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#1 Texas A&M Aggies

Record: 43-16 (19-8 in Big 12)
RPI: 14

In his third season, Aggie head coach Rob Childress has turned Texas A&M into one of the premiere programs of the Big 12. One of the most interesting stats I saw was that Childress has coached 6 of the last 8 Big 12 Players of the Year, including his time as an assistant at Nebraska. This year's Big 12 POTY, junior SS José Duran is hitting .394 with 6 homers and a team-leading 66 RBI. Although in the field Duran has struggled some and has 20 errors. Close behind for top batting average is senior 3B Dane Carter who has 8 homers and 59 RBI. Duran and Carter have both combined for 25 stolen bases and the Aggies have swiped 80 bases as a team this season. The Ags' top power hitter is junior 1B Luke Anders who has 15 homers and 51 RBI. Also, junior OF Kyle Colligan (.312, 10 HR, 32 RBI) and junior UTIL Brian Ruggiano (.318, 8 HR and 40 RBI) are other solid hitters in the Aggie line-up.

The biggest surprise on this year's Aggie team has probably been the pitching. Most recently freshman LHP Brooks Raley has been the Friday starter and has a 6-2 record with a 4.76 ERA in a team-leading 81.1 innings. Next is freshman RHP Barret Loux who is a product Stratford HS in the Houston area. Loux has a 5-2 record, 4.25 ERA and a team-leading 75 strikeouts in 78.1 innings. Oddly enough two true freshman (Raley and Loux) lead the Aggies in innings pitched. Rounding out the Aggie rotation is sophomore RHP Clayton Ehlert who has a 6-2 record with a 3.25 ERA in 63.2 innings. In the bullpen, sophomore RHP Travis Starling is the Aggies' closer and leads the team with 9 saves. Obviously the Aggies best guy out of the pen is junior RHP Kyle Thebeau who leads the team with 29 appearances. As a staff the Aggies have a 4.03 staff ERA and a .258 batting average against.

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The last time the Cougars and Aggies met, the boys from College Station won a midweek contest that was marked by sloppy fielding. For a good deal of this season the Aggies looked unbeatable. Recently though they entered into a nose dive in which they lost 8 in a row before defeating Missouri in the Big 12 Championship Tournament.

Prediction: The Ags will win their opener, but fall to Dallas Baptist or UH and they do not get out of their own regional.

 

#2 Dallas Baptist Patriots

Record: 37-17 (Division I Independent)
RPI: 29

The Patriots are one of the biggest surprises of the college baseball season. Although they have been quietly building a solid program for years, baseball is DBU's only Division I sport, so it's natural that they get a bit overlooked. The Patriots play an independent schedule so they could schedule the likes of Rice, TCU, Baylor and Texas A&M.

Senior OF Nick Santos leads the Patriots with a .394 average, 6 homers and 37 RBI. Santos also has the fewest strike outs on the team (15) for players with regular at-bats. Sophomore 2B Ryan Goins has a .353 average with 10 homers and 48 RBI. Junior 3B Trevor Head leads the team with 15 homers and also has 51 RBI. Leading them in RBI is junior 1B Evan Bigley who has 58 RBI and 13 long balls as well. The Patriots are obviously a power-hitting team and have 62 homers as a group. Sophomore OF Ryan Enos (.351, 2 HR, 43 RBI)  and junior OF Clay Kelly (.304 and 18 RBI) are tied for the team lead with 15 stolen bases a piece.

Since DBU is an independent team they don't have to tailor their pitching staff to the rigors of the weekend series, so they only have two primary starters. Junior RHP Jordan Meaker (7-1, 4.28 ERA)  is the staff ace and leads the team in most statistical categories, including: strike outs (58) and innings pitched (82.0). The other primary starter is sophomore RHP Victor Black (1-5, 4.64 ERA) who is solid and has good stuff, but clearly struggles with his command (45 walks and 12 wild pitches). The Patriots lean pretty heavily on senior RHP Tyson Bagley (4-2, 2.19 ERA in 37.0 innings)  in save situations. Bagley has 11 saves on the year and leads the team with 27 appearances. The guy with the second-most appearances is freshman RHP Chris Haney (6-4, 2.33 ERA) who also has 3 saves. Other stoppers out of the pen are senior LHP Wayne Dowling (2-0, 3.41 ERA) and senior RHP Brett Lester (2-1, 6.60 ERA).

Prediction: The Patriots (or the Cougars) will surprise the nation by taking this regional from the Aggies.

#3 Houston Cougars

Record: 39-22 (14-10 in Conference USA)
RPI: 43

Up and down would be the most apt description of the Cougars' 2008 regular season. They won games they should have lost and vice versa. The low point was being swept and outscored by archrival Rice 33-13 in the Silver Glove Series a few weeks ago. Since that ignominious series the Coogs have lost only one game. They are probably the hottest team in this tournament.

The offensive leader for the Coogs is senior 3B Bryan Pounds who had a career year, finishing with a team-leading .380 batting average, 9 home runs a team-leading 64 RBI. Pounds was named 1st team All CUSA and CUSA Tournament MVP at the end of the year. After missing all last season with an injury, senior LF Jake Stewart had a phenomenal season, batting .342 and smacking a team-leading 15 home runs. Stewart also has 48 RBI and 26 stolen bases while being named 1st team All CUSA. The Cougars are 4th in the NCAA with 141 team stolen bases. Senior 2B Ryan Lormand leads the team with 29 stolen bases, as well as having a .320 average and 54 RBI. Junior 1B Jimmy Cesario (.298, 7 HR, 35 RBI) and sophomore CF Zak Presley (.306, 29 RBI and 14 SB) have overcome horrible starts to be named to the CUSA All Tournament team. Also, freshman SS Blake Kelso (.290, 3 HR, 34 RBI) has started all 61 games for the Coogs this year.

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Towards the end of the season the Coogs' started to find a 1-2 punch in their starting rotation. Sophomore LHP Wes Musick (8-4, 4.08 ERA) was the staff ace coming into the season and leads the team with 90.1 innings pitched. For the first half of this season Musick looked unhittable, but he struggled some in the second part. After an inconsistent freshman year, sophomore RHP John Touchton (5-3, 3.98 ERA)  showed he had dominating stuff and worked his way into the weekend rotation. At one point this season Touchton allowed 4 earned runs in 3 starts (20.1 innings). In the late innings the Coogs have been able to go to freshman RHP Chase Dempsay who has a 6-3 record, along with a 2.50 ERA and 11 saves in 30 appearances. Certainly the Coogs would like to be in a situation where they can hand the ball to Dempsay. Second on the team in appearances out of the pen is junior RHP Chris Wright (1-0, 4.11 ERA). The third starting pitcher will likely be sophomore LHP Donnie Joseph (2-1, 5.40 ERA) or senior RHP/OF Bryan Tully (5-3, 5.71 ERA).

Prediction: The Coogs will repeat what they did in 2003 and win the College Station regional coming off their CUSA Tournament Championship.

 

 

#4 Illinois- Chicago Flames

Record: 34-20 (17-6 in Horizon League)
RPI: 157

Yes someone has to be the #4 seed and the University of Illinois-Chicago fills that unenviable role this coming weekend. The Flames are making their second straight NCAA appearance after winning the Horizon League Championship. Head coach Mike Dee has guided the Flames to 4 NCAA regional appearances in 10 seasons at UIC.

The Horizon League tourney MVP, junior 1B Brett Schaefer has a .384 batting average, 10 homers and 58 RBI, all tops on the team. In fact Schaefer leads the Flames in virtually every offensive category. In terms of batting average, freshman OF  Steve McGuiggan is close behind with a .374 average, with 3 HR and 38 RBI. Junior 1B Tony Altavilla (.321, 1 HR, 18 RBI) leads the with 19 stolen bases. In fact as a team the Flames like to run and have 92 stolen bases this season. Junior C Kevin Coddington (.308, 3 HR, 29 RBI) and sophomore OF Ty Rubio (.303, 22 RBI, 14 SB) aren't slouches with the bat.

In an attempt to knock off the #1 seed Aggies, UIC will probably ride the arm of their top starter, junior RHP  Derrick Miramontes (6-2, 3.31 ERA) as long as they can. The Flames also clearly in key situations like to go to junior RHP Adam Worthington (2-3, 2.98 ERA) who leads the team with 29 appearances and 5 saves. Junior Mike Kool (6-4, 3.92 ERA) has typically been the second starter the Flames use in their rotation. If the Flames can even go deep enough for a third game they will likely start senior RHP Grant Kolstaedt (4-4, 6.18 ERA) in that game.

Prediction: UIC will go 0-2 and Brent Schaefer will get a bunch of hits in both of those games.