Top Three Upsets to End the College Baseball Regular Season
The final week of regular-season baseball has come to a close. It’s only fitting that it ended with quite a few upsets that may shake up the rankings yet again, just in time for the conference championships. Ranked teams losing to unranked teams, the favored team getting swept, and college baseball is full of unpredictability. Three upsets stood out this week in particular.
Ole Miss vs. Auburn
Sixth-ranked Auburn has been floating through the top 25 this season, with a current record of 38-17. They were favored to emerge from this weekend’s series against Ole Miss victorious. However, on the road, Auburn has struggled to deliver. A road series against an unranked program should’ve been light work for the Tigers, instead, they let Ole Miss and their home field advantage get the best of them. Ole Miss took the first two games of the series with ease, taking down the Tigers 9-2 and then a massive 15-11. Though Auburn was able to recover, winning the final game of the series 13-8, this isn’t the level of play this program should be at heading into the postseason. Dropping to a record of 7-11 on the road, things are looking down for the Auburn Tigers.
Cal State Fullerton vs. UC Irvine
Fullerton baseball has been perfectly average all season. With a regular season record of .537 and a conference record of 19-11, the Titans have been playing middle-of-the-line baseball. However, they seem to find a spark when they’re playing on the road. Their final two wins of the regular season put them at 19 total away wins. Those two wins were against 12th-ranked UC Irvine. Two back-to-back losses against a middle-of-the-line team can do a lot of damage to a 12 seed. UC Irvine’s 12-10 victory to close out the series may have saved them from dropping too far in the rankings come Monday.
UNC vs. Florida State
The UNC Tar Heels and the FSU Seminoles have run the ACC all season. Despite the talent of the Tar Heel offense and the stellar pitching provided by Jake Knapp, FSU has remained just one step ahead. A series win this weekend would’ve allowed FSU to take the ACC title outright, but the Tar Heels were not ready to let that happen. The Heels took the first two games with massive 8-3 and 11-1 victories. The Seminoles did find it in them to come back to secure just one win in game three, but to huge losses to the Tar Heels may rob them of their spot in the top three. Wherever these two teams end up in Monday’s rankings, the ACC Championships are sure to be full of intense, quality baseball.
