Christmas morning for college baseball fanatics is this Friday, when 64 teams that hail from 24 different states and 31 athletic conferences will battle at eight regional sites for the right to go to Omaha for the 69th College World Series.
The University of Illinois, which won the Big Ten regular-season baseball championship, is the No. 6 national seed and will have home-field advantage for the first time in program history. The Illini (47-8-1) will face Ohio (36-19) at 7 p.m. Friday in the second of two games at Illinois Field.
In the opener, Notre Dame (36-21) will play Wright State (41-15).
The winner of the four-team, double-elimination regional, which could run through Monday, will qualify for one of the eight NCAA super regionals.
Game One: Notre Dame versus Wright State
Notre Dame has had a season to remember after a rough 2014—the program’s first season as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Irish went 22-31 overall and despite finishing 13th out of 14 teams in the ACC with a league mark of 9-21, the Irish felt that they belonged in one of college baseball most elite conferences.
An offseason focused on work ethic and mental toughness combined with the team buying into a culture built around the driving force of “Blue Collar, Gold Standard” propelled the Irish to an 11-1 start to the 2015 season. A home sweep of then-No. 7 Florida State vaulted Notre Dame into the top-25 rankings and the Irish followed that with a sweep of the Tar Heels and series wins over NCAA Regional qualifiers Clemson and North Carolina State.
The Irish went 21-10 on the road and 17-13 in the ACC—an eight-game swing from last season’s 9-21 mark to finish third in the final standings. Notre Dame went 6-4 down the stretch to earn the third seed in last week’s ACC Tournament. The Irish went 1-2, defeating Virginia and falling to North Carolina State and Miami (FL).
Despite the early exit from Durham, Notre Dame was an at-large selection and will make its 21st NCAA appearance (first since 2006) at 1 p.m. (ET) Friday against the No. 3 seed Wright State Raiders (41-15).
A Closer Look at the Fighting Irish
Notre Dame’s offensive numbers (.249/.344/.377) don’t exactly impress. Third baseman Kyle Fiala (.301/.398/.460) is the only player in the lineup hitting over .300 and is one of just three players hitting north of .270. Sophomore second baseman Cavan Biggio is batting .254/.408/.455 with a team-best eight home runs and 23 RBI.
But what the Irish lack at the plate they make up for with their gloves and a defense that ranks No. 7 in the nation.
The ACC’s best defensive team is led by Biggio, son of Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, who’s made only five errors to boast a .986 fielding percentage. He and double-play partner Lane Richards are tied for second in the league with 181 assists and no team in college baseball has turned more double plays than the Irish (74 in 57 games). First baseman Zak Kutsulis led the ACC in chances (574) and putouts (529).
For the season the starters have an ERA of 3.05 while the bullpen stands at 2.83. UND’s staff ERA is identical to its 2014 mark, but Irish arms have improved their strikeout-to-walk ratio from 1.51:1 last year to 1.87:1 in 2015. Sophomore righty Ryan Smoyer (9-0, 2.13 ERA, 31 K) was named to the ACC third team, while right-hander Brandon Bielak (5-2, 3.31 ERA, 56 K) and southpaw reliever Sean Guenther (1-3, 2.72 ERA, 37K) both received ACC All-Freshman team accolades.
Fun fact: Cavan isn’t the only player on Notre Dame’s roster with a major league pedigree. Cavan’s older brother, Conor, is a senior outfielder for the Irish and sophomore wide receiver Torii Hunter Jr., joined the Irish baseball team in the preseason.
A Closer Look at the Raiders
Wright State (41-15) won the Horizon League championship Saturday and are making their fifth appearance in the Division I NCAA Regionals and 12th NCAA appearance overall in program history. This is the first time that WSU has been a #3 seed in a regional since the format was changed back in 1999. The no. 2-seeded Raiders knocked off top seed Illinois-Chicago 8-5 in the winner’s bracket final, but needed two games and almost eight hours to claim the tournament crown last Saturday, losing to Milwaukee 5-4 before routing Valparaiso 17-4 in the championship game.
WSU split its first 12 games of 2015 before a torrid 11-game winning streak set the tone for the rest of the season, as the Raiders posted their highest win total since 1987 (when Wright State was a member of NCAA Division II).
The Raiders led the Horizon League with a staff ERA of 3.38 and ranked second (Illinois-Chicago) with a .973 fielding percentage. WSU is also batting .294/.379/.419 as a team, so it’s no surprise that a total of 11 Raiders received some kind of all-conference recognition.
A pair of right-handers, junior Jesse Scholtens (6-4, 3.16 ERA, 69 K, 82.2 IP) and senior Luke Mame (4-2, 2.85 ERA, 50 K, 72.2 IP) were tabbed second team performers.
Trevor Swaney (4-2, 4.31 ERA, 71 IP, 30 K) tied for the league lead with 15 starts.
Senior righty Andrew Elliott (5-3, 2.41 ERA) was selected as the Horizon League’s Relief Pitcher of the Year for the second year in a row. Elliott collected 10 saves and racked up 49 strikeouts in 41 innings while holding the opposition to a .189 batting average. Second year head coach Greg Lovelady also has stellar southpaw reliever E.J. Trapino (8-0, 2.55 ERA, 64 K, 28 BB) at his disposal.
First baseman Gabe Snyder was chosen as the Freshman of the Year. Snyder (.272/.383/.462) ranks fourth in the league with 48 RBI, third in doubles with 17 and has belted six home runs.
First team all-Horizon catcher Sean Murphy has thrown out 15 would-be basestealers and is one of 20 finalists for the Johnny Bench Award. The league’s 2014 freshman of the year is batting .325/.419/.450 with eight doubles, four homers and 31 RBI.
Senior second baseman Michael Timm (.307/.368/.400) has belted 16 doubles, while sophomore shortstop Mitch Roman (.336/.375/.420) and freshman designated hitter Matt Morrow (.323/.458/.444) were two of the team’s most consistent threats at the plate. All three earned first team all-conference nods.
Ryan Fucci paced the Raiders with 13 home runs, while Mark Fowler hit .341/.408/.510 and is 16-for-20 on stolen base attempts.
Fun Fact: Wright State is one of just 16 teams in NCAA Division I to record a triple play this year.
In its first Division I regional appearance, Wright State went 1-2 in 1994 in Knoxville, Tennessee, defeating North Carolina State 14-12 before falling to Arizona State 7-4 and North Carolina State 10-6. In 2006 in Corvallis, Oregon, the Raiders dropped a 5-3 decision to eventual national champion Oregon State and lost 5-3 to Oregon. In 2009 in Fort Worth, Texas, the Raiders fell 6-3 to TCU and 6-4 in 11 innings to Texas A&M while in 2011 in College Station, Texas, WSU fell 11-0 to Texas A&M and 13-0 to Arizona.
Head-to-Head
The Fighting Irish and Wright State have met on the diamond six previous times, all in South Bend, with each team winning three games.
Notre Dame took the first three meetings (5-2 and 3-0 on May 1, 1982 and 11-8 in the MCC Tournament on May 14, 1995) while Wright State has won the last three (8-6 and 8-5 in winning the 1995 MCC Tournament and 4-2 on March 21, 2006).
The two teams faced four common opponents in 2015: Belmont (both 1-0), Valparaiso (UND 1-0, WSU 4-1), Toledo (UND 0-1, WSU 3-0) and Miami (FL) (UND 0-1, WSU 1-2).
Some might wonder if Wright State’s gaudy win-loss record and season stats have been padded too much by playing in a six-team conference. While 21 of those 41 wins came against the likes of Illinois-Chicago, Milwaukee, Valparaiso, Youngstown State and Oakland, the Raiders also posted wins at then-No. 18 Ole Miss, No. 11 Miami and took a game from No. 8 national seed Missouri State. They could also have the potential to be the Kent State or Stony Brook of 2015.
Game Two: Illinois versus Ohio
Wright State and Notre Dame are joined by regional No. 1 seed Illinois and No. 4 seed Ohio. The Fighting Illini (47-8-1) won their 30th Big Ten title in 2015 and boast the top winning percentage in Division I (.848) and the fewest losses (8).
A Closer Look at the Fighting Illini
Illinois, which lost to Michigan 5-3 in the Big Ten tournament semifinals, is making its 11th appearance in the NCAA tournament and third in the last five years.
Illinois tore through the Big Ten regular season like a hungry offensive lineman at an all-you-can-eat buffet. The Fighting Illini went 21-1 in league play with their lone blemish being a 5-2 loss at Michigan State back on March 29. They orchestrated a nation’s-best 27-game winning streak that stretched two months and swept the top three Big Ten individual awards for the first time in school history: David Kerian (Player of the Year), Tyler Jay (Pitcher of the Year) and Dan Hartleb (Coach of the Year).
The Illini are clearly the odds-on favorites in this bracket despite going 2-2 at the Big Ten tournament thanks to having one of the best pitching staffs in the country.
Four of the top five pitchers in the Big Ten’s Top-10 for ERA wear the orange and blue—ace Kevin Duchene (10-1, 1.30 ERA, 85 K), Saturday starter Drasen Johnson (9-3, 2.17 ERA, 71 K), midweek starter Rob McDonnell (7-2, 2.19 ERA) and Jay.
All-universe closer Tyler Jay leads the Big Ten and is second nationally with a 0.64 ERA, second only to Texas Tech’s Corey Taylor (0.31 ERA). He’s held opponents to a .155 average and is second in the Big Ten with 13 saves.
He ranks first in the NCAA with a 0.62 WHIP, No. 3 in strikeout-to-walk ratio and No. 4 with 4.63 hits allowed per nine innings. Jay (5-1) has twirled 56.1 total innings in 28 total appearances for the Illini, recording 65 strikeouts to just six walks.
Senior John Kravetz (5-0, 3.32 ERA) has collected 42 K to only 12 walks in 76 innings of work. The Lansing, Ill., native tossed a 92-pitch complete-game shutout against the Spartans of East Lansing to eliminate Michigan State from the postseason.
Under the supervision of junior backstop Jason Goldstein, the Illini’s stable of high-quality arms rank in the top-5 nationally in nearly every pitching category: No. 4 in ERA (2.46), BB/9 (2.09) and WHIP (1.11), AND No. 5 in K/BB ratio (3.55)
That’s not to say that Illinois isn’t nearly as dominant at the plate—they’ve outscored opponents this season 366-177 and are 31-0 when putting at least six runs on the board. They also lead the Big Ten with 51 home runs and go six deep in batters hitting .300/.350/.400 or better, paced by Big Ten player of the year David Kerian (.366/.452/.644). The senior first baseman slugged a league-best 14 home runs and has accounted for 47 RBI and 125 total bases.
Fifth-year senior second baseman Reid Roper (.304/.415/.500) has 47 RBI with a team-high four triples and junior Ryan Nagle (.329/.395/.442) is tied for sixth in the Big Ten with 17 doubles.
Coach Hartleb’s junior-and-senior-laden squad oozes with talent, speed, power and depth. His top four pitchers started 53 of 56 games, and his top nine position players have all been in the lineup for at least 44 games this season.
The one knock on this team is that they drew a relatively weak Big Ten regular season schedule. Of the conference-record five Big Ten baseball teams who advanced to NCAA Regionals, the Illini only played Indiana (who they beat twice) in regular-season action.
A Closer Look at the Bobcats
That brings us to the remarkable Ohio University Bobcats; a team that was predicted to finish last in MAC East and failed to receive a single first-place vote in the 2015 preseason poll. Four months later, the Bobcats defeated Ball State to win the Mid-American Conference tournament for the first time since 1997.
This is the 15th NCAA tournament appearance for the Bobcats (36-19, 17-10 MAC).
Early exits by top seeds Central Michigan and Kent State opened the door for the No. 3-seeded Bobcats to claim the tournament title and the NCAA regional automatic bid.
The Bobcats’ road to the crown was anything but ordinary. The combination of six scoreless innings of relief from MAC Pitcher of the Year Logan Cozart and three 11th-inning home runs propelled Ohio past Western Michigan in the winner’s bracket. Junior Connor Sitz then tossed the first no-hitter in MAC Championship history to lead the Bobcats to the title game with a 6-0 shutout of Bowling Green. The Bobcat torched Ball State pitchers for four home runs in the championship game and cruised to the 6-2 victory against the No. 5-seeded Cardinals.
The Bobcats are headed into the Champaign regional as winners of 21 of their last 29 games— including 17 of their last 22. Ohio’s 36 wins in 2015 mark the second-most in a single season in program history behind the 43 won by the 1997 squad; which was also the last Bobcat team to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
On the mound, the Bobcats will try to counter the Illini’s formidable rotation with either Sitz (7-2, 4.62 ERA) or Jake Miller (6-3, 2.80 ERA, 66 K, 22 BB).
Sitz, who walked five and fanned four in his recent no-hitter, has notched 42 strikeouts to 31 walks in 72 innings of work. Miller won a pair of starts in the MAC tournament. Jake Rudnicki has made 15 starts and is 3-4 with a 5.79 ERA.
What Ohio does has in common with the Illini is an outstanding bullpen, led by converted position player and Louisville Slugger Third Team All-American Logan Cozart (7-1, 1.36 ERA, 79 K, 13 saves). The Mid-American Conference Pitcher of the Year paced the MAC in earned run average and saves and owns the nation’s best hits per nine average (4.48).
Opponents are hitting just .144 against the senior right-hander, whose 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings leads the MAC and is the 24th-best mark in the nation.
Cozart went 1-0 with a save in the MAC tournament, scattering one unearned run on four hits with seven strikeouts and five walks in 9.2 innings en route to MAC Championship Most Valuable Player honors.
A big reason for Ohio’s success is that the Bobcats boast a balanced and versatile lineup from top to bottom, though sophomore outfielder Mitch Longo is the established offensive leader. Longo is just two RBI shy of being the MAC’s unofficial Triple Crown winner, as he leads the league in average (.358) and home runs (7) and ranks second with 47 runs batted in.
Jake Madsen (.321/.424/.500) leads the Bobcats in doubles (16) and triples (3). Garrett Black owns a team-high 12 bases and 26 walks. In all, nine Ohio players have at least 10 RBI while seven have homered at least once.
Ohio is also adept at getting on base (219 walks, 52 HBP) and avoiding strikeouts. The Bobcats have whiffed a league-low 260 times, or 11.4 percent of plate appearances.
Ohio has played in Champaign before. In the 1948, the Illini eliminated the Bobcats from the tournament with a 6-2 win. Ohio also dropped a three-game series to Illinois in 1952. Ohio and Illinois last played in 2013 during the regular season, which the Illini won 11-6.
Ohio will probably get rolled by Illinois in the opener, but could easily win a game in the loser’s bracket. Wright State and Ohio will square off on Saturday assuming that the chalk holds on Friday.
The Bobcats and the Raiders have met 34 times in school history, with WSU holding a 17-16-1 edge. The two teams last played each other on March 27, 2012 in Athens, with Wright State coming away with a 7-1 win. The Raiders went 6-0 against MAC opposition this season, winning three games each against Miami and Toledo.
The winner of the Champaign regional moves onto a Super Regional next week against the winner of the Nashville Regional, which consists of Vanderbilt, Radford, Indiana and Lipscomb. The Super Regional is a best two-of-three format with the winner advancing to the eight-team College World Series, scheduled for June 13-24 in Omaha, Nebraska.
