By: Jordan A

It’s a huge weekend for college baseball and I’ll tell you why. The SEC does not have a team with a losing record going into conference play this weekend. There are 10 total D1 conferences holding their openers this weekend such as the Big West, CUSA, Sun Belt, WCC, and more.

Notable Matchups

First of all, the #20 Georgia and #23 Mississippi St. get to have a slugfest in the SEC’s battle of the Bulldogs conference opener. Both teams are giving the opposing pitching some bad memories so far. Georgia has five guys hitting .313+ which is led by Ben Anderson hitting .375 and Cole Tate hitting .363. Miss. St. Sunday starter Cade Smith is 3-0 with a solid 2.05 ERA in 22 innings.

#12 Stanford (CA) is squaring up against the #16 Arizona Wildcats for PAC 12 play. Arizona has some impressive bats with Tanner O’Tremba (.464), Daniel Susac (.407), and a team batting avg. of .320. Stanford’s Brett Barrera (.405) is having an impressive season with Carter Graham (.352) who has hit 5 home runs. However, these bats haven’t been the only impressive performances so far. Stanford’s Joey Dixon has a 0.57 ERA in 15.2 innings. Look for the opening game in this series to be a battle between starting pitchers Drew Down (Stanford) & TJ Nichols (Arizona).

NAIA powerhouses are meeting up in Georgia this weekend. #2 Tennessee Wesleyan, defending World Series champs #5 Georgia Gwinnett, World Series participant RV Faulkner (AL), and Toccoa Falls (GA) will all play a game against eachother. The Gwinnett Grizzlies and Faulkner Eagles will be a rematch from last year’s World Series where the Grizzlies swept the tournament to secure the title.

Another big matchup in the NAIA world, we have a big matchup in the Golden State Athletic Conference with #7 Westmont (CA) facing #16 Hope International (CA). This is the first time they meet up since HIU took down the Westmont Warriors in the Opening Round last season. Expect this series to be a slugfest as the HIU Royals are hitting .332 as a team, led by Demitri Colacchio (.426) and Chase Hanson (.413). The Westmont Warriors are hitting .306 as a team, led by Simon Reid (.445) who is having an incredible season.

The ACC has a tough matchup between #6 Notre Dame and a solid 13-4 Louiville team,

#8 Florida St. is playing NC State, who just fell out of the Top 25,

#10 Georgia Tech has to deal with a 14-3 Wake Forest team,

#15 UNC has a rivalry weekend against Duke.

Friday Results

D1 – #23 Mississippi St. Bulldogs 0-11 #20 Georgia Bulldogs

-UG starter Jonathan Cannon (4-1) threw a solid 8 inning shutout with only allowing 3 hits.

-UG CF Ben Anderson drove in 4 runs

NAIA – #16 Hope International Royals 5-0 #7 Westmont Warriors

-Royals SP Seth Hoetker threw 5.1 shutout innings for the win with 3B Robert Mattei hitting a bomb.

NAIA – #16 Hope International Royals 0-4 #7 Westmont Warriors

-Warriors SP threw a CG shutout while 2B Brady Renck drove in 3 runs.

D1 – Auburn Tigers 19-5 #1 Ole Miss Rebels

-Tigers 1B Sonny DiChiara hit an absolute MOONSHOT over the scoreboard in the 4th inning to go along with 3B Blake Rambusch’s 4 hits and the rest of the team’s 15 total hits.

D1 – #6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 11-16 Louisville Cardinals

-No pitchers were safe in this game as nobody went past 3 innings on either side. With all of the offense on a FRIDAY, I can only imagine what these next couple days have in store.

D1 – Wake Forest Demon Deacons 5-3 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

-Wake’s SS Michael Turconi hit a 3-run bomb while CF Tommy Hawke decided to put up 4 hits.

-Camden Minacci also showed out for Wake as he threw 3.2 relief innings with 0 runs on 1 hit while Rhett Lowder improves to 5-0 on the season after getting the win.

D1 – #15 North Carolina Tar Heels 10-5 Duke Blue Devils

-Kyle Mott improves to a 5-0 record on the year with the win in this one for the Tar Heels.

-UNC DH Albreto Osuna put 2 balls out today to add on this offense’s work for the night.

D1. – Florida Atlantic Owls 7-9 Southern Miss Golden Eagles

-Southern Miss’s DJ Lynch hit an electric walkoff BOMB to start the weekend for the Golden Eagles.

Compton College (CA JUCO) Head Coach Shot, Currently Recovering

Compton College’s Head Coach Shannon Williams was injured in an apparent random shooting outside of his home with a gunshot wound in his leg this past Sunday. He has since had surgery and is in the recovery process. Williams has been the head coach of Compton College for 18 years while holding the record for most wins in the program’s history. Since their head coach’s injury, they have split their South Coast Conference series thus far with LA Harbor College. The rubber match is set for Saturday at Compton’s home field MLB Urban Youth Academy.

Check back in for a post-weekend review. Feel free to reach out to me via email: jordanachay@gmail.com or Twitter @JAchay97 with any college baseball-related news that you would like to read on this page from all levels.

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