College World Series Prediction

Regional play for the field of 64 starts tomorrow and you probably will find it very hard to find a college baseball game on unless you have a team in your area playing or Directv with college baseball stations in the 600s. Well, since I already gave you my predictions for who I think will advance to Omaha. Here's who I think will win. Just so you all know this is the pre-prediction because I will more than likely give you another one when the teams get there, so this one will be short.

Again here's the 8 teams who I have advancing to the CWS:

Miami

South Carolina

Cal State Fullerton

Florida State

North Carolina

LSU

Rice

San Diego

As you can see I am really high on the ACC as is everyone else in the nation, even though the ACC hasn't won a CWS title since 1955. Whenever you get to this point in the tournament you are looking at who will have the stud pitchers to move you on in the winners bracket and how your team performs in stressful situations during the game. 'Cuz let's be honest, these kids during the regular season don't see this many people in the stands like they do when they step on the field at Omaha. The kids from Carolina have been to the Championship game against Oregon State the past two years and I think that they are still good enough to get there again. The Gamecocks from South Carolina are my sleepers because of the power their lineup brings to the table, with 4 of their players hitting more than 15 homers during the season. Rice has a great 3-headed monster in pitchers Ryan Berry, Chris Kelley, and Matt Langwell who combined for a 17-6 with 199 k's; so their chances are pretty good. LSU is riding the nation's longest winning streak in 20 games, and the SEC got 9 teams in the field so somebody thinks that the SEC is a top notch conference this year. More of a reason not to have them win it in my book. San Diego has sure top 5 pick in next month's draft in 3B Victor Sanchez, and fellow Pre-Season All-American pitcher Brian Matusz who went 11-2 this year with a 1.88 ERA. Cal State Fullerton will head into the tourney with the best 1/2 punch with pitchers Jeff Kaplan (11-1) and Cory Arbiso (11-3).

That being all said, I firmly believe that the kids from Miami and North Carolina have the kids to step up and get the job done. If you didn't read my pre season preview for college baseball back in February I posted that Miami would face UNC in the final, so I am going to stick with it. North Carolina has the easiest road to Omaha out of the 8 teams that I posted today. Their pitching has been very suspect down the final stretch of the year, but ace of the staff, Adam Warren is one of the best pitchers in the nation the past two seasons posting a 21-1 career record and could single handily take the Tarheels all the way. But, I liked Miami since the beginning of the year. They are the only team in the nation without a double digit loss during the season. Led by top prospects that I mentioned in my pre season special, Yonder Alonso and Jemile Weeks. This team is very dangerous and fun to watch (if you haven't seen them yet make sure that you do before the CWS) and I firmly believe that if they do not get to the Championship game in Omaha this year the 47-8 Hurricanes will be considered a huge disappointment.

3RD PLACE

SAN DIEGO

2ND PLACE

NORTH CAROLINA

CHAMPS

MIAMI