This weekend’s NCAA College Baseball slate is truly special. As the season rolls on, take a look at some of the best series to watch this weekend.
5 Best College Baseball Series This Weekend
No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers @ No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels
The first series that jumps straight off the page is the defending champion Tennessee Volunteers (28-4) heading to Oxford to take on the Ole Miss Rebels (24-7). Two of the nation’s top-ranked teams going head-to-head is exactly what any baseball fan would wish for.
Tennessee had been on an eight-game win streak before dropping two straight games to Texas A&M, showing some frailties about the defending College World Series champions. The most recent of those losses was a 17-6 defeat.
Ole Miss will fancy its chances with home-field advantage and having won nine of its last eleven games. Its Tuesday night game against Alcorn State will come before the huge weekend series.
Both teams are also battling it out in the SEC, with Tennessee currently in fourth and Ole Miss not far behind in sixth. Three of the Volunteers’ four losses this season have come in SEC play, giving the Rebels some confidence for what should be a great three-game series.
No. 3 LSU Tigers @ No. 11 Auburn Tigers
Another SEC matchup that sees the LSU Tigers (30-3) travel to The Plains to take on the Auburn Tigers (22-10). Both teams are ranked well within the top 25, and two strong offensive teams are going head-to-head.
LSU is third in the SEC and 10-2 in inter-conference play, with both of those defeats coming at the hands of the Texas Longhorns. An eight-game win streak since those losses sees them heading into the weekend’s series in good spirits. As the sixth-highest-scoring team in the country with 316 runs, they will be hoping to sweep the series.
Auburn will be up for this, with the series taking place at Plainsman Park, but they have been quite up and down as of late. A 0-3 sweep at the hands of the Georgia Bulldogs perhaps showed they aren’t right up there with the contenders. However, they are more than capable of causing LSU some problems and will hope to take a game or two.
No. 17 Vanderbilt Commodores @ No. 19 Oklahoma Sooners
Oh, look, another SEC series. It is hard to look away from the SEC at the moment, and this is a really intriguing series. The Vanderbilt Commodores (24-8) and Oklahoma Sooners (23-8) are pretty even as their rankings and records show, which hopefully will lead to some close encounters and drama late on to decide the series.
Vanderbilt heads into this on a four-game win streak, having swept the lowly Florida Gators at the end of last week. Oklahoma, on the other hand, had their noses bloodied by the LSU Tigers and will be hoping to fight back after being swept with a Tuesday game against Dallas Baptist before this weekend’s series.
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As mentioned, very little separates the teams. The Commodores average seven runs per game, and the Sooners average 6.9 runs. It is literally that close. Expect a really close three-game series that is sure to have twists and turns and hopefully some ninth-inning chaos.
No. 9 Florida State Seminoles vs No. 25 Virginia Tech Hokies
Moving over to the ACC and the final all-ranked series for the weekend, the Florida State Seminoles (25-6) take on the Virginia Tech Hokies (22-10). The ACC has been very hotly contested this season, with a number of teams, including these two, being so close in overall record and conference record.
FSU have lost two straight and it was nothing short of a nightmare for them. They hosted Wake Forest and were beaten 12-0 and then 17-2. Tuesday’s trip to the Florida Gators will hopefully allow them to get back on track, but another poor series will see them plummet down the Top 25 and ACC rankings.
Virginia Tech had lost two straight, but two wins over Notre Dame gave them some confidence for this ACC series. What makes this a little bit tougher is that they face No. 20 Troy on Wednesday. That is not an easy game at all, and winning that would give them a real boost before facing the Seminoles.
No. 22 Kansas Jayhawks @ TCU Horned Frogs
The final weekend series to watch out for is expected to be a high-scoring one, with the Big 12 matchup of the Kansas Jayhawks (27-6) heading to the unranked TCU Horned Frogs (25-8). Kansas currently sits atop the Big 12, with TCU not far behind in third.
Expect runs in this. The Jayhawks are the 11th highest-scoring team in the country, averaging 9.5 runs per game. The Horned Frogs average 7.7, and so this is going to be a tough series for all the pitchers.
Kansas have won nine straight after a tough mid-March where they lost four of five. That ability to bounce back and get back into the Top 25 rankings has seen them score at least nine runs in seven of those nine wins, with the other two being seven runs and five runs.
TCU heads into this series on its own six-game win streak, including an extra-innings win over BYU on Friday. The Horned Frogs have caught fire offensively, scoring double digits in four of those six wins. At Fort Worth, they will be willing to hope they can close the gap on the Big 12 leaders.
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