The college baseball season is officially underway! It’s been a thrilling first two weeks full of hard-fought battles, late inning comebacks, and remarkable upsets. It’s sure to be an entertaining season and with the start of conference play on the horizon, BSL has got you covered with an overview of the nation’s top three conferences and the best teams to watch out for this year.
Conference: SEC
Last season, the SEC hosted four of the sixteen Regionals and sent four teams to Omaha en route to earning recognition as the best conference in the nation. It would be a shock if the same was not true this season given the amount of talent present on nearly every roster. Eight of the conference’s fourteen teams were named to Baseball America’s preseason top 25, while nine, including two teams that were not named by Baseball America, appeared on D1Baseball.com’s rendition of the list. The race for the crown will be a bloodbath, but a few teams have emerged as early favorites.
Top Contenders:
LSU:
Considered to be the unanimous national title favorite entering the season, LSU boasts one of the most complete SEC rosters in recent memory. Not only did the Tigers add the highest ranked recruiting class in the nation, but they also brought in a stacked collection of transfers headlined by 2022 ACC Rookie of the Year Tommy White and two-time first team All American Paul Skenes. Throw in a slew of returners, including projected No. 1 overall pick Dylan Crews, from a team that won 40 games in 2022 and you’ve got a group capable of winning 50-55 games. Their biggest challenge this year will be meeting their own expectations, a task they have done for the most part throughout their 6-1 start.
Tennessee:
The Volunteers got off to a shaky start in 2023, dropping their first two games to Arizona and Grand Canyon. Since then, however, they have gone 6-0 while outscoring their opponents by an astonishing 62-4 margin. Their performances over that span have been much more reminiscent of those that helped them finish with a 57-9 record last season and earn the No. 2 spot on both Baseball America and D1Baseball.com’s preseason top 25. With Golden Spikes Award favorite’s Chase Dollander and Chase Burns leading the rotation, there’s little doubt that Tennessee will be among the top pitching teams in the SEC. The question is whether the lineup, which has had to replace all eight starters from last year’s team, can produce enough runs to pull out wins even when their aces don’t have their best stuff.
Ole Miss:
While Ole Miss may not be as flashy a pick as Tennessee or LSU, the Rebels are still a serious threat to win the SEC this year. The reigning national champions are off to a 6-1 start that has seen them bring home a series win against highly-regarded Maryland and score double-digit runs in all six of their wins. Their success at the plate, which has been led by juniors Kemp Alderman, Calvin Harris, and Jacon Gonzalez, is an excellent sign for a team that finished ninth in the SEC in batting average last season. On the other hand, the pitching staff that carried them throughout much of 2022 has struggled to find the zone early on this year, walking 46 batters in just 58 innings of work. The return of projected ace Hunter Elliott, who was ruled out this weekend due to forearm tightness, will be crucial to the Rebels’ success moving forward.
Other Teams to Watch Out For: Florida, Vanderbilt, Arkansas
Conference: Big 12
With Texas entering a rebuild and Oklahoma due for significant regression, the Big 12 is not home to as many championship caliber teams as it has been in the past. What it does have, however, is a surplus of well-rounded and evenly-matched rosters. While a few groups have emerged as frontrunners, the conference is truly wide open and will likely come down to the last week of the regular season.
Top Contenders:
TCU:
TCU shocked the conference last season, beating out preseason favorites Texas and Oklahoma State to bring home the Big 12 regular season title. Defending that crown will be a difficult task, but their performances early on this season indicate that they may be up for it. While the Horned Frogs sit at just 4-3, they have already taken down three ranked opponents in Vanderbilt, Arkansas, and Florida State. In doing so they have relied on a good balance between solid starting pitching, led by Kansas transfer Ryan Vanderhei, and consistent run scoring, led by Golden Spikes Award hopeful Brayden Taylor. Maintaining this balance throughout the season will require some of the younger members of the team, including shortstop Anthony Silva and RHP Kole Klecker, to continue to produce at a high level.
Oklahoma State:
While Oklahoma State shares the same record as TCU, their performances up to this point have been far somewhat less impressive. Their negative-six run differential shows signs of a team that has yet to find its identity despite wielding a seemingly excellent pitching staff that no-hit California Baptist and Loyola Marymount in back-to-back outings last week. Long Beach State transfer Juaron Watts-Brown looks like a true ace and two-way junior Nolan McLean has all the makings of a lockdown closer, but until the lineup figures out how to string hits together, the Cowboys will struggle to pull away from opponents and put away games. Unlocking the potential of sophomores Zach Ehrhard and Roc Riggio and junior Marcus Brown, all of whom were expected to take significant leaps this season, could be the key to achieving that goal.
Texas Tech:
Despite the lack of any true superstar players, Texas Tech finds itself as one of just fourteen remaining undefeated teams in college baseball. The rise of sophomore first baseman Gavin Kash and junior outfielder Dillon Carter has been one of the primary reasons why, as the two have combined for 25 hits, five home runs, and 23 RBIs in just 46 at-bats. On the mound, sophomore starters Brendan Girton and Mason Molina have emerged as a solid one-two punch after serving primarily as relievers in 2022. Considering that the Red Raiders are replacing almost their entire batting lineup and the majority of their rotation from last year, they will need to continue to get standout performances from players such as these if they are going to compete for the Big 12 title.
Other Teams to Watch Out For: Texas, Oklahoma, West Virginia
Conference: ACC
After a subpar 2021 season, the ACC reemerged as a top conference in 2022, hosting four Regionals and sending four teams to Super Regionals. Early indications are that this year’s group of teams could be even better as eight teams from the conference found themselves ranked in this week’s D1Baseball.com top 25. Whether or not any of these teams can get over the hump and bring home the ACC’s first national championship in eight years remains to be seen, but with so much talent throughout the conference, it’s sure to be a thrilling season of ACC baseball either way.
Top Contenders:
Wake Forest:
The Demon Deacons have cruised to nine wins in their first nine games, scoring at least six runs and allowing less than three in each contest. Their success at the plate comes as little surprise given that their lineup, which is led by sophomore outfielder Tommy Hawke and first baseman Nick Kurtz, is one of the few in college baseball that returned almost all of its contributors from last season. Gilman graduate Pierce Bennett and Pennsylvania native Adam Cecere have also gotten off to hot starts, combining for eight home runs and 27 RBIs through the early portion of the season. Meanwhile, the pitching staff’s strong start to the season is encouraging given that Wake Forest’s rotation was just slightly above average in the ACC last year. The continued dominance of that group, especially ace Rhett Lowder, will be crucial to the team’s success once conference play begins.
Louisville
Having come just short of a trip to Omaha last summer, Louisville looks poised for a deep postseason run in 2023. Catcher Jack Payton has all the makings of a future big league backstop, while outfielder Eddie King Jr., who missed all of last season with an injury, and first baseman Ryan McCoy, who transferred from Wabash Valley College this offseason, have added a much-needed spark to the batting lineup. Due to the departures of each of the Cardinals’ top two starters from last season, head coach Dan McDonnell has turned to senior Ryan Hawks and sophomore Carson Liggett on the mound and the early returns (29 strikeouts in just over 24 innings of work) have been promising. All that being said, with so many players taking on new roles, there are sure to be some bumps along the road as the level of competition begins to rise. With games against Texas A&M, TCU, and Michigan on the horizon, this weekend should give an indication as to the true strength of this year’s Louisville team.
Virginia Tech:
Expectations are high for the Hokies, who are coming off of a season in which they won 45 games and earned the No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament. Virginia Tech returns the majority of the pitching staff from that group, including up-and-coming aces Drue Hackenburg and Griffin Green, and a number of the power hitters who contributed to their league-leading 126 home runs, including outfielder Jack Hurley and third baseman Carson DeMartini. Transfers Chris Cannizzaro and Anthony Arguelles also figure to play important roles after coming over from Bucknell and Miami respectively. The Hokies have more than enough talent to defend their title as regular season ACC champions, but given the strength of their competition, they cannot afford to continue drop games against lesser opponents as they have done against Bryant and Charleston already this year.
Other Teams to Watch Out For: North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Florida State
Noteworthy Teams in Other Conferences:
Stanford:
Stanford compiled quite the resume in 2022, winning both the regular season and the end of season tournament in the Pac-12 and making their second consecutive appearance in Omaha. As a result, they entered this year as a consensus top five team and, despite disappointing losses to Cal State Fullerton and UC Berkeley, they have not budged from that position. The Pac-12 is not as strong as it has been over the last few years so there is a clear path for the Cardinal to host a Regional and potentially a Super Regional this summer.
Maryland:
The Big 10 is not known for its baseball prowess but if Maryland has anything to say about it, that won’t be the case for much longer. The Terps are coming off of a historic campaign that saw them win 48 games and host a Regional for the first time in program history. Building upon that performance will be a difficult task, especially given their 3-4 start, but taking down Ole Miss and Vanderbilt at the Cambria Classic this weekend would be a good place to start.
East Carolina:
East Carolina is the rare non-Power Five school that competes at the highest level year in and year out. As has been the case in recent seasons, the strength of their roster is a dominant pitching staff, which helped pave the way to a series win over North Carolina this past weekend. If that rotation stays healthy, the Pirates should have no trouble winning 40 games and competing for a trip to Omaha again this summer.
Luke Rollfinke is a student at Vanderbilt where he is pursuing a career in sports journalism. A recent graduate from the Friends School of Baltimore, Luke has spent his entire childhood in Charm City and is a devoted Orioles fan. In the past, he has written for SB Nation and has worked closely with Ravens columnist John Eisenberg. From nights at Camden Yards to Sunday afternoons watching NFL Redzone, Luke eats, sleeps, and breathes sports. He is excited to bring his perspective to BSL.