My first 2014 College\/College World Series post. \u00a0Lets take a quick look at conferences with DC\/MD\/VA collegiate of interest and see how things went for them in their conference tourneys.<\/p>\n
College Baseball Resources: BaseballAmerica<\/a>, and their top-25 lists<\/a>. \u00a0d1baseball.com<\/a> is fantastic and is the best place to get updated information on day-to-day data, standings, and tournament results. \u00a0PerfectGame.org<\/a> has the best data on college players in their vast prep database.\u00a0 Warrenolan.com has the best guesses on college baseball RPIs<\/a>.<\/p>\n ACC<\/strong>\u00a0(local interests: UVA and Maryland)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We’ll start with the strongest local baseball conference and with two significant local teams of note. \u00a0The ACC has three teams listed in the top 7 of the latest Baseball America top 25 poll (UVA, Miami and Florida State) with the highest of them (UVA) being the lowest seeded of the three in the ACC tournament.<\/p>\n ACC Regular Season champs<\/a>: Florida State and Miami, with Miami getting the #1 conference seed by virtue of a better in-conference record. \u00a0UVA and Maryland were 2nd in their respective divisions but got the #3 and #6 seeds thanks to a bunching of ACC teams with nearly identical .500 records in-conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n The big story in the ACC this year was NC State’s underperformance given its two first round talents (Carlos Rodon<\/strong> and\u00a0Trea Turner<\/strong>). \u00a0Rodon went just 6-7 on the season (with a 2.01 ERA and 117 Ks in 98 2\/3 innings<\/a>) and fell from the conesensus 1-1 draft slot that he was presumed to have ever since last year’s Rule-4 draft. \u00a0Controversy also followed Rodon and the NC State coaching staff after a couple of questionable high pitch-count outings<\/a> were lambasted in the national media. \u00a0 Turner had a solid year (.321\/.418\/.516 with 8 homers and 26\/30 stolen bases) though and seems to continue to be a solid mid-late first rounder.<\/p>\n In the conference tournament<\/a>, Maryland got an upset win over UVA<\/a> in pool play on 5\/22\/14 behind ace\u00a0Jake Stinnett<\/strong>‘s 8 inning, 10k performance. \u00a0UVA threw mid-week starter\u00a0Artie Lewicki<\/strong>, saving their bigger arms for the rest of pool-play presumably.\u00a0 However it wouldn’t matter; Maryland’s second pool win over Florida State combined with UVA’s victory meant that Maryland was automatically in the ACC tournament final.\u00a0 There they meet Georgia Tech on 5\/25\/14.\u00a0 UVA can save its arms for the regional tournament, where they’re extremely likely to be a national seed and regional\/super regional host.<\/p>\n Conference tournament champion and NCAA automatic qualifier Georgia Tech, who beat Maryland (the two pool winners) 9-4 on 5\/25\/14.\u00a0 Maryland should have a strong enough resume to get an at-large bid (they’re 25th in Warren Nolan’s RPI) while Georgia Tech may have just stolen an at-large bid from someone.<\/p>\n Atlantic-10<\/strong><\/span> (Local interests George Mason, George Washington, Richmond and VCU)<\/p>\n A-10 Regular season champs<\/a>: St. Louis. \u00a0GMU finished 4th in league play, VCU and Richmond were 5th and 6th. \u00a0George Washington finished 8th out of 12 teams in the A-10 and did not qualify for the post-season tournament (which oddly only invited 7 teams … a strange number).<\/p>\n In the conference tournament<\/a>, Mason got two quick wins to sit in the championship game of the winner’s bracket, where they met VCU (who had upset #1 seed St. Louis).\u00a0 Mason got the victory over state-rivals VCU in the winners’ bracket final, putting them in the driver seat for the automatic CWS spot.\u00a0\u00a0 VCU got a second victory over St. Louis in the loser’s bracket final and must beat Mason back to back on 5\/24\/14 to take the tournament.<\/p>\n Conference tournament champion and NCAA automatic qualifier: George Mason, who beat VCU 4-3<\/a> on 5\/24\/14.\u00a0 First CWS appearance for Mason since 2009 and their first conference baseball title since 1992.\u00a0 Wow; more than 20 years.<\/p>\n Big South<\/strong><\/span> (Local interests: VA schools Liberty, VMI, Radford, and Longwood)<\/p>\n Big South Regular Season champs<\/a>: Liberty, a surprising small school who blitzed the conference en route to a 40-15 regular season record and frequent mention in top 25 rankings of Baseball America and other collegiate polls. \u00a0VMI and Longwood did not qualify for the post-season tournament.<\/p>\n In the conference tournament, Liberty suffered an early loss and faced Radford in an elimination game but put themselves in a position to advance to the tourney final by eliminating Radford on 5\/23.\u00a0 Winthrop ended Liberty’s quest in the bracket finals, leaving Liberty to hold their breaths on acquiring an at-large bid (they should be OK: #28 in the latest Warren Nolan RPI estimates).<\/p>\n Conference tournament champion and NCAA automatic qualifier: Campbell, who beat Winthrop on 5\/25\/14.<\/p>\n Colonial Athletic Association<\/strong><\/span> (local interests: JMU, William & Mary and Towson)<\/p>\n Colonial Regular Season champs<\/a>: William & Mary, outlasting perennial baseball power College of Charleston by a half game (by virtue of playing one less game in-conference). \u00a0JMU had a very down year, finishing just 17-36 while Towson (who was scheduled for baseball extinction) continues to struggle thanks to their coach releasing all their players thanks to program instability. \u00a0 Neither Towson nor Hofstra was invited to the post-season tournament (for unknown reasons both; the CAA has a penchant for dis-inviting teams that announce they’re leaving the conference).<\/p>\n In the conference tournament<\/a>, JMU was two-and-out quickly as the tournament played to its seeds early. \u00a0The Washington Post had a great feature<\/a> on College of Charleston starter (ex-Towson and Broad Run alumni)\u00a0Taylor Clark<\/strong>, who turned into their ace this year and got the playoff-win for Charleston on 5\/22\/14<\/a>.\u00a0 William & Mary advanced out of the loser’s bracket and has to sweep a double-header on 5\/24\/14 to win the conference tournament.<\/p>\n Conference tournament champion and NCAA automatic qualifier: College of Charleston, who beat William & Mary on 5\/24\/14.\u00a0 Local kid Clark gets a shot at a CWS regional.<\/p>\n Conference USA<\/strong><\/span>: Local team Old Dominion<\/p>\n I honestly forgot that Old Dominion had moved to this conference until seeing them in the field of 64.<\/p>\n Regular season champ: Rice.\u00a0 ODU was 4th<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the conference tournament, ODU got a win over Rice, but Rice fought back to take the conference tournament.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n MEAC<\/strong><\/span>: \u00a0(Local teams UMES and Norfolk State): \u00a0UMES had a down \u00a0year and missed the post-season tournament. \u00a0Norfolk State lost in the final<\/a> of the conference tournament to MEAC baseball power and frequent CWS participant Bethune-Cookman.<\/p>\n
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