Weekend College Baseball Preview, April 5-7

Top 25

There are some intriguing matchups this weekend pitting top 25 teams against each other, all of them in the Pac 12 and SEC.

#2 LSU hosts #7 Kentucky and is off to their best start dropping only two games, so far, against 22 wins. The Tigers are off to their best start in 27 years.

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#3 Vandy is, arguably as good as LSU as both stand even atop the SEC. The Commodores and Kevin Ziomek travel to Ole Miss to take on the #16 Rebels.

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The #11 Oregon Ducks travel to #24 Arizona State to meet the Sun Devils in a Pac-12/Top 25 face-off. Ducks Freshman Cole Irvin (2012 Blue Jays, 29th Rd.) is 5-1 and leads the staff in innings pitched.

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The #6 Oregon State Beavers head South to face #10 UCLA in the other matchup of two top 10 teams. The Beavers dropped two of three last weekend against Kris Bryant and the University of San Diego Toreros, and only after beating Portland in a one-off on Tuesday are playing .500 ball (3-3) since March 23rd. Sophomore outfielder Michael Conforto and Senior lefty Matt Boyd lead the Beavs against the Bruins and shortstop Pat Valaika.

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DRAFT WATCH

10 from Matt Garrioch's Top 100

Aaron Judge, OF, Fresno State: The pride of Linden, California! The Bulldogs home run, average, and OPS leader battles the UNLV Rebels. He's a monster at 6'7", 255.

Karsten Whitson, RHP, Florida: BREAKING! (McC joke) Whitson is out for the season.

Marco Gonzales, LHP, Gonzaga: a personal favorite (West Coast bias), Gonzales has been moving up draft boards, but trying to find consistency. He's also the Bulldogs leading hitter and battles from both sides this weekend against WCC foe Portland.

Conrad Gregor, 1B, Vanderbilt: Gregor has great patience and doesn't strike out a lot, but that's about all he's doing this year. Ole Miss will try and keep him down.

Dominic Ficociello, 2B, Arkansas: you might recognize Ficociello from Matt's profile of him a few months ago. He's having a pretty rough season, and travels with his Hogs to battle Alabama.

Daniel Palka, OF, Georgia Tech: Palka is one of four draftable Yellow Jackets. He may not be the bet of the four at any one thing, but he's probably the best all around hitter of the group. They take on Duke.

Kent Emanuel, LHP, North Carolina: Emanuel, the Friday Ace for the #1 team in the country, takes the bump Friday against Maryland.

Jacoby Jones, OF, Louisiana State: Jones is really having a rough start to the season, hitting just .188. He'll try and finish the season hot, starting this weekend against #7 Kentucky.

Eric Jagielo, 3B, Notre Dame: By a large margin the Irish's best hitter, with seven home runs and batting .400, Jagielo hosts Villanova.

Tom Windle, LHP, Minnesota: Windle has been written up here before. Friday he faces Ohio State.

Aaaaaaand your weekly Kris Bryant update: Bryant had the week off after USD won a series at Oregon State and moved into the Top 25, but he did see some action, winning the conference Player of the Month. The Toreros face a 14-14 Loyola Marymount team.