College Podcast: Previewing Week 11

On this episode of the Baseball America College Podcast, presented by Rapsodo, Teddy Cahill and Joe Healy preview week 11 around college baseball.

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But first, they discuss the head-scratcher that is figuring out where, exactly, the committee will seed Fairfield if it continues to stack up wins at the pace it is currently doing so. Traditionally, even a dominant MAAC champion is a four seed by default, but it might be hard to deny the Stags a three seed or perhaps even a two seed if they go into the postseason with no losses or even just one loss. 

Moving on to the preview portion of the show, here are the series previewed at length: 

• Florida hosting No. 2 Vanderbilt. If Florida is serious about hosting, this is its last opportunity to really put a resume-changing series win on the table before the preliminary list of 20 potential host sites is announced the week of May 10. It will be a tough task given how good the Commodores are, but if the Gators can steal one of the games in which Kumar Rocker or Jack Leiter start, it should feel pretty good about the pitching matchup on Sunday, given that Vanderbilt is still very much mixing and matching in series finales on the mound. 
• South Carolina hitting the road to take on Mississippi in a series between two teams that probably need a series win here to bolster hosting hopes, especially Ole Miss, which has suffered four consecutive series losses. On paper, it does seem like a good matchup for the Rebels, as the series is at home and a very good starting rotation should have success against a South Carolina lineup that is scuffling. 
• Texas hosting Texas Tech. This looks and feels like a trap series for Texas, given that a series coming up against Texas Christian next weekend will likely be for the Big 12 title and that Texas Tech is going to come into the series angry after dropping a home series to Baylor. 
• Iowa, which has elbowed its way into at-large position, heading to Bloomington to play Indiana. The challenge for Iowa is to finish better the rest of the way, as it was in this position in both 2018 and 2019 before stumbling down the stretch and falling out of the postseason picture. Indiana, meanwhile, is heading into a difficult stretch of games and it may need to win this series to feel good about coming out of upcoming series against Nebraska and Michigan still in postseason position. 
• San Diego visiting Gonzaga in what likely will be the series of the year in the WCC. The Zags are already in great position for an at-large bid. USD certainly would be if it wins this series, and it may get there simply by playing this series and getting the RPI bump from playing a team ranked as high in that metric as Gonzaga.