Tag: d1baseball

Florida’s Jac Caglianone ranked top 1B in NCAA by D1Baseball

As the 2024 season draws to a close, Jac Caglianone remains on top of D1Baseball’s ranking of the best first baseman in the NCAA.

Florida first baseman [autotag]Jac Caglianone[/autotag] was already considered one of the top players at his position heading into the 2024 season, and he is set up to end the year as the No. 1 player on D1Baseball’s positional rankings.

Wake Forest’s Nick Kurtz entered the year ahead of Caglianone, but Florida’s slugger overtook him by the midseason update after Week 6. At the time, the race wasn’t close, and Kurtz was in danger of slipping out of the race for the top spot. Since then, Kurtz has mashed the ball, adding 13 home runs and 39 runs batted in to his resume in six weeks.

Still, Caglianone’s numbers are far and away the best among college first basemen. He’s slashing .410/.511/.847 to Kurtz’s .324/.532/.820, winning the OPS battle by 0.006 points. Caglianone’s 53 runs batted in aren’t good enough for the nation’s high point, but it’s the most among SEC players on the list.

Most importantly, Caglianone has only struck out 17 times compared to 30 walks. He’s matured at the plate and refined his eye. There’s no more big swing and miss with two strikes, and he’s the rare case of a left hitting well against a pitcher of the same hand.

With 26 home runs, Caglianone is chasing history at Florida. He needs seven to tie Georgia’s Charlie Condon for the nation’s lead, but that’s how many Caglianone ended 2023 with after a College World Series run that went to the last possible game. It seems impossible with just six games left in the regular season and only a handful of guaranteed postseason games, but Cags has defied logic plenty of times.

Two other Gators crack top-50 lists

Second baseman [autotag]Cade Kurland[/autotag] and shortstop [autotag]Colby Shelton[/autotag] are the only other two Florida position players to make one fo D1Baseball’s Week 12 lists. Both began the season in the No. 5 spot on their respective lists, but Shelton ends the season at No. 28 and Kurland at No. 48.

Luke Heyman started the season ranked No. 23 on the list after slashing .314/.366/.555 with 12 home runs and 39 runs batted in as a freshman, but a rough 2024 has him unranked to end the year. Heyman moved up to No. 15 on the Week 6 update, but he’s been bad against conference opponents, lowering the hopes of turning pro as a draft-eligible sophomore.

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Duke baseball projected to host a regional, per D1Baseball

D1Baseball shared a 64-team bracket projection on Wednesday, and the Blue Devils snuck in as one of the last regional hosts.

If the college baseball season ended this week, D1Baseball thinks there’d be regional action in Durham.

In the last 64-team projection shared on Wednesday, the popular baseball site slotted Duke in as the 13th overall seed. The top 16 teams in the field host four-team regional tournaments, a double-elimination bracket with the winner advancing to a best-of-three super regional series.

The Blue Devils currently sit inside the top 10 on both the USA TODAY Sports Baseball Coaches Poll and the D1Baseball Top 25, but a 14-10 record in conference play could limit Duke from moving into the highest spots. A Tuesday win over No. 6 East Carolina, however, might change the math, as could a series victory over No. 11 North Carolina next weekend.

D1Baseball projected UC Irvine, Florida, and Columbia as the second, third, and fourth seed in the hypothetical Durham Region. The Gators offer a scare, as they made the College World Series just last year, and No. 16 UC Irvine is 34-10 on the season.

The winner of the Durham Region, in the proposed bracket, would face the winner of the Clemson Region, hosted by the Clemson Tigers.

LSU among First 4 Out in latest D1Baseball tournament field of 64 projections

The Tigers have played their way back onto the bubble, but they still have some work to do.

While [autotag]LSU baseball[/autotag] has spent much of the last two months just worrying about making the SEC tournament, the Tigers have reinvigorated their season in the last three weeks.

They’ve won three series in a row, most recently against No. 1 Texas A&M, and that streak of success has brought coach Jay Johnson’s team back in the NCAA tournament discussion. Now, LSU is squarely on the bubble and could play its way into the field, depending on what happens in the final two series.

While the Tigers were listed among the last four in, according to On3’s latest bracket projection, D1Baseball is a bit more negative. It has LSU just outside the projected field among the first four out.

It’s worth noting that next up for LSU is a road trip against an Alabama team that is currently a projected No. 3 seed in the field, and a win in that series could go a long way.

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Florida hands Tennessee No. 1 spot on D1Baseball rankings

Florida’s fifth-straight series loss has the Gators moving further and further away from returning to the D1Baseball top 25 rankings.

Florida hasn’t appeared on the D1Baseball Top 25 rankings for weeks, and a series loss to Tennessee not only kept the Gators on the outside looking in but also handed the Volunteers the No. 1 spot in the country.

Tennessee won the rubber match Saturday, 16-3, handing Golden Spikes candidate Jac Caglianone his first season loss as a pitcher. Mix in series losses from both Arkansas and Texas A&M and it’s easy to see how the Volunteers jump to the No. 1 spot this week. The Aggies check-in at No. 3, followed by Kentucky and Arkansas.

As for the rest of the SEC, the trio of South Carolina, Mississippi State and Georgia occupy the Nos. 13-15 spots, respectively. Alabama and Vanderbilt are unranked after appearing in the top 25 a week ago.

The season has not gone the way Gators fans envisioned after seeing the club make it all the way to the College World Series Finals a year ago, but there is still time to right the ship.

Florida hosts USF on Tuesday for the final midweek game of the season. Then, No. 4 Kentucky comes to town and the season ends with a three-game set in Athens against Georgia.

D1Baseball also offers an RPI report which puts Florida at No. 23 in the country. The Gators have held relatively steady this week despite the series loss, moving down just one place in the last seven days.

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Blue Devils climb one spot in D1Baseball after back-to-back Sunday blowout victories

The Blue Devils swept a Sunday doubleheader against Longwood by 30 combined runs, but the real test comes in the coming weeks.

Duke baseball averaged 2.43 runs per inning during Sunday’s doubleheader against Longwood. We’re no math experts here at Duke Wire, but early results say that’s good.

The Blue Devils climbed one spot up to ninth in Monday’s D1Baseball rankings after beating the Lancers 23-3 and 11-1 over the weekend, both seven-inning mercy rule wins.

The one-spot shift means Duke now occupies the No. 9 spot on both D1Baseball’s rankings and the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll.

Tennesee took over the top spot and ACC-leading Clemson shifted up to second after Texas A&M, who had owned the No. 1 slot, dropped two out of three on the road against LSU.

The Blue Devils are the third-highest ACC team in the rankings behind Florida State at eighth, but Virginia (10th), North Carolina (11th), and Wake Forest (12th) breathe down Duke’s neck.

Duke has a great chance to vault upwards with a Tuesday road trip to No. 6 East Carolina, who currently sports a 37-9 record.

The Texas A&M baseball team remains the unanimous No. 1 team in the country

The Aggies are rolling remaining the unanimous No. 1 team in the nation after another 3-1 week and a Top 25 series win

Texas A&M (38-6, 15-6 SEC) continues to show just how elite a team can be in the toughest conference in the country. The Aggies are a complete team from top to bottom, and unlike last season, if they do have some pitching troubles, the offense can, nine times out of ten, put up enough runs to keep them in any game.

The polls have spoken, and the Aggies reign as the unanimous No. 1 team in the nation. Their dynamic duo, Jace LaViolette, and Braden Montgomery have been a force to be reckoned with, combining for an impressive 116 hits, 45 home runs, and 131 RBIs this season. As we cross the halfway mark of conference play, A&M’s dominance is clear. The only question that remains is have they peaked too early?

Texas A&M will face Tarleton on Tuesday, April 30, at 6:00 p.m. CST, where the game will air on SEC Network+.

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Oklahoma falls to No. 22 in latest D1Baseball poll

Oklahoma lost a tough series to Texas but still remain a top 25 team with a chance to earn the number one seed in the Big 12.

After a 2-2 week, the Oklahoma Sooners slid a few spots in the latest D1Baseball poll.

Oklahoma had a monumental matchup with their Red River rivals, the Texas Longhorns, but the Sooners couldn’t secure a series victory. Oklahoma remains the top team in the Big 12 with a 15-6 conference record, but that lead is down to just one game in the loss column. Oklahoma State and West Virginia are right behind the Sooners at 14-7.

Oklahoma comes in at No. 22 in the latest poll and will get a chance to bounce back this week with games against Oral Roberts and a road series against Texas Tech.

The top three schools in this poll are future SEC foes, Texas A&M, Arkansas, and Tennessee. The ACC’s best team, Clemson, is No. 4 in the country, while East Carolina rounds out the top five. Oregon State comes in at six, while Florida State, Kentucky, UC Irvine, and Duke round out the top 10.

Oklahoma State is No. 14 in the poll and the only other Big 12 team to earn a spot in this week’s ranking.

Elsewhere, Baseball America ranks the Sooners 19th, while Perfect Game USA doesn’t have OU in its top 25.

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Florida still outside top 25 in Week 11 D1Baseball rankings update

Florida finished the week 2-2, including a pair of close losses against No. 2 Arkansas, but it’s going to take a series ranked to make the D1 top 25.

Despite a jump on the D1Baseball RPI report over the weekend, Florida remained unranked on the site’s top-25 rankings in the Week 11 update.

The Gators opened the week with a convincing 13-3 win over Stetson that only required seven innings, but coming up short twice on the road led to a losing week. Still, Florida outscored Arkansas, 15-13, over three games in 24 hours. Had one of those one-run losses gone the other way, UF might have a number by its name.

Looking at the rest of the SEC, Texas A&M, Arkansas and Tennessee still occupy the top three spots, in that order. Kentucky checks in at No. 8, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt have control of the Nos. 15-17 spots. Georgia is two spots lower at No. 19, and Alabama round out the list of ranked teams in the conference at No. 23.

Up next, Florida hosts Florida Atlantic on Tuesday for some midweek action, and then the Tennessee Volunteers come to town for a big three-game series beginning on Thursday. Florida’s final three weekend series are against ranked opponents — No. 3 Tennessee, No. 8 Kentucky and at No. 19 Georgia.

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Close series with Arkansas has Florida baseball moving up RPI report

Florida hasn’t done much winning on the weekend over the last month or so, but the Gators are still moving up the D1Baseball RPI report.

Florida has lost four weekend series in a row, but the Gators are somehow climbing the D1Baseball RPI report after a close three games with the Arkansas Razorbacks.

On Sunday, Florida landed in the No. 23 spot on the report, up seven spots in one day and 12 over the past week. Despite the way things played out, Florida had a chance to sweep the No. 3 ranked team on the list.

The first two games of the series were decided by one run, and Florida had scoring opportunities in timely situations during both. The Gators find new ways to lose games, including a botched sacrifice fly thanks to a brilliant deke from Arkansas’ centerfielder.

Still, Florida cruised to a win in the second game of the doubleheader on Saturday, securing the only win of the series with a run differential greater than one.

If Florida backs up its pitching when it needs to, this series plays out differently, but it’s hard to complain with a rise in the rankings after a series loss.

Here’s how Florida’s current win-loss breakdown plays out:

RPI Ranking Record
1-25 5-10
26-50 4-3
51-100 2-5
101-200 7-3
201+ 4-0

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Florida a projected 3-seed in Tallahassee Regional, per D1Baseball

D1Baseball’s latest field of 64 projection has Florida playing in FSU’s regional… The Seminoles swept the Gators this season.

Things have not gone well for Florida baseball this season, and D1Baseball’s latest field of 64 projections have the Gators as the No. 3 seed in the Tallahassee Regional.

That’s right, not only does D1Baseball have Florida out of the regional hosting pool, but it also has the Gators matched up with in-state rival Florida State. The Seminoles have already swept the season series against UF, including a pair of run-rule wins, making things look bleak for Florida.

The good news is that there is plenty of baseball to play, and Florida faces the kind of schedule that can get it back into the host mix. If Florida can take three of the remaining four series, all of which are against ranked teams, then the Gators should be back in the top 25.

Beating No. 2 Arkansas on the road this weekend is a tall order, but Florida has already beaten some of the SEC’s elite clubs — Texas A&M.

Florida hasn’t missed the NCAA Tournament since Kevin O’Sullivan took over in Gainesville, but last year’s super-regional appearance was the first since 2018.

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