I will occasionally check in throughout the season on some random thoughts on the college baseball action that has taken place over the last few days.
What is the problem with Florida State? They have lost five out of their last six games with losses to North Florida, Jacksonville, Auburn, and Boston College (twice). None of those teams are going to be contenders for a College World Series title. The Noles pitching staff has struggled with a staff ERA of 5.71 with Sean Gilmartin having a 3-0 record and a 2.14 ERA in 21 innings. He is the only savior of the struggling pitching staff. Tyler Holt continues to pound the ball with a .510 average from his leadoff role.
Are the Northern programs starting to come around? Rhode Island, Illinois-Chicago, Illinois, and Boston College all knocked off ranked teams. The Rhode Island Rams picked up a mid-week victory over the Miami Hurricanes which was arguably the biggest victory in school history. They backed that up with a victory on Friday over Ohio State who was ranked 25th in the country. Illinois-Chicago has always been known as a solid mid-major program as they picked up a 3-2 victory over Vanderbilt on Thursday. Boston College jumped onto the radar screen after grabbing the final two games of their series with Florida State. The biggest surprise of the weekend was Illinois heading down to LSU and taking two out of the three games on the weekend series. The Fighting Illini got some outstanding pitching from Ben Reeser who pitched 8.2 shutout innings on Sunday after Phil Haig pitched 7.0 innings on Friday while only allowing 1 run. These two losses are the first for the LSU Tigers in New Alex Box Stadium. Coach Hartleb was excited when we spoke to him before the season. You can check out the link by clicking here.
What are some of your thoughts from the weekend?
