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College Baseball Season


Dawg83
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Roughly a week and a half away from Opening Day now. A lot to talk about and a lot to look forward to with two Preseason Top 10 teams, plus USM should be good again as well.

 

The defending national champion Mississippi State Bulldogs (just had to say it, LOL) have a really interesting roster. Lost some key contributors but have talent all over the place. It’s a team with a ton of potential, particularly on the mound and with power hitting. Sims moving to a starting role intrigues me, and I expect him to do well there, but the other rotation spots are TBD and I’m not sure who the go-to guy at the end of games ends up being. Generally speaking I expect a typical Lemonis team that’s contends for a Top 8 seed and has every chance to make a deep run in Omaha.

 

I am fascinated by Ole Miss. I’m not sure anybody in the country returns more offense than they do, but the pitching staff? Who the heck knows. If they do figure out pitching then they might win the SEC. But we’ve all been through this enough now to know that the questions about this program start when the calendar flips to June. It will feel like another big missed opportunity if Bianco doesn’t make an Omaha trip with this core group of players.


The SEC in general has an interesting dynamic this year, not much returning pitching but a ton of returning hitting. We may have quite a few Sunday games that resemble the Gorilla Ball era.

 

We’ll talk about the first weekend as we get closer, State hosts a Top 25 Long Beach State team and Ole Miss hosts a more manageable series with Charleston Southern. Thoughts on the season ahead?

Edited by Dawg83
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On paper, the pitching staff is certainly questionable at OM this year. Bianco ALWAYS seems to have a pretty good pitching staff, even after losing key starters. 

Should be a fun season to follow for quite a few SEC teams. 

 

D1 baseball preseason rankings: 

1. Texas (not SEC yet, but I'll throw them in)

2. Arkansas

3. Vandy

4. State

5. Ole Miss

8. LSU

9. Florida

16. Georgia

19. Tennessee

 

 

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College Baseball is very fickle. We are very talented with experience but how this season goes is anybody’s guess. 
Being the defending NC’s means we will get everybody’s best shot but that was already the case. So I don’t see that being a huge difference this year. 
 

I could see us having some struggles this season. After all the 2021 team went through some dark times. 
Long Beach State will be a heck of a good start to the season. A really good quality team will be in DNF. 2 out of 3 would be a tremendous weekend. 
 

 

Ole Miss will pound the baseball. The big question that you guys have alluded to is the pitching there. If it holds up, look out for OM. Bianca is good at developing pitching so that might be better than expected. 
 

 

Pulling for USM to have a good season. Scott Berry has done a great job and I hope they have a heck of a good season this year. Don’t know much about them but know he has recruited well. 

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Happy Opening Day everyone! State hosts a ranked Long Beach State this weekend, Ole Miss hosts Charleston Southern, and USM hosts North Alabama.

 

Starting rotations for each MS team are:

 

State - Sims/Hunt/Cade Smith

OM - Diamond/Gaddis/McDaniel

USM - Ethridge/Riggins/Waldrep

 

I will be at Dudy Noble at least once this weekend, possibly twice. Looking forward to getting this season going.

 

As always, remember that it’s a marathon and not a sprint, regardless of what happens in the first weekend or even the first month or two.

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If there’s a positive for State it’s that the Landon Sims starting experiment looks like it will probably work out just fine. 7 IP, 13 K’s, 1 R. Tough luck loser on a day where Long Beach’s staff was lights out and State never really came close to scoring.

 

This series gives me similar vibes to when USM came to The Dude in 2019 or when Tulane came to town last year. State lost the Friday game in those series, too. Expecting the next two days to be a real battle between two good teams.

Edited by Dawg83
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Just now, Dawg83 said:

If there’s a positive for State it’s that the Landon Sims starting experiment looks like it will probably work out just fine. 7 IP, 13 K’s, 1 R. Tough luck loser on a day where Long Beach’s staff was lights out and State never really came close to scoring.

 

This series gives me similar vibes to when USM came to The Dude in 2019 or when Tulane came to town last year. State lost the Friday game in those series, too. Expecting the next two days to be a battle between two good teams.

That's the thing in baseball playing good teams, all of them have a Friday ace. I like MSU's depth to pick up the next 2 games. 

 

 

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1 minute ago, rebmus said:

That's the thing in baseball playing good teams, all of them have a Friday ace. I like MSU's depth to pick up the next 2 games. 

 

 

I was more concerned about this series than most going in. Both of the last two years Long Beach State was a good team that had their season ruined by COVID. They went almost a calendar year without even being able to practice at one point. They smoked State out in Cali before the shutdown two years ago and several of those same guys are still around this year.

 

State could get swept this weekend and I still wouldn’t be majorly concerned, there are 50-60 more games after this weekend. Just interesting to see how good teams match up with one another. LBSU has arms for days, State has a real challenge on their hands to come back and win the series.

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Plus LB is probably playing with a chip on their shoulder given what has happened over the two last years. Throw in the fact that they are playing the defending NC’s in their home field. 
 

Makes for us playing a ball of hornets. But that is okay. The end result for State will be good regardless of how this weekend turns out. 

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If the OM pitching is just a little above average, they will be dangerous.  
 

I called out State last year for being on the right side of luck early in the season.   I didn’t think they were as good as their record.  I was wrong, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt this early.  They appear to have some work to do though. 

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Just now, MSTSatchmo said:

If the OM pitching is just a little above average, they will be dangerous.  
 

I called out State last year for being on the right side of luck early in the season.   I didn’t think they were as good as their record.  I was wrong, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt this early.  They appear to have some work to do though. 

OM hitting was expected to be good this year, looks great the first two games. Still, it's ONLY two games and it's a long season. 

 

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State has gotten it handed to them twice this weekend. Long Beach has looked really good and I expect them to skyrocket up the rankings after this weekend. They have played like a team that’s good enough to host in June and they definitely have talent. I’ll be curious to see how their season goes.

 

This State team still has a ton of talent, just not super proven after a couple of guys. Sims might be the best pitcher in college baseball this year, but after that there aren’t many roles established on the staff. Offensively I think there’s a lot of boom or bust guys but it’s TBD if they have someone super steady like they’ve had in recent years with Mangum/TA/Rowdey. I fully expect them to get going eventually, definitely a rough start though.

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Two games not a season make. 
 

Getting our butts kicked this weekend is probably the best thing that could happen to State. The players have been basking in the glory of last year. But that is done now. We, the fans, can still enjoy it but now they need to get down to business. And they will. Lots of credit to Long Beach for playing very well this weekend and winning the series and I would not be surprised if they sweep us tomorrow. 
 

I think some forget that last years team was swept at home by Arkansas and lost two of three to Missouri (easily the worst team in the league) at home. Baseball is definitely a marathon compared to football where every loss gets magnified. 
 

We will be fine.
 

You can’t help but pull for Elko. He is really good. I just hope that he is not so good in four games (more if we happen to meet in postseason) but otherwise I hope he has a great year. 

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State blows out LB State to win the finale of the series. 


Obviously, disappointing to lose the series but a good way to finish it out.

 

Actual attendance was 34K+ for the weekend which is awesome considering the cold temperatures. 

 

Team will be a work in progress for the next month. Lots of depth which is good as that means you can give a good number of players opportunities to play in meaningful situations. That will pay off later in the season. 

 

 

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Cade Smith looked good today, he is someone I’ve been high on for a while. And I still like this team’s offensive potential, just a matter of doing it consistently.

 

I have no idea who fills what role in the bullpen, the games this weekend didn’t play out in a way that would tell you much on that.

 

State should have a more manageable week this week with Arkansas-Pine Bluff and three games against Northern Kentucky. I’m sure they’ll fall in the polls but I expect them to still be in the Top 10 in most. I think you could see Long Beach State shoot up inside the Top 15.

 

 

Edited by Dawg83
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It was only one weekend, and against a much lesser opponent... but I don't think OM could ask for a better opening weekend. 

Won 9-3, 11-1 (7 innings), and 12-2 (8 innings). 

Pitch counts were kept low, bullpen did good, and a lot of backup position players got some playing time. 

 

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