Week four of the college baseball season midweek slate brought mayhem and madness once again as the action picked up, and some teams have started to come into their own. Most teams have one more week until the start of conference play, so not only do the midweeks carry some more weight, but this upcoming weekend has the potential to be a weekend of not only mayhem, but a mixture of that with teams looking to gain a little mometum heading into the thick of the season with conference games starting next weekend. 

So, let’s talk about the midweeks from this prior week with a few thoughts heading into a stellar weekend of college baseball across the country. 

First, we’re going to start with two teams that I feel like have a lot of overreactions happening because of early struggles. LSU and Vanderbilt, both early picks to reach the College World Series, have struggled to this point, with Vanderbilt having the most losses, but LSU having glaring midweek issues. Out of the two, LSU has the better roster and will likely figure it out sooner, but you can never count out Tim Corbin and the Vanderbilt Commodores. You just can’t do it. Last season, Vanderbilt won the SEC Tournament Championship, hosted a Regional, and all in a rebuilding year. Now, with six losses, things can be interesting to say the least for the Commodores, but don’t count out Coach Corbin from figuring out this team and turning things around once Vanderbilt gets into playing Southeastern Conference opponents. Will they play into hosting a Regional? Who knows, but if they aren’t hosting, they’ll be a tough out for someone and could very well play their way into the conversation for being a dark horse to reach the College World Series. LSU has a pair of losses that the novice baseball fan will say are bad losses, but those two losses this week came to Northeastern and Louisiana-Lafayette, not bad losses at all, actually, two losses against consistent mid-major contenders every year. For Vanderbilt, before finding a win on Wednesday night over Troy, the Commodores had lost four straight, including going 0-3 in Las Vegas. These two will meet next weekend in Nashville in one of the most anticipated Southeastern Conference Openers of the weekend. A series loss next weekend for either two will raise the panic meters on both fan bases going into the gauntlet of Southeastern Conference play. 

Second, it’s past time to have the early-season discussion about Southern Miss. I know they lost to Nicholls on Wednesday night, but the Golden Eagles are elite. We’ve talked about it here on the site and on the podcast, but Southern Miss has depth and the other intangibles that separate teams from being Omaha hopefuls to Omaha contenders. At this point in the season, Southern Miss is a contender not only to reach the College World Series but to have that chance at winning a National Championship. With Coastal Carolina plagued by injuries, Southern Miss is the favorite to win the Sun Belt this spring, and possibly one of the few to win a National Championship. Heading into the weekend, D1 Baseball has Southern Miss ranked 10th, but you’d be hard-pressed to find nine better teams in the country. They just beat Mississippi State on Tuesday night, they have wins over Alabama and Oregon State, they’ve been battle-tested so far, and have yet to stop impressing the masses. 

Third, I will admit, I was skeptical of UCLA this season, but the Bruins showcased why they were the top-ranked team in the country this past weekend as they ran through the College Baseball Classic with wins over three teams from the Southeastern Conference in Tennessee, Texas A&M, and 4th ranked Mississippi State on Sunday afternoon to win the College Baseball Classic.

Lastly, an 11-2 overall, it’s hard to understand why more people have not caught on to the Kentucky Wildcats, but Coach Mingione has himself a team this year in Lexington that has all the talent to not only make some noise in the Southeastern Conference but to have another run at the College World Series in them. With Tyler Bell returning to the lineup this weekend, Kentucky will be even better and deeper, and the respect will come over the course of the season for the Wildcats. Given that Kentucky doesn’t have that signature just yet, but the Wildcats just keep on winning baseball games, and doing it the Kentucky way. Kentucky will host The Citadel this weekend before opening Southeastern Conference play next weekend against Alabama at Kentucky Proud Park. 

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