College World Series | Bracket 2 Preview & Open Thread

Series Details

Dates: Sunday, June 17th – Saturday, June 23rd
Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (44-18)
Bad Guys: Florida Gators (47-19); Arkansas Razorbacks (44-19); Texas Longhorns (42-21)
Location: TD Ameritrade Park Omaha | Omaha, Nebraska
Game Notes: Preview | PDF
TV/Stream: ESPN, ESPN2, WatchESPN
Radio/Stream: Broadcast Affiliates
Live Stats: SideArm Stats

The Texas Tech offense is the best offense of the field by far, on base and slugging percentage and just plain old average. That’s the good news. The bad news is that all three other teams are better pitching staffs, Florida has the best, albeit not by much. And the thing that I’m trying to figure out is how Texas has managed to get where they are with the less than stellar hitting team and the pitching staff not being all that great. The inability to miss bats and the relatively high walk rate is odd. And Texas Tech doesn’t have any room to talk, but you can point to the offense and think, yeah, I get why Texas Tech is here, they just hit the hell out of the ball. Florida and Arkansas are very good teams and since I haven’t watched much, if any, games from those two teams I don’t have much an opinion about either of them other than I think this is a pretty evenly matched bracket and very good bracket, while the other bracket doesn’t seem all that great.

Your pitching match-up for Texas Tech vs. Florida will be RHP Dylan Dusek (3-0, 2.03) and RHP Brady Singer (12-1, 2.30).

Depending on what happens for Texas Tech on Sunday, they’ll take a day off on Monday, and then play on Tuesday for sure, with this bracket being a double-elimination bracket. And if you’re not keeping up with the other bracket (Mississippi State, Washington, North Carolina and Oregon State), please make sure and read D1Baseball’s Aaron Fitt bracket breakdown. And Mississippi State defeated Washington last night, 1-0, and North Carolina upset Oregon State yesterday, 8-6.

Schedule

News, News, News, News

Sioux City Journal’s Barry Poe: POE: Ty Harpenau part of Texas Tech team at CWS

NCAA’s Andry Wittry: Here are College World Series predictions, based purely on historical records

The Gainesville Sun’s Kevin Brockway: CWS on Byrne notice

Miami Herald’s Jordan McPherson: Before his pro baseball career starts, UF’s ace has eyes on the College World Series

The AP’s Stephen Hawkins: Red Raiders return: Texas Tech faces Florida in CWS again

A-J Media’s Carlos Silva, Jr.: Texas Tech’s Davis hopes to end four-year career in style

A-J Media’s Carlos Silva, Jr.: Red Raiders looking to play solid defense

D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers: 2018 CWS: Bracket Two Breakdown

NCAA’s Andrew Cyr: One fact you may not know about each of the 2018 College World Series teams

MRT’s Oscar LeRoy: LEROY: Tadlock’s calm demeanor helps Texas Tech succeed

Daily Commercial’s Kevin Brockway: Singer gets call for Gators in College World Series opener

GatorCountry’s Nick de la Torre: Florida Gators College World Series Notebook

A-J Media’s Carlos Silva, Jr.: Texas Tech’s Davis hopes to end four-year career in style

A-J Media’s Carlos Silva, Jr.: Red Raiders’ Jung relishing on-field seat at College World Series

NCAA: Texas Tech’s Josh Jung isn’t telling anyone what he says to his bat

A-J Media’s Carlos Silva, Jr.: Texas Tech’s Martin embraces leadership role, fires up pitching staff

Team Stats

Texas Tech Florida Arkansas Texas
avg .311 .278 .301 .272
slg% .512 .477 .487 .435
ob% .422 .373 .397 .379
ERA 4.40 3.46 3.55 4.09
Oavg .244 .230 .237 .260
SO/9 8.88 8.80 9.14 7.45
BB/9 5.39 3.06 3.42 4.29
fld% .971 .978 .972 .977

Key Hitter Stats

Key Texas Tech Hitters avg slg% ob% fld%
OF Grant Little .372 .654 .469 .983
INF Cameron Warren .327 .556 .443 .989
INF Gabe Holt .352 .496 .446 .964
INF Josh Jung .390 .651 .493 .951
OF Brian Klein .323 .492 .430 .992
DH Zach Rheams .348 .742 .472 1.000
Key Florida Hitters avg slg% ob% fld%
INF Jonathan India .354 .722 .500 .936
C/1B JJ Schwarz .325 .601 .404 .988
OF/LHP Austin Langworthy .294 .413 .408 .992
OF Nelson Maldonado .278 .416 .369 1.000
OF/LHP Nick Horvath .270 .422 .339 .993
OF Wil Dalton .266 .560 .341 .983
Key Arkansas Hitters avg slg% ob% fld%
INF Casey Martin .344 .571 .422 .919
INF Carson Shaddy .341 .653 .437 .963
OF Heston Kjerstad .340 .576 .427 .938
OF Eric Cole .329 .550 .417 1.000
OF Luke Bonfield .307 .492 .444 1.000
INF Jax Biggers .287 .399 .390 .955
Key Texas Hitters avg slg% ob% fld%
INF Kody Clemens .356 .745 .449 .983
OF Duke Ellis .297 .364 .403 .972
INF David Hamilton .294 .453 .404 .963
INF Zach Zubia .277 .502 .414 1.000
C DJ Petrinsky .261 .463 .346 .992
INF Masen Hibbeler .256 .380 .355 .967

Game Recaps:

Game 1 – Sunday, June 17th @ 2:00 p.m. (ESPN)
Arkansas vs. Texas
Final Score: Arkansas 11, Texas 5
Box Score: Box Score

WP: Blaine Knight
Heston Kjerstad (3-5, 3 RBI)
Luke Bonfield (1-4, HR, 2 RBI)
Jared Gates 3-5

Game 2 – Sunday, June 17th @ 7:00 p.m. (ESPN2)
Texas Tech [RHP Dylan Dusek (3-0, 2.03)] vs. Florida [RHP Brady Singer (12-1, 2.30)]
Final Score: Texas Tech 6 (45-18), Florida 3 (47-20)
Box Score: Recap | Box Score | Highlights

Texas Tech won the danged game. Behind a starter that normally only goes 2 innings and piecemeal pitching staff, Texas Tech won the danged game. A huge 2 innings to start the game from Dylan Dusek, with Ryan Shetter (W, 6-0) coming in for 4.1, giving up a run on a balk that I didn’t understand, walking 1 and striking out 7. Ty Harpenau came in and pitched the final 2.2 frames, giving up a 2 run home run (he’s only attributed with 1 of those runs, the other went to Shetter), walking 2 and striking out 3.

Vaunted Florida starter Brady Singer, who looked like Cy Young early, ended up giving up 5 runs, only 2 earned, and 9 hits, taking the loss for the game. Grant Little had an unbelievable catch and also went 3 for 3 with a run scored an an RBI. At the top of the lineup, Gabe Holt went 2-5 with 3 RBI. Every starter had a hit other than Brian Klien and Braxton Fulford and I’d bet that you don’t get to say that about Singer very often.

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