Projections
D1 Baseball Staff – May 26, 2023

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With conference tournaments in full swing around the country, we will be updating our projections daily leading up to Selection Monday. As we enter Friday’s action, the big story line continues to be the hosting situation, which is in limbo with the final two spots in the Top 16.

Looking at the top eight seeds, there’s no change in terms of the eight teams, or the order in which they’re presented in our projections.

In terms of the 9-16 hosts, there are just two small changes: Alabama flipped with Auburn and is now the No. 10 seed, while Miami moved up one spot in the pecking order to No. 12 after a win at the ACC tournament. The most uncertainty entering Friday’s action is who occupies the No. 15 and No. 16 seeds in the Field of 64. South Carolina and Indiana State were our final two Top 16 seeds on Wednesday. However, with the Gamecocks’ loss to Texas A&M at the SEC tournament and Oklahoma State’s win over West Virginia, we’ve flipped those two teams. OSU now occupies the No. 15 spot. Indiana State is still the pick at the No. 16 seed. However, keep an eye on these teams over the next couple of days: Southern Miss, Campbell and Dallas Baptist. And South Carolina is certainly still in the mix if the committee is willing to give the SEC and eighth host site. The RPI and metrics are present to defend the selection.

The SEC has the most projected bids with 10. The ACC is next with 8, followed by the Big 12 with seven of nine teams making the field. The Pac-12 is next up with six bids, while the Sun Belt, Big West and Big Ten each have three teams in the field. The Colonial is the only other league with multiple bids, and that’s with two in Northeastern and UNC Wilmington (the projected auto bid winner).

Mark Etheridge, Kendall Rogers and Aaron Fitt assembled the postseason projections. Make sure you check out more postseason analysis with our daily Postseason Buzz, here.

AT-LARGE LADDER:

Last four in, first four out, from strongest to weakest:

61: NC State
62: Oklahoma
63: Arizona State
64: Kansas State
–CUTOFF —
65. Notre Dame
66. Xavier
67. Arizona
68. Louisiana

At The Ballpark
Eric Sorenson – May 26, 2023

ARLINGTON, Texas — Day two is in the books here at Globe Life Field and once again this one was a grinder to say the least. Once again we had a four-game day here with first pitch coming at 9:03am and the last pitch of the day coming at 11:42pm.

Standings-wise, here is how things look at the Big 12 Tournament:

— TCU, 2-0
— Texas Tech, 2-0
— Oklahoma State, 1-1
— Kansas, 1-1
— Kansas State, 1-1
— Oklahoma, 1-1
— Texas, 0-2
— West Virginia, 0-2

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Top Stories
Patrick Ebert – May 26, 2023

Lorusso’s walk-off blast carries Terps to semifinals

OMAHA, Neb. – Thursday night’s game had a little bit of everything for the 8,340 people that filled Charles Schwab Field for Day 3 of the 2023 Big Ten Baseball Tournament. A swiftly-paced pitcher’s duel turned into a 90-plus minute lightning delay and finished with a walk-off home run off the bat of Nick Lorusso in extra innings, emphatically propelling Maryland to a 2-1 win over Nebraska.

Neither team mustered much offense in this game, both before and after the lengthy delay when the game was tied 1-1. Nebraska scored their[…]