Regionals Update: Vanderbilt Advances to Face OSU, Texas Tech Eliminated & More

In the Clemson Regional, Vanderbilt crushed Clemson 8-0 in the winner-take-all championship game to advance to the Super Regionals. The Vanderbilt Commodores will now head to Corvallis to face the Beavers this Friday.

Vanderbilt’s team features two elite starting pitchers in Patrick Raby and Kyle Wright. Wright, despite his less than stellar record, is likely to be a top-5 draft pick in the upcoming 2017 MLB Draft. In fact, Baseball America had Wright going No. 1 overall in their latest mock draft. Here’s what they said:

The best combination of upside and modest risk is Vanderbilt righthander Kyle Wright, who got the week off at the SEC Tournament after the Commodores lost a play-in game.

Another Vandy player to keep an eye out for is center fielder Jeren Kendall. Baseball America also had high praise for the outfielder saying:

Vanderbilt center fielder Jeren Kendall has established himself as the top college position player. A well above-average runner with surprising power in his wiry frame, he has the ability to impact the game in multiple ways.

Oregon State is going to have their hands full. Vanderbilt knocked the Beavers out of the tournament in the 2011 Nashville Super Regional. Oregon State will need to be focused in order to get to the College World Series and hopefully don’t become complacent with their dominant showing this past weekend.

In other college baseball news, Texas Tech was knocked out of the tournament by Sam Houston State on Monday. Why is this important to Beaver fans? Well Arizona head coach, Jay Johnson, had mighty praise for the Red Raiders after they eliminated his team.

Arizona, of course, plays in the Pac-12; home to the Oregon State Beavers who have been the consensus No. 1 team for much of the season. In fact, three of the Beavers 52 wins came against the Arizona Wildcats earlier in the year.

Despite Jay Johnson’s questionable decision to anoint Texas Tech as “arguably the best team in the country”, he’s done a remarkable job the last two seasons for the Arizona Wildcats.

The field of 64 has been narrowed down to 16 teams. So who’s left?

*Bolded teams to host Super Regional match-ups

• Oregon State vs. Vanderbilt
• Long Beach State vs. Cal State Fullerton
• Florida State vs. Sam Houston State
• LSU vs. Mississippi State

• Texas A&M vs. Davidson
• Louisville vs. Kentucky
• TCU vs. Missouri State
• Florida vs. Wake Forest

Finally in other news, the Pac-12 (minus Oregon State) has had a terrible showing in the 2017 NCAA baseball tournament. Stanford, Arizona and UCLA were all sent home early.

Also, three national seeds have already been eliminated. North Carolina was upset (twice) by fourth seeded Davidson. While Texas Tech and Stanford were knocked-out during the first weekend of play. Getting to the Super Regionals is no easy task, but just don’t tell Florida State that: