D1 Baseball Staff Picks 8 for Omaha

Our pitching down the stretch is likely what caused those four to pick us

No easy paths to the CWS...except Wake last year.

You know what caught my attention with Irvine.

Team batting average of .316 
Team on base percentage of .445

I think that Oregon State has the best lineup West of College Station.  But I think that Irvine is a close second with various Big 12 and Pac-12 teams following those two.  Irvine also has probably the second-best ace in Pinto.  Pinto plus that lineup would be a tough ask to overcome.  Irvine should be scared to play Oregon State, but Oregon State must at least respect Irvine.

I think May is the best ace in the Corvallis Regional.  I said that Pinto is probably second.  I worry about a Kmatz-Pinto matchup, less about a May-Pinto matchup.

This whole thing reminds me of the general saying of the upper staff of the United State Navy to the various captains and lower-level seamen, "If you find yourself in a fair fight, we have done something wrong."

At a neutral site in a vacuum, I worry that a May-Pinto matchup would be close to a fair fight.  And I worry that Kmatz-Pinto might be more than fair.

I think you have to pitch May on Friday.  I don't think you should push May into June.

Only 4 of 15 baserunners scored.

Stranded two in the first after Baz struck out looking on an eight-pitch at bat.
Two runners in scoring position with no outs in the second.  No runs.
The third ended after Logan, inexplicably hitting fifth, hit into a double-play.
Two on and no outs in the fourth before Baz was picked off to poison the inning.
Forrester was stranded at second in the fifth after a Logan flyout.
Strike 'em out, throw 'em out between Dukart and Baz to start the sixth off poorly.
Forrester was stranded at third in the seventh after a Logan line out.
Dukart walked on six pitches in the eighth, baserunner #15.

Incredibly awful clutch offense.  Derne was a hole in the lineup.  Dukart reached in three of his four plate appearances but was the strikeout in a strike 'em out, throw 'em out in the sixth.  Gretler singled in the second and got to second on a wild pitch.  But Dukart and Gretler were stranded there as the 9-1 hitters each failed to advance the runners and Meckler failed to reach.  Gretler otherwise did nothing.

The lineup sucked and looks worse with time. 

Oregon State actually put more runners on than Mejia had throughout the rest of the season and scored more runs.  Mejia's WHIP went from 1.45 to 1.47, and his ERA went from 4.24 to 4.29 after playing Oregon State.  Mejia was actually worse than he had been the rest of the season, maybe not enough worse for some people, but Mejia did not overperform.

I read through some of the posts from back in 2022 recently, and it was interesting to see several on here badmouth Hjerpe for giving up three.  It was apparently wet, because the general response was that Hjerpe would have pitched better, if it were dry.

Oregon State still should have won the game, but Ferrer gave up single, groundball to advance the runner, and single to tie the game to start the ninth.  Blown save.  Dorman left a much better pitcher on the bench in Brown (presumably to save Brown for San Diego) before belatedly calling for Brown to replace Ferrer with the go-ahead runner on first.  The runner on first wound up going to third on a bad pickoff play but was stranded there to preserve the tie.  Brown did well in the 10th, generating what should have been four outs but for a bad throw by Derne.

In the 10th, Trosky pinch hit for Derne, showing that that is not as impossible as Judge Smails seems to think that it is.  Trosky drew a walk to load the bases.  Boyd then walked to win the game 5-4 in 10.  The last eight pitches were all balls.

As a final aside, Mejia is a AA pitcher for the Braves, apparently a little further ahead of Cardinal A+ pitcher, Hjerpe.