And The Valley Projects: Week 8

I told y'all sweeping Bama would be the perfect medicine for dropping a series to Kentucky, and beating ULL as a bonus only helped out. Don't worry about how it was done, just be glad that it was done. LSU still has a ways to go to get back to that number 1 national seed crown, which has a new head to lay on this week.

The National Seeds

Texas A&M, UCLA, Florida State, USC, Arizona State, LSU, Illinois, Vanderbilt

Texas A&M (30-2) is the first team to hit the 30-win mark on the season and has the inside track to be the first team to hit that coveted 40 win mark (which all but guarantees a national seed) at the expense of Kentucky, who played the Aggies in a 2 game 7 inning series. The Aggies also just laughed Sam Houston State out the ballpark to the tune of 19-4. UCLA (23-6) took 2 of 3 from Oregon State but they would've had to have been perfect to fend off the surging Aggies.

Florida State (25-8) held on to the #3 national seed after extracting revenge on arch rival Florida in a midweek then taking a 3 game set from NC State. USC (25-6), Arizona State (21-8), LSU (27-5), and Illinois all held onto their same spots just like the Noles did. The Trojans swept Arizona in Tuscon, Arizona State took 2 of 3 from Utah after beating New Mexico, and LSU had a perfect week against ULL and Alabama, although the actual play from the Tigers was far from perfect. Illinois (23-6-1) also had a perfect week against Missouri and the journalists from Chicago the Chicago area.

Vanderbilt (27-6) climbed back into the top 8 with a 5-0 week built by sweeps of Wofford and spunky Georgia, in addition to a little help from UCF, which means it's time for a trans-

The Hosts

UCF, TCU, UC Santa Barbara, Oklahoma State, Louisville, Rice, Maryland, Miami (FL)

-ition! That's a little trick I learned in journalism school, try to keep up. UCF (23-10) had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. The Knight started off by losing to FAU (26-6), who is really good. I wouldn't have faulted them for that at all, the Owls are thiiiiis close to hosting their own regional. But dropping the first two games to Cincinnati? That's something to fault them for. I said from the jump that if UCF wanted to be taken seriously as a national seed then they need to win nearly all of their conference series, and with USF (who they play 6 more times), UConn, and Memphis all hitting their stride and left on their schedule, the Citronauts' room for error is...nonexistent.

TCU (23-6) went 2-2 on the week with a series win against Texas Tech and loss to UTA so they retained their spot. Other stalwarts include UC Santa Barbara (23-7), Louisville (24-7), Oklahoma State (22-9), and Rice (22-12). UCSB went perfect over Fresno and Long Beach State, but have a big, big week with road games against USC and Cal State Northridge this week. The more UCF falls off, the more the Gauchos assume the role of the underdog who's racing against the big boys of college baseball and holding their own. llvll still has a series to finish against UVA (speaking of #WOOF...) today on ESPNU, but they already have the series won. Okie Lite bounced back after a midweek loss to Oral Roberts by sweeping Texas, which is never ever something to just brush off. Food won a series against MTSU via a run rule on Easter.

I dropped out Florida (24-9) and added Miami (23-9) because, in addition to Miami having an almost identical record, Florida lost 3 games this week, including a series to Missouri. Miami went perfect on the weekend with a sweep of Duke and midweek win over Bethune-Cookman.

Maryland (22-7) climbed back into the back 8 with an impressive sweep of Nebraska, a bubble team in their own right. Last week, Maryland was the 2 seed in Virginia's regional and this week the Cavaliers are the 2 seed in the Terp's regional. Welcome to life on the bubble.

The Rest Of The Field

The Regional Of Death Of The Week honors go to Louisville, who play host to an Ohio State (21-7) team that is flying incredibly low under the radar and a team that frankly is not with South Carolina. I can't put USCE's form into words, so here's a high scientific representation:

Regardless, South Carolina does have a talented team and if they sort it out I definitely believe they can wreck shop come July, as they have made tradition in the past decade.

LSU's regional is pretty light, oh except for the 600 pound Lion that is sitting at 24-9 on the year and is breaking Southland teams over their knees and almost walked out of Baton Rouge with a win earlier this season. West Virginia does fall more on the pushover side and was one of the last teams to make the cut into the tournament. Southeast Missouri State is on track to win the OVC and is 19-12 on the year.

Sing along if you know the words.