NCAA Regional Preview: Baton Rouge

By Will Kimmey
June 2, 2005

1. Louisiana State 38-20, at-large, tied for third in Southeastern Conference, 21st NCAA tournament, 17th consecutive appearance
2. Rice 41-17, automatic, won Western Athletic, 11th NCAA tournament, 11th consecutive appearance
3. Northwestern State 40-18, at-large, won Southland regular season, third NCAA tournament
4. Marist 33-19, automatic, won Metro Atlantic regular season and tournament, fifth NCAA tournament

Player To Watch: Rice freshman lefthander/first baseman Joe Savery earned WAC player of the year honors after leading the conference with a .387 batting average as a hitter and finishing second with a 2.49 ERA and 115 strikeouts on the mound.

The Favorite: Louisiana State just doesn't lose often in front of 8,000 fans at Alex Box Stadium. Senior outfielders Ryan Patterson (19 homers) and Nick Stavinoha (17 homers) pack power, accounting for nearly half of LSU's 74 home runs, but aside from Clay Harris, the rest of the lineup has struggled to find consistency and match its past success. A strong pitching staff led by 10-win lefthanders Greg Smith and Clay Dirks and the two-headed bullpen monster of Jason Determann and Jordan Faircloth has helped make up for an offense scoring an unLSU-like 6.8 runs per game.

On The Other Hand: Top-of-the-line pitching usually makes a good antidote for powerful college offenses. Rice doesn't have the Humber-Niemann-Townsend trio anymore, but the Savery-Josh Geer-Eddie Degermann triumvirate led the Owls to a 3.08 team ERA, which ranks 10th in the nation. If the starters can keep LSU off the board and Savery, Josh Rodriguez (team-best 10 homers) and Adam Rodgers (team-best 49 RBIs) can push some early runs across, Rice could silence the crowd and escape.

Bracket Buster: Northwestern State won its conference in large part because of a 21-2 home record, the best in the nation. Then it went 0-2 at home in the Southland tournament but got a reprieve with an at-large bid. The Demons win because of strong defense (.974 fielding percentage) and conference player of the year Blake Jones, a senior DH/righthander who tied for the team lead with seven home runs and 48 RBIs along with six wins and eight saves in relief.

Don't Forget About: Marist has three wins in four regional appearances, including victories against Long Beach State in 2001 and Southwest Missouri State in 2002. Fifth-year senior lefthander Chris Tracz started the SMS game in '02 and faced Stanford in '01. He missed 2004 with an arm injury, but returned to go 9-3, 2.92 to earn his second MAAC pitcher of the year award. He's Marist's all-time leader with 38 wins and 288 strikeouts and would like to pull one more upset before his career ends.