, 6RBI and a HR in the 12th inning in game two to win it.  Talk about a performance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Vance Honeycutt<\/strong>, CF, North Carolina: What a super regional for Honeycutt.  2-5 with 2R, 2RBI and the walk-off game winning HR in game one, then a leadoff HR <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Christian Moore<\/strong>, 2B, Tennessee: 1-3 with 2R, 2RBI and a HR in game one.  0-4 with 2BB in game 2.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Billy Amick<\/strong>, 3B, Tennessee: 3-4 with 3R and a solo HR in game one.  1-5 with a R in game 2.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Kaeleen Culpepper<\/strong>, SS, Kansas State: 1-4 with a 2RBI double in game one.  1-3 with a Sac fly in game two.  Couldn&#8217;t do much to help.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Impressed: Caglianone, Honeycutt, Tibbs, Smith, Amick<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Disappointed: Condon, Bazzana, Wetherholt, Moore, Culpepper<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My CWS Predictions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Top half: Tennessee should get by FSU in the opener, while UNC-UVA seems like a coin-flip to open (UVA took 2 of 3 against UNC in regular season play, but it was on home turf).  I&#8217;m a little worried about Tennessee&#8217;s struggles to get by Evansville, but UVA doesn&#8217;t scare me.  I think Tennessee wins the upper half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bottom Half: TAMU lost 2 of 3 at Florida in the regular season and I sense Florida has a chip on their shoulder this entire post-season.  NC State also seems like a destiny team, so i can see those two advancing early, with Florida surprising and coming out of the bottom-half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Final: Tennessee over Florida for the title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re through the super regionals, and have a CWS field that is, frankly, stacked. It&#8217;s going to be a great CWS. Resource links to help with this: First, lets recap the Supers. Super Regional Predictions versus Actuals Not bad on my predictions: I went 8 for 8. Stats\/Observations of the 8 Super Regionals. So, your [&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":[],"class_list":["post-18521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18521","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=18521"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18525,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18521\/revisions\/18525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}