College Podcast: Previewing Week 13

Image credit: Tennessee INF Jake Rucker (Courtesy of Tennessee Athletic Communications)

On this episode of the Baseball America College Podcast, presented by Rapsodo, Teddy Cahill and Joe Healy preview week 13 around college baseball. It’s a lighter week, especially when compared to last weekend’s slate full of blockbusters, but there is still plenty to watch.

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These are the series covered at length: 

• Top-ranked Arkansas traveling to Knoxville to take on Tennessee. Arkansas will look to keep rolling through the SEC, while Tennessee will look to win a series that will force it to be thought of as a national title contender right alongside the Razorbacks, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State in the SEC. Coach Tony Vitello said his team would use the Vanderbilt series loss several weeks ago as a learning experience, and this weekend, we’ll get to see how well that lesson was learned. 
• Mississippi hosting Vanderbilt in Oxford. This weekend feels like something of a last stand for Ole Miss if it wants to host a regional this season. It has been scuffling of late, but a series win here would go a long way toward locking in postseason baseball at Swayze in June. Ole Miss will be without Gunnar Hoglund, who is lost for the season due to Tommy John surgery, and the status of Vandy’s Jack Leiter is up in the air, so the team that deals with that uncertainty the best will likely come out on top. 
• Indiana and Michigan set for a big series in Ann Arbor. Indiana is still in first place in the Big Ten, including a game up on Michigan, and could really put itself in a good position for a second straight regular-season title with a series win here. 
• Pittsburgh hosting North Carolina State in a series with stakes for both teams. The Wolfpack have successfully dug out of an early-season hole in ACC play and have worked their way back into postseason position. They don’t necessarily need to win the series to hold that position, but if they were to pull it off, coming off of their finals break last weekend, it would cement them as a regional team. Pitt, meanwhile, will look to firm up its hosting credentials. 
• The Patriot League Tournament, which begins this weekend with two semifinal series. On one side, you have Lehigh taking on Navy. On the other, you have Army and Lafayette. With the best pitching staff in the conference, led by a big-time pro prospect in righthander Mason Black, the Mountain Hawks have to go into the event as the favorite, but both Army and Navy will have something to say about that.