Previewing the Stanford Regional
The Stanford Regional will host three West Coast teams and a Big Ten member as play begins Friday, June 1st. The 11th ranked Stanford Cardinals will be joined by Pepperdine the champions from the West Coast Conference, Michigan State from the previously mentioned Big Ten and Western Athletic Conference champion Fresno State. All games will be played at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond.
The Stanford Cardinals finished their season with an overall record of 38-16 (17-12 in the Pac-12) and earned the one seed in the bracket. Stanford will take on the fourth seed Fresno State Bulldogs at 9:00 pm ET on Friday night. Fresno State finished their season 30-26 (8-10 in the Western Athletic Conference). Fresno State got hot at the end of the year winning 12 of 16 games in the month of May to win the automatic bid into the tournament.
The teams met three times in the regular season with the Cardinals taking two of the three games. Fresno State can be confident in that they did deliver Stanford ace Mark Appel his only loss of the season.
In the first game of the region on June 1st at 4:00 pm ET, the second ranked Pepperdine Waves will take on the third seed Michigan State Spartans. Pepperdine won their 18th WCC Championship going 34-21 during the year (16-8 in the WCC). Pepperdine is currently ranked 24th in the country and are making their first tournament appearance since 2008. They won the College World Series back in 1992.
The Spartans are making their first appearance in the College World Series in 33 years. The Spartans went 37-21 (13-11 in Big Ten). This is their fifth NCAA Tournament appearance. They have never played Stanford or Fresno State in baseball but have played Pepperdine. The two teams met in the NCAA Tournament in 1979.
You can see the entire schedule for this region here, http://www.ncaa.com/brackets/baseball/d1. All games will be aired on ESPN 3.
# 1 Stanford Cardinals
Coach: Mark Marquess (36 years at Stanford)
Top Pitcher: Mark Appel, 9-1 record, 2.37 ERA, 14 games started, 116 k’s, should be top pick in the MLB Draft
Top Hitter: Stephen Piscotty, .319 BA, 41 runs scored, 72 hits, 104 total bases
#2 Pepperdine Waves
Coach: Steve Rodriguez (9 years at Pepperdine)
Top Pitcher: Jon Moscot, 6-5 record, 2.97 ERA, 14 games started
Top Hitter: Joe Sever, .370 BA, 81 hits, 52 RBI, 114 total bases
#3 Michigan State Spartans
Coach: Jake Boss Jr (4 years at Michigan State)
Top Pitcher: Tony Bucciferro, 6-3 record, 2.80 ERA, 14 starts
Top Hitter: Jordan Keur, .359 BA, 88 hits, 14 doubles
#4 Fresno State Bulldogs
Coach: Mike Batesole (10 years at Fresno)
Top Pitcher: Thomas Harlan, 7-7 record, 2.73 ERA, 15 starts
Top Hitter: Patrick Hutcheson, .298 BA, 65 hits, 5 homeruns
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