Baseball Polls, etc.: March 3, 2014

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Top 25 Tracker: March 3
 
http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/top-25-tracker-march-3/

3. SOUTH CAROLINA 
 
Last Week: 3-0. 
 
Overall: 10-0, 0-0 in SEC. (3-0 vs. Top 25). 
 
Weekend Series: 3-0. ↔
 
College baseball’s best rivalry delivered plenty of drama yet again, but the outcome didn’t change as South Carolina won its annual traveling series against Clemson for the fifth straight year. The Tigers knocked around Gamecocks ace Jordan Montgomery (5.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 9 K, 5 BB) and raced out to a 6-1 lead in Friday’s opener in Columbia, but the game turned on Grayson Greiner’s (3-for-4, 5 RBIs) sixth-inning grand slam. Jack Wynkoop (6 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO) improved to 3-0 Saturday in Greenville, S.C., as the Gamecocks piled it on late. Sunday’s finale at Clemson provided the most memorable chapter, as the Gamecocks scored four times with two outs in the ninth on Marcus Mooney’s two-run single and Tanner English’s two-run double to finish the sweep in incredible fashion.
 
RESULTS
 
Feb. 28-March 2: vs./vs./@ (11) Clemson: W 9-6, W 10-2, W 5-3
 
UPCOMING
 
March 4-5: Stetson
March 7-9: Brown

 

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College Baseball Week 3 Chat With Aaron Fitt
 
http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/college-baseball-week-3-chat-with-aaron-fitt/

Duke (Columbia, SC): Hey Aaron, if you could throw away preseason ranking bias and start from scratch at this point in the season, based on every team's record and progress to this point who would be your top 5? Thanks!
 
Aaron Fitt: See now, I object to the premise of your question. What you call “preseason ranking bias,” I call “research.” We form opinions about how good teams are going to be heading into the season based on tons of conversations with coaches and scouts across the country. I think that starting point is important. If we just regarded all teams as being equal and then started the rankings in Week Three, would we then have to regard Iowa’s 9-1 start the same as Florida State’s 8-1 start? I mean, we form judgments about each team based on talent. Beating La Salle isn’t the same as beating LSU. We know that because we have already gathered information about each team’s talent heading into the year. From there, we make adjustments as the action unfolds — the longer the season goes on, the more information we have, and the more performance is weighed over talent. It’s a sliding scale. In the preseason, it’s 100 percent talent. In the postseason rankings, it’s 100 percent performance. It slides gradually from talent projections to performance over the course of the year.

JD (SC): Thoughts on the Carolina-Clemson series, please. Was the sweep more on Carolina being better or Clemson being uptight and losing it?
 
Aaron Fitt: Well, certainly I thought South Carolina was the better team—as I thought in the preseason and as I thought heading into the series. Both teams have very good lineups, but South Carolina is better defensive and better on the mound—especially in the bullpen, I think. That said, Clemson really was in position to win Friday (with a five-run lead in the fifth inning) and Sunday (with a two-run lead and two outs in the ninth), and the Gamecocks still found a way to sweep the series. Maybe this run of futility against South Carolina is in Clemson’s head a little bit. It’s obviously an emotional series for both teams, but Clemson did not seem to do as good a job controlling its emotions. I think the Tigers just want to beat the Gamecocks so bad that it is counterproductive. It’s like Augie likes to say: “When you try, you die.”

JR (South Carolina): Saw you tweet earlier that reason you didn't put SC #1 was other 6 games were soft opponents. Curious, since there are only 9/10 games played so far, what are the impressive wins from UVA and FSU that are more impressive than 3 over a top 10/15 team?
 
Aaron Fitt: Now, you’re taking my tweet out of context. Virginia and Florida State have done nothing to deserve getting moved down, so it would take a team with much stronger overall body of work to jump over them and force them down in the rankings. South Carolina has one fantastic weekend on its resume, but the rest of its body of work is not enough for us to move the Gamecocks up and move those other teams down. If a team sweeps its weekend (as Virginia did), it almost never moves down in our rankings. If a team takes two of three against a ranked opponent (as Florida State did), it almost never moves down in our rankings. South Carolina has the slightly stronger body of work than either team based on this past weekend’s sweep, but it’s not so much stronger that it merits moving those other teams down.

 

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College Top 25: Three's a charm
 
http://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=9513
 
Rk Prev Team Overall record Weekly record
1 1 Virginia 9-2 3-1
2 2 Florida State 8-1 2-1
3 3 Cal State Fullerton 7-3 3-0
4 4 South Carolina 10-0 3-0
5 5 Vanderbilt 10-2 3-2
6 6 Oregon State 9-3 4-1
7 8 North Carolina State 9-2 3-1
8 10 Mississippi State 10-4 6-0
9 13 Cal Poly 8-2 2-1
10 14 UCLA 7-4 3-1
11 9 Louisiana State 9-2 2-2
12  7 Oregon 8-3 1-3
13 16 Louisville 8-3 3-1
14 24 Louisiana-Lafayette 10-2 3-1
15 17 North Carolina 7-3 4-0
16 11 Clemson 6-4 1-3
17 12 Rice 7-5 1-3
18 20 Florida Atlantic 8-3 3-1
19 NR Texas 9-3 4-0
20 15 Miami (Fla.) 5-5 1-2
21 22 Indiana 4-5 2-0
22 25 Kentucky 9-2 4-0
23 23 Oklahoma State 10-2 2-1
24 NR Fresno State 9-2 3-0
25 NR Sam Houston State 10-2 3-1
 
Dropped out: Texas A&M (18), Florida (19), Alabama (21)
 
Five more to watch: College of Charleston, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida International, San Diego

 

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Weekly college baseball chat
 
http://www.perfectgame.org/articles/View.aspx?article=9514

Duke: Kendall, if you could throw preseason ranking bias out of the window and start all over with a fresh look at every team's progress and record to this point in the season, who would be your top 5? Thanks!
 
Kendall: Duke, I had South Carolina slightly out of the Top 5 going into the season, and would have them Top 5, as they are right now, if I were doing rankings again. With that said, I think you can look at the top six teams in the current rankings, and say "they're the elite teams" in college baseball right now. I don't expect that to change in the coming weeks, but we shall see. If there's a game that can quickly humble you -- it's baseball.

Jarrett Davis: Why is it UVA is always the default # 1. I don't think they could beat SC or CSF. I think SC/ CSF should be 1 and 2
 
Jarrett, Good question. Virginia is very much loaded offensively and on the mound, has several veterans back and are very talented. Sure, anyone in the Top 10-15 could beat the other in a three-game series, but for now, we think Virginia has the slight edge over the rest. The best part? We'll get to find out if that's true soon.

Alf: Why did the Gamecocks not move up AT ALL after sweeping the #11 team in the country on top of being the only undefeated team left in your obviously biased top 25 rankings?
 
Kendall: Alf, yes, you know me, very biased against a South Carolina program I've written about probably 100 times in the last three years. With that said, on a more serious and lighter note, I really like this Gamecocks club. Thought so before the season, but the offense is very solid, Tanner English is heating up, and the pitching staff is as good as expected, with guys like Will Crowe stepping up. In terms of rankings, Fullerton swept a higher ranked team on the road, Virginia had a good week, and FSU took two of three from a Top 15 club. Not seeing the wiggle room there.

 

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Collegiate Baseball Div. I Poll 3-3-14
 
SOUTH CAROLINA NO. 1 IN COLLEGIATE BASEBALL POLL 

 
 
TUCSON, Ariz. — South Carolina is ranked No. 1 in the latest Collegiate Baseball NCAA Division I baseball poll presented by Big League Chew bubble gum.
 
The Gamecocks (10-0) swept a 3-game series over the past weekend against Clemson. It marks South Carolina’s first 10-0 start since the 2005 season. The Gamecocks have a 1.60 team ERA with 95 strikeouts in 90 innings. South Carolina’s defense has only committed seven errors in 10 games and limited opponents to 3 stolen bases. On offense, the Gamecocks are averaging 8.1 runs per game and have outscored opponents 81-17.
 
Louisiana St., ranked No. 1 last week, slipped to fourth after posting a 2-2 record with losses to Louisiana-Lafayette and Yale.
 
Poll Notes: Several other teams have been red-hot. Tennessee has won 10 straight, Kentucky 7 in a row, Mississippi St., North Carolina, Seton Hall, San Diego and Fresno St. 6 consecutive, and Cal. St. Fullerton and Mississippi 5 straight. In key series over the past weekend, Cal. St. Fullerton swept a 3-game series at Oregon, Florida St. beat Miami, Fla. two of three in Tallahassee, Fla., Vanderbilt swept a 3-game series at home against Stanford, South Carolina swept a 3-game series against Clemson, Seton Hall swept a 3-game series at Arizona and Fresno St. swept a 3-game series at home against Texas A&M.
 
Five new teams are in the top 30 this week, including Seton Hall (7-2), San Diego (8-1), Fresno St. (9-2), Kentucky (9-2) and Kansas (11-1, best start in school history). Five teams fell out of the poll in Florida (1-3 last week), Arizona (0-3), Texas A&M (1-3), Texas Tech. (3-2), and Southern California (1-2).
 
The Collegiate Baseball newspaper poll is the oldest college baseball poll. Its birth took place during the 1959 college baseball season.
 
Rank  Team (2014 Record) Points Pvs
    1.  South Carolina (10-0) 495 5
    2.  Florida St. (8-1) 491 2
    3.  Cal. St. Fullerton (7-3) 489 10
    4.  Louisiana St. (9-2) 487 1
    5.  Virginia (9-2) 484 6
    6.  Vanderbilt (10-2) 481 4
    7.  N.C. State (9-2) 479 7
    8.  Oregon St. (9-3) 477 8
    9.  Oregon (8-3) 475 3
  10.  Louisville (8-3) 472 9
  11.  Louisiana-Lafayette (10-2) 470 13
  12.  Oklahoma St. (10-2) 467 11
  13.  Cal. Poly (8-2) 465 14
  14.  Mississippi St. (10-4) 462 18
  15.  North Carolina (7-3) 459 19
  16.  UCLA (7-4) 455 20
  17.  Texas (9-3) 453 24
  18.  Mississippi (11-1) 451 25
  19.  Tennessee (10-0) 450 28
  20.  Miami, Fla. (5-5) 447 17
  21.  Florida International (11-1) 444 30
  22.  Seton Hall (7-2) 441 —
  23.  Kentucky (9-2) 439 —
  24.  San Diego (8-1) 437 —
  25.  Fresno St. (9-2) 434 —
  26.  Kansas (11-1) 432 —
  27.  Arkansas (7-2) 430 27
  28.  Texas Christian (7-4) 428 12
  29.  Rice (7-5) 426 15
  30.  Clemson (6-4) 423 16

 

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VIRGINIA TOPS NCBWA DIVISION I POLL
 
DALLAS (NCBWA) – The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association continues its tradition of NCAA Division I polls for the 17th year with its 2014 weekly surveys. Polls will be circulated from Feb. 17-June 26 (weekly through June 10) following the 68th annual NCAA World Series in Omaha, Neb., at TD Ameritade Park.
 
Cal State Fullerton (preseason No. 1), Oregon State (Feb. 17) and Virginia (Feb. 24-March 3) have held down the No. 1 positions in the first four 2014 surveys. Last season only five teams were No. 1 during the entire January-June NCBWA surveys. The poll voters come from 44 college baseball writers and related media persons from throughout the nation.
 
The current survey has representation by 11 different conferences among the 302 baseball-playing schools in the 2014 NCAA Division I ranks, and 13 circuits have been rated this season. The rankings of 2012 had a NCBWA-poll record 22 different DI conferences and independents rated at least one week while 12 separate circuits had team rankings in '13.
 
NCBWA DIVISION I POLL (MARCH 3)
 
Rk. School Conference Record Week Pvs.
1. Virginia Atlantic Coast 9-2 3-1 1
2. Florida State Atlantic Coast 8-1 2-1 2
3. South Carolina Southeastern 10-0 3-0 6
4. Cal State Fullerton Big West 7-3 3-0 9
5. Oregon State Pacific-12 9-3 4-1 7
6. Vanderbilt Southeastern 10-2 3-2 4
7. LSU Southeastern 9-2 2-2 3
8. N.C. State Atlantic Coast 9-2 3-1 8
9. UCLA Pacific-12 7-4 3-1 13
10. Louisville American Athletic 8-3 3-1 12
11. Oregon Pacific-12 8-3 1-3 5
12. Mississippi State Southeastern 10-4 6-0 15
13. Oklahoma State Big 12 10-2 2-1 14
14. Cal Poly Big West 8-2 2-1 17
15. Louisiana-Lafayette Sun Belt 10-2 3-1 20
16. North Carolina Atlantic Coast 7-3 4-0 21
17. Ole Miss Southeastern 11-1 5-0 24
18. Rice Conference USA 7-5 1-3 10
19. Clemson Atlantic Coast 6-4 1-3 11
20. Texas Big 12 9-3 4-0 27
21. TCU Big 12 7-4 1-3 16
22. Kentucky Southeastern 9-2 4-0 30
23. Miami Atlantic Coast 5-5 1-2 19
24. Arizona State Pacific-12 6-4 3-0 29
25. Texas A&M Southeastern 7-4 1-3 18
26. Indiana Big Ten 4-5 2-0 25
27. Arkansas Southeastern 7-2 1-2 22
28. Sam Houston State Southland 10-2 3-1 -
29. College of Charleston Colonial 10-1 4-0 -
30. Texas Tech Big 12 9-3 3-2 26
 
Others receiving votes (listed alphabetically): Alabama (5-5), California (6-2), Dallas Baptist (9-2), Florida (6-6), Florida Atlantic (8-3), fiu (11-1), Fresno State (9-2), Georgia Southern (10-2), Houston (8-2), Illinois (6-4), Iowa (9-1), Kansas (11-1), Kansas State (4-7), Maryland (8-2), Memphis (10-1), New Mexico (8-3-1), Ohio State (7-3), Oklahoma (7-4), San Diego (8-1), Seton Hall (7-2), USC (8-2), Tennessee (10-0), Tennessee Tech (11-1), Tulane (8-2), UC Irvine (8-3), UC Santa Barbara (7-1), VCU (10-1), VMI (7-3), Western Carolina (7-2), Wichita State (7-3).
 
Dropped out: Florida (23), Alabama (28).
 
By conference: Southeastern 8, Atlantic Coast 6, Big 12 4, Pac-12 4, Big West 2, American 1, 

 

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USA Today/ESPN Poll - March 3, 2014
 
RK TEAM RECORD PVS
1 South Carolina (13) 10-0 14 

 
2 Florida State (7) 8-1 5
3 Virginia (7) 9-2 6
4 Vanderbilt (2) 10-2 8
5 Cal State Fullerton (1) 7-3 1
6 Oregon State 9-3 3
7 LSU 9-2 2
8 North Carolina State 9-2 9
9 Oregon 8-3 7
10 Mississippi State 10-4 4
11 UCLA 7-4 10
12 Oklahoma State 10-2 18
13 Louisville 8-3 13
13 Louisiana-Lafayette 10-2 24
15 Ole Miss 11-1 NR
16 Cal Poly 8-2 NR
17 North Carolina 7-3 12
18 Texas 9-3 22
19 Rice 7-5 15
20 Clemson 6-4 16
21 Tennessee 10-0 NR
22 Kentucky 9-2 NR
23 Miami (FL) 5-5 17
24 Sam Houston State 10-2 NR
24 Arkansas 7-2 NR
 
Dropped Out: Indiana (11), Arizona State (19), Florida (20), Kansas State (21), TCU (23), Stanford (25)
 
Others Receiving Votes: San Diego, Texas Tech, Fresno State, TCU, Charleston, Texas A&M, Arizona State, Kansas, FIU, Indiana, Memphis, California, Virginia Commonwealth, USC, Tennessee Tech, Houston, Mercer, South Florida, Florida Atlantic, Western Carolina, New Mexico, Florida, Indiana State, Maryland, UC-Santa Barbara, Seton Hall, Alabama

 

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NCAA Division I Baseball -- Pseudo-RPI's
 
http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html
 
Division I  Adjusted    Overall
Rank Rating   W   L     W     L     W   L   Team
  1   0.749   10   0    7.9   0.0   10   0  South Carolina 

 
  2   0.737    2   2    2.6   1.4    2   2  Columbia
  3   0.694    9   3    8.4   2.7    9   3  Texas
  4   0.690   10   1    8.8   0.7   10   1  Memphis
  5   0.687    8   2    6.8   2.0    9   2  Fresno State
  6   0.679    1   2    1.3   1.4    1   2  Dartmouth
  7   0.678    2   1    2.6   0.7    2   1  Sacred Heart
  8   0.676    8   2    8.0   2.6    8   2  California
  9   0.668    9   2    7.8   2.3    9   2  Virginia
 10   0.663    4   4    5.2   2.8    4   4  Oakland
 11   0.657    7   3    5.5   2.7    7   3  North Carolina
 12   0.657   10   1   10.0   1.3   10   1  Virginia Commonwealth
 13   0.657   10   2    7.6   1.4   10   2  Mercer
 14   0.651    9   1   10.8   1.0    9   1  Indiana State
 15   0.649    1   2    1.3   1.4    1   2  Yale
 16   0.646    8   2    6.2   2.6    8   2  Arkansas-Little Rock
 17   0.642    3   5    3.9   3.5    3   5  Holy Cross
 18   0.641    7   3    5.8   3.0    7   3  VMI
 19   0.639    7   3    7.3   2.7    7   3  Ohio State
 20   0.638    8   2    8.6   1.4    8   2  Cal Poly

 

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Florida State Remains No. 1 in CBI Composite Poll
Virginia is second, South Carolina third, Fullerton fourth, Vandy fifth
 
http://www.collegebaseballinsider.com/CBI%20poll/CBIPoll140303.html
 
CBI uses five national rankings in its composite poll: Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, Perfect Game and USA Today Coaches Poll.
 
The Seminoles, under head coach Mike Martin (above), dropped a 3-1 decision to the Hurricanes on Friday. FSU bounced back to win 10-2 on Saturday and 13-6 on Sunday to capture the series. The Seminoles were second in all five polls.
 
Virginia had a 3-1 week to hold down second. The Cavaliers rebounded from a home loss to VMI to sweep a three-game set from Monmouth. Virginia was first in three polls, third in one and fifth in the other. The Cavs are one point behind FSU.
 
South Carolina went 3-0 to remain in third. The Gamecocks took three from in-state rival Clemson over the weekend. South Carolina was first in two polls, third in two polls and fourth in the other. The Gamecocks are one point behind Virginia and two behind FSU.
 
CBI Composite Poll (3/3/14) BA CB NCBWA PG US Composite Last rank
1 Florida State (8-1) 2 2 2 2 2 10 1
2 Virginia (9-2) 1 5 1 1 3 11 2
3 South Carolina (10-0) 3 1 3 4 1 12 3
4 Cal State Fullerton (7-3) 4 3 4 3 5 19 8
5 Vanderbilt (10-2) 8 6 6 5 4 29 5
6 Oregon State (9-3) 5 8 5 6 6 30 7
7 NC State (9-2) 6 7 8 7 8 36 9
8 LSU (9-2) 9 4 7 11 7 38 4
9 Oregon (8-3) 14 9 11 12 9 55 6
10 Mississippi State (10-4) 12 14 12 8 10 56 14
11 UCLA (7-4) 13 16 9 10 11 59 16
12 Louisiana-Lafayette (10-2) 7 11 15 14 13 60 17
13 Cal Poly (8-2) 11 13 14 9 16 63 13
14 Louisville (8-3) 19 10 10 13 13 65 12
15 Texas (9-3) 10 17 20 19 18 84 NR
16 North Carolina (7-3) 21 15 16 15 17 84 20
17 Oklahoma State (8-1) 26 12 13 23 12 86 19
18 Clemson (6-4) 15 30 19 16 20 100 11 

19 Ole Miss (11-1) 25 18 17 26 15 101 NR
20 Rice (7-5) 18 29 18 17 19 101 10

 

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Aaron Fitt: Now, you’re taking my tweet out of context. Virginia and Florida State have done nothing to deserve getting moved down, so it would take a team with much stronger overall body of work to jump over them and force them down in the rankings. South Carolina has one fantastic weekend on its resume, but the rest of its body of work is not enough for us to move the Gamecocks up and move those other teams down. If a team sweeps its weekend (as Virginia did), it almost never moves down in our rankings. If a team takes two of three against a ranked opponent (as Florida State did), it almost never moves down in our rankings. South Carolina has the slightly stronger body of work than either team based on this past weekend’s sweep, but it’s not so much stronger that it merits moving those other teams down.

 

Kendall: Alf, yes, you know me, very biased against a South Carolina program I've written about probably 100 times in the last three years. With that said, on a more serious and lighter note, I really like this Gamecocks club. Thought so before the season, but the offense is very solid, Tanner English is heating up, and the pitching staff is as good as expected, with guys like Will Crowe stepping up. In terms of rankings, Fullerton swept a higher ranked team on the road, Virginia had a good week, and FSU took two of three from a Top 15 club. Not seeing the wiggle room there.

 
I am shaking my head and laughing at the stubbornness and utter stupidity of the arguements of these two so-called experts.
 
There is ONE TEAM who is both undefeated and that has wins over ranked opponents.  That team is SOUTH CAROLINA.
 
It is NOT Virginia, who has 2 losses and has barely challenged itself thus far.  It is NOT Florida State, who despite a series win against the #14 team, still has 1 loss (by the way, we played #11 Clemson, whom we SWEPT).
 
And it is NOT Fullerton who, despite sweeping a top 10 team at the time, is also 7-3.
 
ONLY ONE TEAM meets the criteria this week. The Gamecocks are that team, and until that changes, they should be #1.  Hey Aaron, do you get it yet how Virginia and Florida State deserve to be moved down? IT'S CALLED LOSING.  Nearly every time and in nearly every poll when a team loses, it drops.
 
I can't tell if these two guys are more stubborn or more stupid to not acknowledge these obvious facts.  I'm thinking it's a little bit of both.  Regardless, they both came across very defensive when challenged on the obvious.
 
At least Collegiate Baseball got it right.  This time, anyway. And it appears the coaches know the real deal as well.
 
Oh, and kudos to Duke from Columbia, SC for getting through and asking the same question of both these guys.