Off The Bat: Louisville Makes A Statement And Ole Miss Rises To No. 1

1. Louisville this weekend played like a team with something to prove. And, boy, did it make a statement.

Louisville swept Notre Dame and scored 31 runs over the three games. The Cardinals’ powerful offense emphatically won the matchup against the Fighting Irish pitching staff, which came into the series with the second-best team ERA in the nation (1.61). Notre Dame had given up just 29 runs in its first 13 games before this weekend.

Louisville (16-4, 3-0) opened the series with a 16-11 victory Friday. Saturday’s game was closer than the final 8-1 score, as the Cardinals plated seven runs in the eighth to pull away. They finished off the sweep with a 7-5 victory Sunday that again saw the Cardinals grab the lead late, this time on a three-run home run from Isaac Humphrey in the eighth inning.

It was an all-around impressive performance from Louisville. The explosive offensive performance was in character for the Cardinals, which ranked third in scoring in the nation coming into the series. To do it against a pitching staff of Notre Dame’s caliber was impressive. Louisville’s own pitching staff did a good job on the weekend, particularly the final two days.

The Cardinals got off to a slow start to the season, going 1-2 against Charlotte, Connecticut and South Florida in an Opening Weekend tournament in Tampa. Since then, however, Louisville went home and got right. It has won six straight and 13 of its last 14 games, which now includes wins against Notre Dame (12-4), Michigan (11-8) and Texas Christian (14-5)—all of which look like regional teams. Coach Dan McDonnell said Sunday that he never gets too concerned with slow starts, and this weekend was a good example of why he takes the long view in February.

The offense is what stands out the most for Louisville. Shortstop Christian Knapczyk (.427/.556/.600, 11 SB) has been outstanding, and the Cardinals have plenty of power, especially from third baseman Ben Metzinger (.324/.480/.770, 9 HR), outfielder Cameron Masterman (.360/.438/.667, 6 HR) and catcher Dalton Rushing (.306/.476/.629, 5 HR).

The Cardinals are still working some things out on the mound, but righthander Jared Poland (1-1, 0.90) looks like a stalwart in the rotation and struck out 10 batters in seven scoreless innings Saturday. Lefthander Michael Prosecky (0-0, 2.31, 6 SV) has settled in at the back of the bullpen and lefthanders Tate Kuehner (3-0, 3.04) and Riley Phillips (2-0, 2.52) have been solid starters.

Louisville came into this season with a lot of questions. It missed the NCAA Tournament last season—somewhat controversially, as the Cardinals did win 28 games and ranked in the top 10 nationally in top-50 RPI wins—and then lost several key players to pro ball, notably No. 1 overall draft pick Henry Davis.

Five weeks into the season, Louisville has found the answers it needs. There will be more challenging tests to come—Louisville made five errors this weekend and is fielding .963 this year and hasn’t left Jim Patterson Stadium since Opening Weekend, playing just one true road game—but the Cardinals are back.

2. While Louisville made a statement this weekend, Notre Dame fell short in its first week as the top-ranked team in the country since 2001. The Fighting Irish on Tuesday beat Valparaiso in their home opener, but this weekend were swept for the first time in Link Jarrett’s three seasons at the program’s helm.

Following Sunday’s game, Louisville coach Dan McDonnell said the series was made up of “one-swing games” and it’s true that all three games could have gone differently. But it’s also true that it was the Cardinals who made those plays and ultimately got to the Irish pitching staff in a way that no team has in a long time.

Much like Texas last week, when it lost a series as the No. 1 team in the country, Notre Dame (12-4, 2-3) now needs to put a disappointing weekend behind it. The Irish have a brief five-game homestand on deck to close out the month and they need to use it to bounce back. If they can do so, this weekend doesn’t need to be more than a hiccup.

3. With Notre Dame’s loss, Ole Miss rises to No. 1 in the Top 25. This is the second time in the 40-year history of the Baseball America Top 25 that the Rebels have ranked No. 1 and both times have come in the last two seasons.

Ole Miss (15-4, 2-1) opened SEC play this weekend with a series win at Auburn. It was a wild series with the Rebels winning Thursday’s opener, 13-6, and Saturday’s finale, 15-2, but losing Friday night, 19-5.

Ole Miss’ powerful offense has never been in doubt this season and they’re averaging 9.74 runs per game. There might not be a more complete lineup in the country, as the Rebels have a devastating combination of power and speed. Outfielder T.J. McCants (.357/.486/.571, 3 HR, 6 SB) and second baseman Peyton Chatagnier (.294/.354/.529, 3 HR, 5 SB) run well and first baseman Tim Elko (.286/.438/.698, 8 HR) anchors the lineup. Shortstop Jacob Gonzalez (.281/.506/.667, 5 HR) has been excellent, and this weekend moved into the leadoff spot, changing the dynamic of the lineup.

The questions lie on the mound with Ole Miss. That’s no surprise, not after the Rebels lost starters Gunnar Hoglund and Doug Nikhazy and closer Taylor Broadway in last year’s draft. Ole Miss is still working to find its best alignment on the mound and this weekend provided some positives and negatives.

Righthander Jack Dougherty was strong Saturday while making his second start of the season. He struck out seven and held the Tigers to two runs in five innings—the best start Ole Miss got on the weekend. Lefthander Hunter Elliott and closer Brandon Johnson, who have been two of the best relievers, threw four scoreless innings in the win. On the flip side, neither lefthander John Gaddis nor righthander Derek Diamond made it out of the fourth inning in their starts and the bullpen gave up 16 runs in the first two games.

The Rebels will keep working through their pitching staff, but to this point coach Mike Bianco has been able to pull the right levers on the mound and get enough offense to keep piling up wins. The biggest challenge yet, however, arrives this weekend when No. 7 Tennessee travels to Swayze Field.

4. An SEC West team was ranked No. 1 all but one week last season and Ole Miss returned the division back to the top of the Top 25. But the SEC West does not look like the behemoth it was last year and was expected to be again this spring, when four teams from the division ranked in the top 10 of the Preseason Top 25.

Ole Miss and No. 6 Arkansas (16-3, 3-0) have started the season well and are playing to expectations. But they are now alone in the Top 25. Mississippi State (12-9, 1-2) has lost three of its first five series this season after losing this weekend at Georgia. Louisiana State (15-5, 1-2) lost a home series to Texas A&M (12-7, 2-1), which earlier this season lost a home series to Pennsylvania. Alabama (13-8, 1-2) lost a home series to Florida and Auburn (14-6, 1-2) has now lost back-to-back series to Ole Miss and Middle Tennessee State.

Some of those teams will bounce back. LSU’s lineup is formidable and if it can solve some of its defensive woes, it still has upside. A&M looked much better this weekend. Five of Alabama’s eight losses this season have come to Florida and Texas. Auburn and Mississippi State both have the firepower to right the ship.

For now, however, the balance of power in the SEC has flipped back to the East, where Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Florida all rank in the top 10.

5. After an inconsistent start to the season, Texas A&M may have gotten on track this weekend with a series win at LSU. In a close, tense series, the Aggies found a way to win two games on the road, twice pushing the go-ahead run across in the ninth inning after the Tigers had tied the game in the bottom of the eighth.

A&M showed impressive resilience throughout the weekend, time and again answering any punch from LSU with a counter of its own. A big part of the reason the Aggies were able to do that was the quality of their at-bats. They consistently made the Tigers pitchers work for everything and out-hit the potent LSU lineup in every game.

Coach Jim Schlossnagle said the Aggies were more consistent in their approach this weekend than they had been all season.

“Very few times did you see us make outs early in the count,” Schlossnagle said. “That’s who we want to be. Continue to grow from that.”

First baseman Jack Moss (.403/.482/.463) has been A&M’s steadiest hitter and gives the Aggies a key piece to build around. They’re dealing with some injuries right now, but if A&M can build on some of its success this weekend, like Dylan Rock’s two home runs and Kole Kaler’s five hits, they have the pieces to put together a solid lineup.

With a visit to Rice (6-15) and a home series against Auburn on tap this week, A&M has a chance to build some real momentum as March comes to a close.

6. Meanwhile, it was a rough weekend for LSU. The Tigers didn’t just lose a home series to A&M, they were outhit on the weekend, made two errors in every game and walked 18 batters in the series. In short, it wasn’t a crisp weekend for the Tigers.

And yet, LSU had a chance to win every game. It was tied going into the ninth inning on Friday and Saturday and held a lead Sunday. A&M isn’t the best team in the SEC West, but if this is the Tigers playing poorly, the ceiling is still pretty high.

After the series, coach Jay Johnson said most coaches would love to trade their problems for his and he’s right. The Tigers need to improve their defense—they’re fielding .951—and Johnson said they’re going back to the drawing board on the mound, a move that will likely lead to a completely reimagined plan of attack that doesn’t rely on traditional starters. But LSU also has an offense that can strike fast and is never out of the game.

Johnson isn’t going to transform this LSU team into an elite pitching and defense outfit, but just moderate improvement over the next two months will have the Tigers positioned to be a dangerous team in the postseason.

7. Tennessee (19-1, 3-0) this season has looked as good as any team in the country and this weekend rolled to a sweep of South Carolina (10-9, 0-3). The Volunteers have won 11 straight since losing to Texas in the opener of the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic in Houston.

Tennessee has put up some gaudy offensive numbers this season—it already has hit 56 home runs this season, the most in the nation—but what it’s done on the mound has been just as impressive. From last year’s College World Series team, the Vols lost ace Chad Dallas and relief ace Sean Hunley to pro ball and starter Will Heflin graduated. They expected to return righthander Blade Tidwell to the rotation, but a shoulder injury has kept him sidelined in 2022. Key relievers Kirby Connell, Camden Sewell and Redmond Walsh are back, but there’s a lot of new around them.

All that newness hasn’t fazed Tennessee one bit. Freshmen Chase Burns (4-0, 0.67) and Drew Beam (4-0, 1.09) have stepped right into the rotation, joined by sophomore Chase Dollander (3-0, 3.38), a transfer from Georgia Southern. The Vols have a 1.87 team ERA and this weekend held the Gamecocks to five runs on 11 hits, including a one-hitter in a 10-0 victory Sunday.

Tennessee has played six weekend games against Iona (0-15) and Rhode Island (2-15), but it also faced three Big 12 teams—including Texas—in the Shriners College Classic. The schedule might not be a murderer’s row, but it can’t be dismissed as a bunch of cupcakes, either.

We’ll find out for sure what Tennessee is made of over the next two weeks, as it travels to Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. But it sure looks like the Vols aren’t going to be taking a step back this spring.

8. This weekend’s series between Arizona and Stanford seemed like it would be a high-scoring affair, with two offenses going at it in the spacious Hi Corbett Field. But through two games (the series runs Saturday-Monday), there have been just 16 runs between the two teams and Arizona (15-4, 4-1) has won a pair of one-run games. The Wildcats held off a late Cardinal charge Saturday for a 3-2 win and came back for a 6-5 victory Sunday to clinch the series.

While it’s true that the Stanford offense hasn’t yet clicked the way it was expected to coming into the season, Arizona seems to have found some answers on the mound. Righthander TJ Nichols held the Cardinal to two runs on eight hits in eight innings Saturday, striking out eight and walking none. The sophomore improved to 3-0, 2.40 with 35 strikeouts and nine walks in 30 innings and gives the Wildcats a legit ace. Lefthander Garrett Irvin delivered a quality start Sunday, his second straight to open Pac-12 play.

In the bullpen, lefthander Holden Christian (2-1, 2.89, 2 SV), a graduate transfer from Loyola Marymount, and righthander Trevor Long (0-0, 1.54, 1 SV) have been consistent—though Long did give up his first earned runs of the season Sunday, the day after earning his first career save.

Arizona isn’t turning into a pitching-and-defense outfit, but with its offense, it doesn’t need to. The emerging core can take the Wildcats a long way.

9. Wake Forest (16-4, 3-3) went to Atlanta this weekend and won a series against Georgia Tech, which was ranked No. 14. The Demon Deacons did it in emphatic fashion, winning 5-3 on Friday night and then blitzing the Yellow Jackets, 27-7, on Saturday. Georgia Tech won the finale, 14-5, but Wake Forest is still off to its best start since 2012.

Wake’s 27 runs Saturday were the most it has ever scored in an ACC game. It also represented the third time already this season that the Deacs have scored more than 20 runs in a game and they’re averaging 10.35 runs per game. Rake Forest is back.

Two weeks into conference play, Wake is 3-3, having already played Florida State and Georgia Tech. Only North Carolina State (home to Notre Dame, at Florida State) has faced a tougher conference slate so far. That challenging slate continues this week as No. 4 Virginia comes to Winston-Salem.

It’s early, but it looks like Wake has recovered from a disappointing 2021 that saw it go 20-27 and miss the ACC Tournament. The Deacs haven’t made the NCAA Tournament since their super regional appearance in 2017 but are certainly tracking that way so far.

10. One of the strangest series of the weekend took place between UCLA and Harvard. The Bruins started the weekend with a 25-2 victory Friday night, but the rest of the weekend was much tougher. The Crimson threw a one-hitter in a 5-0 victory Saturday. UCLA won the series with a 3-2 victory in 11 innings Sunday, scoring the winning run on a walk-off balk.

Friday’s game got out of hand in a hurry. UCLA scored 10 runs in the first inning on four hits, seven walks, two hit batters and an error. But to go from scoring 25 runs one night to getting shut out the next is very much a “You can’t predict ball” moment. Not to be lost in the wildness is that Harvard (8-7) is a solid team that pushed Miami, won a series at Rice and split a series at Cal Poly.

More importantly for UCLA (12-7, 1-2) is that freshman righthander Thatcher Hurd moved into the weekend rotation. He on Sunday held the Crimson to one run on two hits and four walks and struck out six batters. Hurd forced his way into the rotation with a sensational start to his career. He is now 1-0, 0.98 with 44 strikeouts and eight walks in 27.2 innings this season.

Hurd joins Jake Brooks (3-2, 1.97) and Max Rajcic (2-2, 2.86) in the rotation, which might be the best in the Pac-12. The young Bruins are still figuring things out offensively—if you set Friday’s game aside, they’re averaging 5.22 runs per game—but that rotation gives them a good chance every weekend.

11. Purdue on Thursday lost at Illinois State, 4-3, in 11 innings. It was the Boilermakers’ first loss of the season. They bounced back to win the next two games of the series, however, to improve to 17-1.

Purdue will begin Big Ten play this week against Ohio State (7-11), which has scuffled this season but should be a good measuring stick for the Boilermakers as they look to leap from their 12th-place finish a year ago into contention.

12. Vanderbilt (15), Arkansas (11) and Tennessee (11) own the three longest current winning streaks in the country. After those three SEC powerhouses? It’s Davidson at nine games.

The Wildcats (17-3) this weekend swept Lafayette and are off to their best start in program history. They face a tough game Wednesday, when they take on Charlotte at Truist Park, home of Triple-A Charlotte.

Eight for Omaha

Mississippi, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Tennessee, Texas, Vanderbilt, Virginia

One change to the field this week as I welcome Tennessee. The Volunteers are firing on all cylinders and don’t appear to need to take a step back after reaching the College World Series a year ago. Their whole lineup crushes baseballs, but I’ve been even more impressed with their work on the mound to this point (1.87 team ERA).

While Tennessee moves in, Stanford moves out. The Cardinal haven’t clicked offensively yet and have now lost back-to-back series to start Pac-12 play. I think they’ll get in gear at some point, but they’re really fighting it right now.

Looking ahead

No. 7 Tennessee visits No. 1 Ole Miss for a top-10 showdown. The opening week of SEC play was full of interesting series, but this is the first blockbuster matchup of conference play. This figures to be an explosive offensive weekend, as Tennessee leads the nation in home runs and Ole Miss’ lineup also packs a punch. The Volunteers played in Houston for the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic, but this will be their first true road weekend of the season, which presents a new challenge. This is also a huge test for the Rebels pitching staff, which this weekend gave up 27 runs at Auburn. 

No. 3 Texas travels to No. 23 Texas Tech to open Big 12 play. Conference play starts with a bang for the Longhorns and Red Raiders. These two teams have combined to win the last five Big 12 regular-season titles and the winner of this series will have an early leg up in that race. It’s still just late March, but there’s a lot at stake this weekend.

Dallas Baptist hosts No. 21 Maryland in an intriguing non-conference series. Since an Opening Weekend series loss to Southeast Missouri State, DBU has lost just one weekend game against a good slate. Maryland is quite tough on weekends itself, thanks to its high-end rotation. On a weekend with several important conference series across the country, don’t overlook this one.