College Weekend Preview: March 19-21

By Will Kimmey
March 19, 2004

Members of the Southeastern Conference have long said it's the nation's best college baseball league. Regular season wins and losses can help an argument, but nothing sways the doubters like being responsible for half of the College World Series field.

The SEC did just that in 1997, sending a record four teams to Omaha as Louisiana State topped Alabama for the title. Ten SEC teams have advanced to Rosenblatt Stadium in the six years since, including at least one each season.

The caliber of play hasn't dropped during that time, and it might be even better this season as the league looks elite from top to bottom. Every SEC team has a winning record--it's the only conference in the country that can make such a claim--and every league member has won at least 70 percent of its games.

"The first thing you've got to say, year in and year out, it's one of the toughest, if not the toughest conference," Georgia coach Dave Perno said. "I've been here eight years and just looking at the records and seeing these teams win, it's probably as tough as it's been in the last five or six years."

That difficulty comes from the league's unparalleled depth. Seven SEC teams hold spots in the Top 25 as the league opens conference play this weekend. No other league has more than three.

"To me, it's the toughest conference in the country," Louisiana State coach Smoke Laval said. "Any given weekend the best, the worst can fall or can get swept. That's why it's fun.

"I look at our schedule, and there's no one club I'm looking forward to playing--at home or on the road."

Laval's fourth-ranked Tigers do hit the road this weekend, traveling to Columbia to face No. 3 South Carolina in one of the best series of the season so far. All the seats at Sarge Frye Field had sold out by Tuesday, with only standing room available to see 16-2 LSU trying to hand the 18-0 home team its first loss of the year.

"Maybe right now South Carolina is playing the best baseball, not only in the SEC but in the country," Laval said. "Would I rather play them now or later? Well, later they might be 40-0."

Laval spent time with Gamecocks coach Ray Tanner last summer, helping Tanner make his selections for the Team USA's college national team. Neither coach admits studying the other's team too much heading into the matchup, with Laval deadpanning that he needs time to sleep and he'll look up South Carolina's stats during the bus trip.

"We talked and shared a lot of things, philosophies and ideas," Tanner said. "He really likes his talent. You're not going to win against LSU unless you play the best baseball you've played all year. The thing that I don't expect to be different about LSU is they're going to be good. That's not any different than any other year."

LSU won two of three from South Carolina at Alex Box Stadium last year, and in a close matchup of teams with prolific offenses and strike-throwing pitching staffs, home-field advantage could lend a slight edge to the Gamecocks. Not that either coach admits concern about the outcome.

"I don't think this weekend makes or breaks you," Tanner said. "If we were to come out and win the series, what does that mean? We've got nine more series against good clubs. Were not going to be undefeated. If LSU destroys us this weekend, that doesn't mean that we wont be able to rebound."

Another key matchup comes as No. 22 Vanderbilt travels to No. 11 Mississippi. The Commodores are 13-2 and ranked for the first time in school history following a series win at Baylor.

"You've got to put things in perspective," Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. "It's so early, nothing has been done yet. You look at your team in May when everything has been sorted out.

"So far it's been all right. It was good to go to Waco this past week to play Baylor and see some very good pitching and the way the kids responded."

Vanderbilt's emergence under its second-year coach reinforces the league's depth. The former Clemson assistant has the challenge of competing at the SEC's only private school, one with stricter academic qualifications as well as an annual tuition bill near $40,000. Still, Corbin made great gains last season, leading Vanderbilt to the SEC tournament for the first time since 1997.

"First of all, everybody in the SEC, it just seems like the league continues to get tougher and tougher," said University of Mississippi coach Mike Bianco, whose Rebels are off to a 14-1 start. "There are no easy weekends, everybody can beat everybody. Vanderbilt's a team that last year could beat anybody with their pitching staff and defense and they're swinging the bat this year."

Bianco and other league coaches said that while the demanding league competition can cost them a few extra losses, it's beneficial for improving as well as recruiting better talent.

"When building a program, you've got to be the best and play with the best," Bianco said. "If you just slip a notch, you can get beat up and get swept. In some leagues, there are a few weeks you don't have to play your best ball and you'll come out a winner. In this league you can't afford that. Teams in the top 20 get swept."

Might that happen in some of the other matchups dotting league play this weekend? Tennessee has rolled up a 17-2 mark on its way to No. 24 Mississippi State. The Volunteers have succeeded despite getting just one start from ace Luke Hochevar, who sustained a bone bruise in his first start of the year and then was hospitalized after getting hit in the head by a batted ball during batting practice last Saturday, one day before he was to make his return to the mound.

"He just moved out of intensive care (Monday)," Tennessee coach Rod Delmonico said. "He's sleeping most of he day, and he's drugged up because he's got a lot of pain. Anytime you have a head injury, it's a week or so before you know what you're dealing with. He's going to be OK, and that's what's important.

"It's hard to tell (when he'll be back), but I'm venturing that he's going to be back at some time." Four to six weeks is the current prognosis.

No. 7 Auburn plays host to Kentucky, a program that's rebuilding in the transition from Keith Madison to first-year coach John Cohen, who came from Northwestern State. The Wildcats will compete, but if there are any breathers in the league, Kentucky could be it.

"This being my first go 'round here, it is a long evaluation process for me and my staff," Cohen said. "We really like the kids that we have. We're 12-5, quite honestly we're real fortunate to be 12-5. I think we might be distinguished as the only program in the history of the Southeastern Conference not to bring in a pitcher from last year to this year."

Because of the coaching change, the Wildcats weren't able to secure commitments from any pitchers and will have to make do with what they had last year. Kentucky lists just 12 pitchers on its roster, as opposed to 18 for Auburn.

Arkansas travels to No. 16 Florida. The Razorbacks are battle-tested, having taken a game from No. 9 Texas A&M during a six-games-in-three-days tournament earlier this year. Coach Dave Van Horn is still feeling out SEC play in his second year after putting Nebraska on the national landscape. He said the difference in his new league versus the Big 12 Conference wasn't huge.

"I think maybe in the SEC, you might be facing a better pitcher on Sunday than you do in the Big 12," Van Horn said. "Kids being recruited nationally will go to a Southern school more than a Big 12 one. That might be the difference in the pitching depth. To me, the SEC the ballparks are smaller and livelier."

The final series in the opening weekend features Alabama facing Georgia. Two of the league's best freshmen will be at Foley Field in Crimson Tide lefthander Wade LeBlanc and Bulldogs first baseman Josh Morris. LeBlanc has tossed three shutouts already, and Morris' 1.158 slugging percentage is better than the on-base plus slugging percentages of any Bulldogs starter.

A New Attitude

No. 19 Virginia got tripped up by Old Dominion on Wednesday in a 5-4 game, but the Cavaliers had the scheduling misfortune of facing the Monarchs in a week when ODU had no weekend series. So Virginia saw junior righthander Justin Verlander, one of the players in contention to be the draft's No. 1 pick in June. Verlander struck out 10 batters in six innings, holding Virginia to two runs.

Still, there's plenty of reason for optimism in Charlottesville with the Cavaliers off to a 17-3 start. Sweeping a series at then-No. 17 Georgia Tech last weekend put Virginia in the Top 25 for the first time since 1996. Credit the difference to a change in attitude brought on by new coach Brian O'Connor, who was hired to replace Dennis Womack after nine years as an assistant at Notre Dame. O'Connor and his staff--Karl Kuhn, Kevin McMullan and James Molinari--wanted to change the team's culture by making the players stronger mentally.

That was achieved by grueling 6 a.m. workouts all winter. Neither rain, nor snow, nor 20-degree temperatures kept the players from running sprints, climbing bleachers and rolling in the mud to complete a military-style obstacle course. "It was really intense," senior first baseman/lefthander Joe Koshansky said. But the players never complained, and no one quit the team.

"There were tough times, no doubt, where we pushed the kids to the limit," O'Connor said. "They wanted to be challenged and pushed. They wanted expectations."

It's working so far, Koshansky said.

"As a team, there were certain series we'd go into (in prior seasons) and not expect to win. That was due to a lack of toughness and grit," he said. "This year we expect to win. It's a real turnaround."

O'Connor said he was pleased how his club responded to a March 8 loss to Quinnipiac in which Virginia blew an 11-4 lead. The Cavaliers followed it with a rebound victory two days later on the road against a tough UNC Greensboro club (that's 13-3 at this point), then went on for that sweep in Atlanta. Bet on Virginia to be ready when North Carolina comes to town this weekend.

Elsewhere in the first full weekend of Atlantic Coast Conference play, No. 20 Florida State opens against Maryland, which expects preseason second-team All-America outfielder Justin Maxwell to return from his broken forearm by April. Georgia Tech tries to get its first league win at Wake Forest. And everyone at Duke is headed to Raleigh this weekend. Mike Krzyzewski's basketball team opens the NCAA Tournament at the RBC Center, while Bill Hillier's baseball team starts ACC play at North Carolina State.

Big Games In The Big 12

No. 1 Stanford is still off for its end-of-quarter exam break, so that means no team that plays this weekend has beaten No. 2 Texas. The Longhorns lost two of three at Stanford in February, but are 23-0 when not facing teams with trees as a mascot. Texas opens Big 12 play this weekend at Oklahoma on a 13-game winning streak. That run looks even more impressive when you consider closer Huston Street has thrown just one inning since Feb. 14 because of a strained groin.

Fellow junior righthander J. Brent Cox has filled in ably for Street, but he also missed a few games with a banged up shoulder. That forced coach Augie Garrido to bring ace lefthander J.P. Howell out of the bullpen twice in one week to get crucial outs against Rice and Cal State Fullerton. Garrido said he wasn't sure whether Street would be able to go this weekend.

"It's a definite maybe," Garrido said. "So far we haven't lost a thing. One of the things that he brings is a lot of energy and presence to the team whether he's in the lineup or isn't. His teammates have picked him up and filled his role successfully."

Elsewhere in the Big 12, No. 9 Texas A&M will play host to Baylor on Friday in College Station before the two teams travel to Waco for the final two games of the series. That's the only other conference matchup, but there are two very interesting intersectional matchups. No. 25 Nebraska will face Boston College and potential first-round pick Chris Lambert, a junior righthander. Also, Clemson travels to Lubbock to take on Texas Tech.

Kansas State already played an interesting nonconference home and home set with No. 13 Wichita State on Wednesday and Thursday. The Shockers snapped the Wildcats' 11-game winning streak with a 12-7 win in 16 innings in the first game, then won the second game 3-1 as Steve Uhlmansiek and Derek Roach combined for a two-hitter. Wichita State, which moved to 8-0 for the season, has the weekend off before another big midweek set against Long Beach State next week, while Kansas State welcomes Michigan State to Manhattan.

Around The Nation

• No. 8 Arizona State begins Pacific-10 Conference play against California this weekend. The Sun Devils have their usual complement of hit bats, including sophomore outfielder Travis Buck and junior shortstop Dustin Pedroia, but junior Jeff Larish has struggled a bit. The combination of moving to left field from first base and being labeled the best hitter in the upcoming draft might be weighing on Larish a bit. He started the season fighting to stay above .200, but has been hot lately, pushing his average up to .292 after getting six hits in two wins against Oklahoma State on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"It's tough to get that stuff out of your head when you keep reading about yourself and wearing that label of a first-round pick," Arizona State coach Pat Murphy said. "It wears on anybody, but he's playing good defensively in left field and he hasn't changed anything (at the plate). He's still doing the same thing he was doing in high school when he was a great hitter and nobody knew about him."

Two other Pac-10 teams, in-state rivals Washington and Washington State, are playing a series that doesn't count in the conference standings. The games were originally scheduled for Pasco, Wash., but a junior college tournament there forced a change of venue to Washington State's Bailey-Brayton Field. The teams will meet for their Pac-10 series at Husky Ballpark beginning April 8.

• No. 14 Tulane visits No. 18 East Carolina this weekend to open Conference USA play. Both teams have lost series at Arizona State in the last two weeks, with the Green Wave taking one game in Tempe and the Pirates hanging close in three tight losses. No. 21 Southern Mississippi starts CUSA play against Houston, which beat No. 5 Rice 3-2 on Tuesday. The Owls continue their Western Athletic Conference slate this weekend by playing host to Hawaii, which at 14-7 is the only other WAC team with a winning record.

• There are two interesting Thursday-Saturday sets this week, with No. 19 Arizona traveling to play No. 9 Long Beach State, while Minnesota continues its brutal California trip with three at No. 23 UC Irvine. Junior righthander Jered Weaver has been unhittable for Long Beach State all year and posted back-to-back 15-strikeout performances before shutting out the Wildcats for seven innings last night. He struck out a season-low three in a 4-0 win for the Dirtbags, but walked only one and gave up three hits. Weaver picked off two of those batters, and retired nine straight in one stretch and seven straight in another.

• With the NCAA hoops tournament under way, everyone's trying to find their super sleepers. You can count two in the Land of Lincoln: Illinois-Chicago and Southern Illinois. Incidentally, the schools' baseball teams are each playing Top 25 teams this weekend. UIC visits No. 6 Miami, which split a pair of games this week at South Florida and stands at 16-4. The Salukis welcome No. 12 Notre Dame to town, hoping the Irish are a little groggy in their first game after St. Patrick's Day.

• No. 15 Florida Atlantic scored four runs in the bottom of the 10th inning Wednesday to complete a comeback victory against Rutgers to improve to 20-2. The Owls welcome Gardner-Webb to Boca Raton this weekend for an Atlantic Sun Conference series. Another A-Sun matchup pits 17-4 Central Florida against Campbell, which won a league game against Florida Atlantic last week.