East Carolina advances to the super regionals

Not many people gave any team besides Virginia a chance to win the Charlottesville regional, but after Virginia was shockingly knocked out of the tournament then it was obviously East Carolina’s regional to lose. The Pirates didn’t waste the opportunity at all as they defeated number 4 seed William & Mary 8-4 to advance to the super regionals next weekend against either Texas Tech or Dallas Baptist. East Carolina was just lucky to get into the tournament as an at-large bid and they didn’t even win their conference tournament. The Pirates don’t have a bunch of talent on their roster, but they use their high energy to help them win games. Cliff Godwin is only in his 2nd year, but what a  tremendous job he has done already by leading this program to its 4th ever super regional appearance. East Carolina doesn’t have much offensive firepower, but they do have a good pitching staff as they had a 3.39 team ERA this season. If the Pirates can just provide some run support then this could be a dangerous team going forward in postseason play. Also, they should have the confidence that they can beat any team now especially beating last year’s national champion Virginia on Saturday. I don’t believe this is a college world series type team just looking at the roster and how few draftable players that they have, yet if they can play with energy and confidence like they did in the regional then anything is possible.

Vanderbilt eliminated early after 2 late game collapses

It has been a rough few days for the Vanderbilt baseball team to say the least especially after freshman pitcher Donny Everett died on Thursday night after he drowned in a lake. The Commodores were scheduled to play against Xavier in the regionals on Friday night, but the game ended up being postponed until Saturday afternoon. Vanderbilt was in pretty good shape through 6 innings against Xavier on Saturday as the Commodores were only down 2-1. However, Vanderbilt just appeared to lose its mental focus completely in the 7th inning as they allowed 13 runs. That just isn’t like Vanderbilt because they are usually really good at performing well under pressure situations and they had 4 errors against Xavier which is shocking because the Commodores are known for committing few errors and always being well coached. It wasn’t like Xavier was very impressive as they only had 9 hits, but Vanderbilt’s 4 errors and 9 walks really hurt them. It certainly wasn’t a typical game for a tremendous baseball program like Vanderbilt, but it’s hard to blame them for the late game collapse as they still haven’t probably recovered from the death of Donny Everett less than 48 hours prior to the game. Vanderbilt then had to play a elimination game against Washington on Saturday. The Commodores played much better against the Huskies as they had a comfortable 8-4 lead heading into the 7th inning. However, the late game issues hurt the Commodores once again as they gave up 5 runs in the 7th and 8th innings as the Huskies ended up winning 9-8 to eliminate Vanderbilt. It was quite the season for Vanderbilt, but obviously they just couldn’t maintain their focus late in both games on Saturday. Maybe things would have been different if the tragic death of Donny Everett hadn’t happened on Thursday. This team had high expectations coming into postseason play after going to the national championship the past 2 years. However, the mental aspect really hurt the Commodores as they just had too many costly mistakes which is hard for even a talented team like Vanderbilt to come back from. It is shocking for Vanderbilt to be eliminated so quickly especially since they were hosting a regional in their own ballpark. It was a tough way to end the season for Vanderbilt, but expect them to come back even stronger next year especially if they make it back to the NCAA tournament as expected.

New Mexico State improving rapidly under Brian Green

New Mexico State was a mess during the 2015 season as they only managed to win 11 games under first year head coach Brian Green. However, after having the 37th ranked recruiting class in college baseball heading into the 2016 season the Aggies have really improved their roster. The results are already showing for New Mexico State as they have gone from the bottom of the WAC to 1st place currently with a 15-10 overall record and a 3-0 conference record. The Aggies still don’t have much of a pitching staff as they have a poor 4.95 team ERA, but the lineup that the Aggies have had is producing tons of offense. New Mexico State is led by junior outfielder Austin Botello who is hitting .402 with 21 RBI’s so far in 2016. Botello is one of many junior college recruits that manager Brian Green was able to get this past offseason. Green knew he had a lot of work to do to rebuild his roster after a terrible first year, but it appears that with their 35 new recruits that they are a serious contender for a postseason spot. The WAC isn’t a very good conference this season, so there is the possibility that the Aggies could end up winning the WAC. This team could be even better if they could just start getting better production out of their bullpen.