Off The Bat: Opening Weekend Brings Excitement, Surprises

After a long offseason, college baseball returned with an exciting Opening Weekend. While the weekend didn’t produce many surprising results, it didn’t lack for highlights, big moments and all the fun the sport provides on the road to Omaha.

Here are 12 thoughts on Opening Weekend.

1. Opening Weekend didn’t deliver many upsets this year, as just two teams ranked in the Preseason Top 25 had losing weekends. Oklahoma State (1-2) was one of those teams and while that might be surprising at first, with four ranked teams in the field at the College Baseball Showdown in Arlington, Texas, one of them was likely to end the weekend with a losing record. Tennessee going 1-2 in the MLB Desert Invitational, however, surely was not something anyone expected.

On the one hand, that’s understandable. Tennessee came into the season ranked No. 2 thanks to its impressive pitching staff and a rotation that is expected to be the best in the country. The Volunteers are also coming off a season in which they were ranked No. 1 most of the year, won the SEC going away and went 57-9. The standard for the Vols is incredibly high right now.

But perhaps we should have seen this coming. Tennessee traveled across the country—nearly 2,000 miles—to Phoenix and started the season by playing two teams, in Arizona and Grand Canyon, that are coming off NCAA Tournament appearances and expected to return to regionals this season. The GCU game was a true road game in a raucous environment and while the Arizona game wasn’t played in Tucson, to call Salt River Fields at Talking Stick a neutral site isn’t really fair either.

Tennessee fans may not appreciate a comparison to Vanderbilt, but in 2020 the Commodores opened the season as the No. 1 team in the country in the same tournament, which was then known as the MLB4. They went 1-2, with losses to Michigan and Cal Poly sandwiched around a win against Connecticut.

Travelling that far to play top-level competition out of the gate is hard, which Tennessee coach Tony Vitello knows.

“The more comfortable thing is to have a non-conference opponent at home,” he said. “But we got invited to this tournament and didn’t want to say no. You’re coming to get warm weather, which we got after Friday night, and the competition.

“You know we obviously got plenty out of (Sunday), but what we got out of Grand Canyon’s environment they had was tremendous. The next time we go on the road, it’s going to be like that. Or at least a version of that.”

Tennessee has dominated opponents in February under Vitello. It hasn’t had a losing weekend in February since Opening Weekend 2018—Vitello’s first season as coach. Since his first season, the Volunteers were 35-2 in February games. But 31 of those games were played in the friendly confines of Lindsey Nelson Stadium, where the Volunteers return for five games this week. They’ll probably be able to get back on track against Alabama A&M and Dayton.

2. It also must be said that both of Tennessee’s losses came without two projected starters. Outfielder Griffin Merritt, the 2022 American Athletic Conference Player of the Year at Cincinnati, was suspended the first two games of the season due to a postgame ejection he received for comments he made about the umpiring following the Bearcats’ season-ending loss in the AAC Tournament. While he returned in Sunday’s 7-0 win against UC San Diego, Tennessee is still without shortstop Maui Ahuna, who transferred from Kansas. Ahuna is ineligible while he continues to wait for clearance from the NCAA. There is no timeline for a decision.

Without Ahuna, redshirt sophomore Austen Jaslove started at shortstop. He went 2-for-10 with a run and a stolen base and committed one error in 10 chances. Jaslove is a Knoxville native who hadn’t gotten a chance to play in his first two seasons on campus but impressed in fall ball to emerge as the team’s No. 2 shortstop.

3. The College Baseball Showdown in Arlington, Texas, delivered another exciting Opening Weekend of baseball. The tournament’s Big 12-SEC challenge format created some exciting matchups and two of the weekend’s loudest statements, as Missouri and Texas Christian both went 2-1 at Globe Life Field.

TCU entered the season as the Big 12 favorite and looked like a solid team. But the Horned Frogs played like more than that this weekend and beat Vanderbilt, 11-4, on Opening Day and hammered Arkansas, 18-6, on Saturday. It had a chance to finish the weekend undefeated, but couldn’t close out Missouri and lost, 9-8, in 10 innings.

Still, TCU scored 37 runs on the weekend. Aside from a wild weekend at Kansas last season when the Frogs scored 30 runs in one game and 53 in the series, it was the most runs TCU has scored in a weekend since scoring 40 against Eastern Michigan in 2019. And this came against SEC pitching in a major league stadium.

Preseason All-American third baseman Brayden Taylor went 7-for-12 with a double, a home run, five walks and three strikeouts. It was an impressive weekend for the projected first-round pick, but the bigger development was the success of his teammates. TCU hit .360/.493/.505 with 10 stolen bases as a team and if it keeps any semblance of that up, it will really ease the pressure on Taylor in the heart of the lineup.

Missouri, meanwhile, was picked last in the SEC East in the conference coaches poll. The Tigers showed plenty of fight this weekend, however. Missouri lost its opener against Oklahoma State, 5-3, but bounced back for a 6-5 win against Texas. In the tournament’s finale, the Tigers fell behind the Frogs, 6-2, after four innings but never stopped pushing and went on to win in extra innings.

Missouri has some things to work out on the mound—its starters gave up 13 runs (12 earned) in 9.1 innings, while its relievers gave up five runs (four earned) in 17.2 innings—but it has a lot to feel good about in that department. Offensively, veterans Luke Mann (5-for-15, HR) and Ty Wilmsmeyer (7-for-12, 4 R) led the way.

That Missouri has the talent to compete with its former conference rivals is no surprise. Coach Steve Bieser has done a good job both in traditional recruiting and in the transfer portal. It just hasn’t translated into enough SEC wins yet. That’s still the metric that this team will be judged on—this weekend won’t matter come May if the Tigers are again in last place in the division—but this could be just the platform they need to build on.  

4. On the flip side, it was a tough weekend for Texas. The Longhorns went 0-3 in Arlington, starting the weekend with one-run losses to Arkansas and Missouri before losing 12-2 to Vanderbilt on Sunday. As is usually the case in sweeps, little went right for Texas.

The Longhorns are breaking in a nearly completely new lineup this year and it showed on Opening Weekend. They hit .141/.262/.239 as a team and veteran outfielder Eric Kennedy accounted for four of the team’s 13 hits. They also struggled defensively, committing eight errors, including five against Vanderbilt. Growing pains for the position players were inevitable, but Texas now must quickly find some answers on that side of the ball.

The Longhorns will hope they can follow in the footsteps of the 2021 team, which also went 0-3 in Arlington. That team rebounded to finish the season in Omaha, one win away from playing for a national title. That team was able to lean on veterans like Cam Williams and Zach Zubia, however. Finding those veteran leaders will be critical for the 2023 Longhorns.

5. I’ll have more on Southern Mississippi in the coming days after I stopped by Hattiesburg for Saturday’s game against Liberty, but the Golden Eagles put up one of the best results of the weekend. Southern Miss swept Liberty, which has made three straight regionals and was picked to win the ASUN Conference.

It wasn’t just that the Golden Eagles won three games, it was also the way they did it. Southern Miss was excellent on the mound, holding Liberty to three runs on the weekend. The Golden Eagles ranked second in team ERA last season but did lose some significant pieces of that pitching staff and there was some uncertainty about how they would fill those holes. So far, so good. Liberty averaged 7.0 runs per game last season and still has the makings of a solid offense. But this weekend, it was stifled.

This is also the kind of series that may end up paying dividends all season long for Southern Miss as it builds an NCAA Tournament resume. Liberty figures to be a solid RPI team and this sweep will probably look good to the Selection Committee when they convene in three months.

6. If there was a team on upset watch going into this weekend, it probably was Texas Tech. The Red Raiders had Gonzaga coming to town and in each of the last two seasons, the Bulldogs have won a series at a Big 12 opponent (TCU in 2021, Oklahoma State in 2022).

Texas Tech made sure it didn’t join that list, however. The Red Raiders won the first three games of the series, which concludes Monday. In fact, Texas Tech hasn’t even really been pushed. Gonzaga took an early lead Friday, but since the third inning of the opener, the Red Raiders haven’t trailed in the series.

On the mound, Texas Tech got impressive starts on Saturday and Sunday from lefthander Mason Molina (5 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 7 K) and righthander Bo Blessie (6 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 4 K) and a standout performance out of the bullpen Friday from righthander Brendan Girton (6 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 6 K). Molina last year went 2-5, 3.90 as a freshman and ranked third on the team in innings pitched (57.2). But he’s the only Red Raiders pitcher to return who threw more than 30 innings last season. If Blessie and Girton are able to build on their Opening Weekend performances, Texas Tech could be in a stronger position on the mound than expected.

7. While Texas Tech avoided upset watch, Oklahoma was not so fortunate. The 2022 national runner up began the season with a series loss to California Baptist, dropping the final two games of the weekend after an Opening Day win.

The Sooners had 11 players drafted last year, more than any other team in the country. With so many key departures to account for, there were always going to be some growing pains this spring for Oklahoma. The key for the Sooners will be growing and adjusting throughout the season.

This weekend, CBU scored first in all three games—twice taking first-inning leads – and Oklahoma never led in either of the games it lost. In both of CBU’s wins, the game was tied going into the eighth inning, when the Lancers scored three runs to push ahead.

Finding the right formula on the mound is one of the key tasks for Oklahoma. Just three of the 10 pitchers who appeared this weekend were on last year’s roster, which is no surprise given that the Sooners lost seven pitchers in the draft who threw a combined 443.2 innings, or nearly three-quarters of all the innings the Sooners played last year.

Oklahoma’s offense also needs a spark after being held to 10 runs in three home games. There’s a lot to do for the Sooners after a tough weekend, and they’ll get a chance to go right back to work with a game Monday against Air Force.

8. Louisiana State took care of business with a sweep of Western Michigan, outscoring the Broncos, 24-5, on the weekend. The series had just about everything you’d want to see from the Tigers—ace Paul Skenes struck out 12 in six scoreless innings, Dylan Crews homered, 19 position players got at least one at-bat.

The biggest concern for LSU moving forward is that All-American Tommy White left Friday’s game after injuring his shoulder and did not play the rest of the weekend. Coach Jay Johnson said Sunday that he doesn’t anticipate White will miss much more time.

The weekend’s other big development for LSU was lefthander Riley Cooper starting the season in the rotation and then delivering an outstanding start. He struck out seven batters and walked two in 5.1 hitless innings Saturday. Cooper last year led LSU in appearances (30) but earned a job in the rotation with an outstanding preseason. He doesn’t have the biggest stuff on LSU’s staff, but as a lefthander with good pitchability, he has the opportunity to establish himself in the rotation.

9. Miami lost to Penn State, 9-5, on Opening Day and bounced back for a 10-2 victory Saturday. But things weren’t so easy Sunday, and it found itself trailing 2-1 and down to its final out with no one on base. Edgardo Villegas singled and CJ Kayfus followed with a two-run home run to walk off the Nittany Lions.

The homer was just Kayfus’ second hit of the weekend, as he and Preseason All-American Yohandy Morales (3-for-13) both got off to slow starts. They’ll undoubtably get on track in the weeks to come. In the meantime, Miami got a big lift from outfielder Zach Levenson, who went 5-for-10 with three home runs, two walks and no strikeouts. He hit seven home runs in 130 at-bats last year as a sophomore and if this weekend was the start of a breakout spring, it would be a strong boost for the Hurricanes.

10. On the opposite coast, Stanford lost on Opening Day at Cal State Fullerton, 8-1, before winning, 7-5, on Saturday. The Titans led, 11-6, going into the ninth inning in the rubber game before things got crazy. The Cardinal scored seven runs in the ninth to push ahead, but the Titans tied the game in the bottom half of the inning to send it to extras, tied at 13. In the 10th inning, Stanford exploded for eight more runs and this time held on for a 21-13 victory.

Fullerton looks like it is ready to take a step forward from last year’s 22-33 record in its second year under coach Jason Dietrich. But the degree to which it pushed Stanford over the weekend is still surprising. The Cardinal ranked No. 27 nationally in team ERA in 2022 (4.23) but gave up 26 runs in three games to the Titans. A year ago, Fullerton averaged 5.0 runs per game (No. 269 nationally).

Stanford is still expected to be strong on the mound with veteran lefthander Quinn Mathews back to lead the staff. It will look to bounce back this week against archrival California and Rice.

11. Campbell beat Rutgers on Friday and Saturday to score a strong series win. The Camels won 11-5 on Opening Day behind ace Cade Kuehler and followed that up with a 10-0 victory Saturday. Rutgers won the finale, 16-3.

With the Scarlet Knights again expected to compete at the top of the Big Ten standings, this is an early statement for the Camels and a series win that should look good on their NCAA Tournament resume in May. Campbell has another big opportunity Tuesday when East Carolina visits Jim Perry Stadium in one of the best midweek games this week.

12. New Mexico scored one of the more impressive weekends around the country in Surprise, Ariz. The Lobos beat Oregon State, 7-2, on Opening Day and followed that up with a 3-1 victory against UC Santa Barbara. Oregon State on Sunday got revenge with a 14-6 victory, but that game was tied at 6 at the seventh inning stretch before the Beavers pulled away late. New Mexico finishes its stay in Surprise with a game Monday against Minnesota.

The Lobos went 21-33 last season in coach Tod Brown’s first season and went 0-4 against Gonzaga and Oregon State in the same Opening Weekend tournament. We’ll see if they can build on this weekend, but it looks like the Lobos could be more of a factor in the Mountain West Conference race.

Eight for Omaha

Florida, LSU, Louisville, Ole Miss, Stanford, Tennessee, TCU, Virginia Tech

I’m going with some gut-feel picks in my first attempt at predicting the 2023 College World Series field. I think Virginia Tech will be able to use its postseason experience from a year ago to help propel it to that next step. TCU isn’t a finished product right now, but the way it swung the bats over the weekend has me thinking its ceiling is higher than I realized coming into the season.

Looking Ahead

No. 5 Vanderbilt hosts No. 13 UCLA in a rare showdown. The Bruins (3-0) and Commodores (2-1) have been two of the best programs in the 21st century but they haven’t played since 2010. That changes this weekend as UCLA travels to Nashville for what should be a weekend of pitcher’s duels. Both teams ranked in the top-15 nationally in team ERA a year ago and their staffs again look to be among the deepest in the country.

No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 15 Maryland get ready for fireworks. The Terrapins (2-1) travel to Swayze Field to take on the Rebels (3-0) in an offensive showdown. Last year both teams ranked in the top-15 nationally in home runs and they’re off to hot starts this year. Maryland hit six home runs in a series win at South Florida, including three grand slams, and Ole Miss hit eight.

No. 16 North Carolina, No. 24 East Carolina renew in-state rivalry. The Tar Heels (2-1) and Pirates (3-0) will meet this weekend in a traveling three-game series with the first two games in Greenville before concluding the series Sunday in Chapel Hill. UNC won the series last season, winning twice at Boshamer Stadium before ECU took the finale at Clark-LeClair Stadium. Will the home-field advantage again be the key to the weekend?