Weekend College Baseball Recap: March 29 - 31

Another weekend in the books. Hope everyone had a happy Easter Sunday. If you didn't, hopefully my college baseball recap makes you feel better. Here's what went down in the college baseball world this weekend.

Team Highlights

- Best Team: #1 North Carolina - UNC improved to 24-1. With as complete of a team (at least looking at the stats) as I can remember in college baseball, I'm not sure this is changing anytime soon. LSU still remains a close #2 with their outstanding 26-2 record.

- Best Rebound: #13 South Carolina - The Gamecocks shook off last weekends stinker, putting away a hot Texas A&M club with a sweep. Senior 1B, LB Dantzler hit two HR in the series finale.

- Sweeper of the Week: #15 Louisville - In one of the weekend's more exciting matchups versus Big East rival, #19 Notre Dame, the Cards swept the Irish in impressive fashion. Louisville ace Jeff Thompson now: 5-0, 0.59 ERA, 46 IP, 23 H, 14 BB, 46 K. Dan Slania blew the save for ND in game two.

- West Coast Team of the Week: San Diego - The Torrero's pulled off the upset of the weekend, taking a series from red hot #3 Oregon State. Kris Bryant went 4-12, with 2 HR and 5 RBI.

- Free Faller of the Week: #17 Mississippi State - MSU has now dropped four consecutive series, this time to rebounding Arkansas, and they are likely to continue their fall in the polls too. Good news: Hunter Renfroe's still a machine (6-12 in series).

-Northern Team of the Week: #24 Indiana - The Hoosiers are rolling lately, improving to 22-3 with a sweep of Iowa. They have a decent shot at hosting a regional if they keep this up.

- Best Big 12 Team: Oklahoma - All the preseason love went to TCU and to a lesser degree, Texas. But, behind aces Jonathan Gray, Dillon Overton, and 1B Matt Oberste, the Sooners have won 13 straight including a a sweep of Kansas over the weekend.

- Power Conference RPI Killer: Boston College 3-22. That's the Eagles downright atrocious record on the season, an embarrassment to the otherwise stacked ACC.

- Steamroller of the Week: # 7 Cal State Fullerton - Why? They demolished a decent Pacific ball club 25-0 Saturday and a combined 45-8 margin in the series sweep. CF Michael Lorenzen: 7-12, 2 HR in the series.

Individual Highlights

Photo By: Brett Le Blanc

- Pitcher of the Week: Jonathan Crawford - RHP - Florida - Crawford, who's stock has slipped some with his uneven performance this year, will need more outings like his two-hit shutout of #12 Ole Miss Saturday night as he and Florida continue their turnaround efforts of a disappointing season.

- HM/ Nick Petree - RHP - Missouri State, Kevin Ziomek - LHP - Vanderbilt, Daniel Ponce De Leon - RHP - Houston, Tom Windle - LHP - Minnesota, Tyler Alexander - RHP - FIU, Matt Batts - LHP - UNC Wilmington

Photo by: Steve Franz

- Hitter of the Week: Mason Katz - 1B - LSU The Senior 1B has been a statistical freak show this year, especially this past weekend where he went a combined 8-14 with 3 HR and 8 RBI in LSU's sweep of Missouri. He's second in the nation (behind other stat freak show, Kris Bryant) with 13 bombs (matching last season's TOTAL) and a .419/.504/.886 slash line.

HM/ Michael Lorenzen - CF - Cal State Fullerton, Daniel Palka - 1B - Georgia Tech, LB Dantzler - 1B - South Carolina, Hunter Renfroe - RF - Mississippi State, Hunter Dozier - SS - Stephen F. Austin

- Unsung Draft Prospect of the Week: Nick Petree - RHP - Missouri State - While no one's disputing Sean Manaea is the better MVC draft prospect, on Friday night Petree outshined him in a masterful shutout performance in a 3-0 win over Indiana State. Last year's nation ERA leader is in the top ten again. Season line: 4-0, 0.86 ERA, 42 IP, 14 BB, 44 K.

- "My older brother's famous" player of the week: Ben Verlander - 1B - Old Dominion - Same school, different Verlander. Much different as Ben's a position player. He has been tearing it up this year to the tune of .395/.437/.790 with 8 HR for the Monarchs. He's a junior so I bet the Tigers pick him up at some point in the draft.

- Back from the dead DL: A.J. Vanegas - RHP - Stanford The flamethrowing closer and potential top five round pick returned action for Stanford, picking up his first save in Friday's win over Washington.

- Streaker of the Week: Matt Oberste - 1B - Oklahoma - The impressive hit streak has reached 29 games, halfway to Robin Ventura's record 58 game hit streak.

- Mid Major Ace of the Week: Ricky Knapp - RHP - Florida Gulf Coast - Knapp, a junior, has won all six of his starts, posting a minuscule 0.99 ERA in 45.2 IP with 32 H, 5 BB, and 37 K.

- Putting the MEAC on the map award: Kyle McGowin - RHP - Savannah State - Yes, that Savannah State. McGowin has racked up the third highest strikeout total (67 in 56.2 IP) in the nation without much fanfare until this Baseball America piece.

- Freshman of the Week: Thomas Eshelman - RHP - Cal State Fullerton - In addition to sporting a 6-1 record with a 1.23 ERA, Eshelman has allowed just 28 hits and hasn't walked a single batter in 50 innings pitched.

- No-No Alert: Canisius - You know the routine by now, there's at least one a week. This time we had a combined effort from Golden Griffin pitchers, Alex Godzak, Rohn Pierce, and Jon Fitzsimmons against Iona.

- Cycle Alert: Jake Jefferies - 2B - Cal State Fullerton - 'Bout time we get one of these. Jefferies, yet another talented Titan freshman, did the honor in Friday night's win.

The latest rankings via College Baseball Writers

College Baseball Daily's mid major rankings

Enjoy the wonderful new week of the new baseball season. As always, stay classy, not crassy