Eight For Omaha Week 4: TCU Stumbles and Louisville Can’t Lose

The Week 4 edition of Eight for Omaha projection of the College World Series features familiar names, but it took a wild week of baseball to get there.

As of March 13, the D1 Baseball rankings looked like this:

FSU
Oregon State
TCU
Louisville
Florida
Texas Tech
LSU
South Carolina
Arizona
Cal State Fullerton

Eight for Omaha – Week 3 Edition

1. Texas Christian (Last Week No. 1, 10-1)

A series loss to UC Irvine and a midweek loss to a good Long Beach State team proved that the might Horned Frogs are indeed mortal. The losses were enough to drop them from the D1 Baseball No. 1 spot, but that seems to be a bit of an over reaction. This is a complete baseball team. Off days happen, but that doesn’t mean there’s any other team I’d rather avoid than TCU.

2. Oregon State (Last Week No. 4, 10-1)

Speaking of mortal teams, someone might need to check on the Beavers. Save for one loss against Nebraskas, Oregon State is perfect on the year. The pitching staff tossed a pair of shutouts last week and the offense put up a respectable 20 runs in a four game series with Ball State. Keep winning and you keep rising up the list.

3. Florida (Last Week No. 2, 10-4)

A slow start hasn’t kept the Gators from proving that they’re capable of beating anyone. In their biggest came so far this season they shutout another Eight for Omaha squad, Florida State 1-0. Including their midweek games, Florida has given up more than four runs just three times this season. With an offense that’s continuing to improve that makes them especially dangerous.

4. Louisville (Last Week No. 6, 12-0)

There’s only one perfect team left in the top 25 and it’s the Louisville Cardinals. Their opponents have been mediocre at best, but the competition will continue to improve. For now they’re undefeated, and you can’t do much better than that.

5. Florida State (Last Week No. 5, 11-2)

Save for the Gators, nobody else has been able to shut down the FSU offense. In their last 10 games they’ve reached double digit runs five times. That includes an 18 run outburst against Oakland. Last weekend they pounded Boston College by a combined score of 24-1 in a Saturday double-header.

6. LSU (Last Week No. 3, 9-4)

The Tigers falling from No. 3 to No. 6 isn’t necessarily due to anything they did wrong this week. They dropped another midweek game, this time to McNeese State, but other than that they had a solid weekend sweep of Wichita State. This young club will be tested in conference play and has the potential to go either way. The pitching is there, it’s just a question of how much offense can they generate against SEC arms.

7. Texas Tech (Last Week No. 7, 12-2)

The Red Raiders had their worst week of the season, dropping two games in a four day stretch: one to UTSA and the other to UT-Arlington. They have an upcoming matchup with red hot Texas this weekend. If they can win that series that would go a long way to making them a permanent resident in the Eight for Omaha.

8. North Carolina (Last Week No. 8, 10-3)

The Tar Heels were the closest to missing the cut, but yet again the escaped falling out of the ranks. A series victory over a Virginia team that was ranked No. 10 in the nation last week sent their stock upwards. Not only did they win, they did so emphatically taking two of three by the final scores of 9-4 and 12-2.

Next: Aggies Open SEC Play against Kentucky

Where are the Aggies?

Texas A&M is a few big series wins from cracking this list. They’ll have plenty of opportunities with series looming against Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, and LSU. For now they just need to keep winning. If they do themselves they’ll be up here soon enough. Even the top teams are proving vulnerable, so there is room in the eight for a team on the rise.

***Stats and Rankings from D1 Baseball and team websites***