Division One Baseball’s Top Three Disappointing Midweek Play
Three teams have dominated the Division One baseball top 10 for the past few weeks and now claim the top three spots in the rankings. In college baseball, there are so many games that it’s hard to tell which ones truly matter and which ones won’t affect the rankings drastically. There are two types of games that are very telling about the skill level of a team. The first is, of course, a matchup against a ranked team. The second is a midweek matchup.
Texas, Clemson, and Oregon State are currently the best of the best in college ball. However, because there are so many games in the season, anything can happen. Did these teams play like the top three teams in their midweek games? Let’s take a look at the best of the best and their midweek matchups from this week.
Texas is our one seed and has managed to hold this spot for the past two weeks. The Longhorns sit at 34-5 heading into their weekend series. On April 22nd, they faced Texas State away for their midweek game. This one seed put up big numbers against Texas State, however, Texas State was able to respond to many of the runs the Longhorns scored. While 14 runs is a huge number, now expected of this powerhouse team, the Longhorn pitching staff and defense also allowed 11 runs to be scored by their opposing team. Not a great look from the current one seed.
Clemson sits in the second-ranked spot with 36 wins and just eight losses this season. Clemson did not have a midweek game this week. Instead, they faced off against the 25th-ranked NC State Wolfpack in a series that began on Tuesday, April 22nd. The Tigers managed to best the Wolfpack on Tuesday in Game One, but fell by 10 runs on Thursday. A 14-4 loss to a bottom-ranked team is less than impressive. Clemson will need to step it up in their final game of the series to remain dominant in the top three in next Monday’s rankings.
Oregon State has already acquired two wins this week. The Beavers took down Gonzaga on Monday in 12 innings. The next day, Oregon State looked a lot better, taking down Gonzaga for a second time in nine innings and by a five-run lead rather than a single run. With two wins already under their belt this week, Oregon State has the most potential of these three teams to remain in the top three heading into the new week of rankings.
