After a fairly uneventful day one that saw both teams that were favored to win did. Today will feature the matchup of both teams that lost yesterday in St. Johns and VCU will play at 1 and then the rematch that everyone was sure was going to happen when the regional announcements were made: UVA vs. Ole Miss at 6.
I have to be perfectly honest, I don’t have a clue about St. John’s and only have a little knowledge on the Rams. After both teams were pretty embarrassed by their stronger opponents, I would expect both of them to come out fighting trying to prolong their NCAA journey. From the little knowledge I do have about both teams I would say that St. John’s has a better overall team and will end up beating the Rams and playing on Sunday.
THE REMATCH. Since June 7, 2009, I would venture to say that the entire Oxford, Mississippi community and the Ole Miss baseball team have wanted another shot at the Virginia Cavaliers after we beat them in the Super-Regionals and took the bid to the College World Series. Fortunately for the Hoos, the Rebels ace, Drew Pomeranz threw 7 complete innings against St. John’s yesterday. Instead, the Hoos will face Aaron Barrett who comes into the day with a 7-4 record and 4.16 ERA in 15 games started. Barrett averages more than a K per inning and about ½ a walk per inning. If the Hoos are going to be successful today I would expect them to be patient at the plate and not chase Barrett’s out pitches. If the Cavs bide their time at the plate and force Barrett’s pitchcount up and get to the Rebels bullpen. On the Cavs side of pitching they will of course have their ace on the mound. Danny will start and hopefully revert back to his start of the season tendencies. I think if Danny can give UVa 6 strong innings and hand off the game with a lead to the Kline, Wilson, Davis, and Arico in the bullpen the Hoos should have a good chance to go into Sunday in the winner’s bracket
Outlook:
St. Johns over VCU 8-6
UVA over Ole Miss 7-3
Also, Aaron Fitt and Baseball America give John Hicks and the Hoos a good amount of love on the Baseball America website: http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/