Super Regional Predictions

The first weekend of the college baseball post-season is in the books and sixteen teams are left standing. Here are the teams, and their matchups for this weekend (national seeds in parentheses):

Rice at Tulane (1)
Tennessee at Georgia Tech (2)
Miami at Nebraska (3)
Clemson at Baylor (4)
Texas at Mississippi (5)
Arizona State at Cal State Fullerton (6)
Florida State at Florida (7)
Southern California at Oregon State (8)

Recap
I really didn't go much out on a limb last week, but I predicted 12 of the 16 Super Regional Teams correctly (missing on Rice, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arizona State). That probably sounds nice, but isn't particuarly great considering that it was mostly top seeds that won last weekend. Southern California was the only non-number one seed pick that I was correct about. I'm not sure why I didn't pick Arizona State.

Here are my picks for this weekend (just as a reminder, the Super Regionals are a best-of-three set, beginning either on Friday or Saturday, depending on the specific regional):

Rice at Tulane (1)
I'd like to pick Rice, but there's no picking against Tulane. Rice will make it interesting though, but Tulane will win in three.

Tennessee at Georgia Tech (2)
If Tennessee gets a game, it will only be because of their ace, Hochevar.

Miami at Nebraska (3)
Nebraska is a legitimate team, but I have to go with my heart and take the Canes.

Clemson at Baylor (4)
Clemson won a tough regional. For it, they get no reward. Baylor wins in three.

Texas at Mississippi (5)
The Longhorns got shafted out of a national seed, and now have to travel to Ole Miss because of it. This is unfortunate because a UT - Ole Miss matchup is Omaha worthy. Despite the home field advantage and slightly better numbers, I'll take Texas here.

Arizona State at Cal State Fullerton (6)
The Sun Devils apparently have no one that loves them on the NCAA selection committee. In recent years they've found some very tough roads to Omaha. This year is no exception. CSUF will advance to Omaha.

Florida State at Florida (7)
The consensus here is that the Gators will romp. They're higher ranked, more highly touted, and playing at home. Florida State is better than folks give them credit for though. I think FSU will pull off the upset. Or maybe I'm just hoping for that.

Southern California at Oregon State (8)
This too will be a better Super Regional than most folks expect. While USC didn't host a regional last weekend, they were certainly deserving of the honor (as evidenced by the fact that they won on the road last week). Despite that, Oregon State will take out the Trojans this weekend.

Summary
So my picks for Omaha are as follows (with upsets claiming their victim's seeding):
1. Tulane
2. Georgia Tech
3. Miami
4. Baylor
5. Texas
6. Fullerton
7. Florida State
8. Oregon State

If that were to hold up, these would be the opening pairings in Omaha (keep in mind that with the new format, the College World Series is effectively two four-team brackets, with the winners facing off in a best of three series):
Oregon State (8) vs. Tulane (1)
Baylor (4) vs. Texas (5)

Georgia Tech (2) vs. Florida State (7)
Miami (3) vs. Cal-State Fullerton (6)

If my picks hold up, we'll have some very interesting matchups in Omaha. Sure, some teams (Oregon State and Tulane) are totally unfamiliar to each other. But others know each other inside and out (Baylor - Texas, and GT - FSU - Miami).

This should be another fun weekend of baseball.