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Knowing The Competition: NCAA Baseball Tempe Regional

By M. Hofeld

After shaking off the shock and surprise of Oklahoma actually making it to the NCAA Tournament I thought we should take a look at the competition in the Tempe Regional where the Sooners are playing.

 #1 Seed: Arizona State (45-11)

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The Sun Devil’s are the Pac 10 Champs and ranked 2nd in the country by Baseball America. However they did end the season by losing two in a row to in-state rival Arizona. They are led in batting by Brett Wallace who was the 2007 Pac 10 player of the year. This year Wallace is hitting .412 with 77 runs scored, 78 RBI’s and 20 homeruns.

On the mound Tommy Rafferty is 11-0 with a 3.66 ERA. He is 3rd on the team in innings pitched (64) behind Mike Leake (104.2) and Josh Satow (83).  

#2 Seed: Vanderbilt (40-20)

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The Commodores finished fourth in the SEC Eastern division with a 15-14 conference record. They were bounced from the SEC Tournament by Mississippi. Ryan Flaherty leads the team in RBI’s (61) and homeruns (14).

Pitching hasn’t been spectacular for Vanderbilt but Mike Minor has a 6-3 record with a 4.26 ERA and 94 strikeouts. He also leads the team in innings pitched with 95.

#3 Seed: Oklahoma (34-24-1)

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The Sooners were less than stellar during conference play but seemed to be playing strong through their last four games. OU went 3-1 against OSU, Texas A&M, Missouri and Texas (All Four NCAA Tournament Teams) coming within one strike of the conference championship game. Mike Gosse, Aljay Davis and Casey Johnson are all hitting above .350 but it is Aaron Baker who leads the team in RBI’s with 56.

Andrew Doyle was amazing in the conference tournament with a complete game victory over Texas A&M. It was a performance that would lead to him making the All Tournament Team. He leads the team in wins with an 8-4 record and is also tops in innings pitched (93) and strikeouts (70).

 

#4 Seed: Stony Brook (34-24)

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The Seawolves won the America East Conference Tournament and are making their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2004. Steven Mazzurco leads the team in batting average with a .368 average. If there was a team in the tournament worse that Oklahoma at hitting the long ball its Stony Brook. Michael Stephan is the only player on the squad with more than ten homeruns (11) and as a team they only hit 42. Rob Dyer leads the team in RBI’s with 45.

Jeremy Mowak has a 7-4 record which is the best of the pitching staff but Tom Koehler has a team best 3.70 ERA and an eye popping 107 strikeouts.

 

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