As the college baseball world as a collective whole closed out the last weekend of play in April before turning the page to May, the action across the country delivered drama, and left some reeling in shock while others, like Georgia or Mississippi State, obtained more mometum heading into the final three weeks of the reguarl season before turning the page to the postseason where the goal is the same for every team across the country, reach the College World Series and have a chance to get hot in Omaha and to bring home a National Championship. 

So, as we do every week, let’s dive into a few thoughts and takeaways from the weekend. 

First, before we talk about any of the action on the field, on a personal note, I want to touch on the hospitality shown by Tulane over the weekend. I was in town, and Tulane had me out on Saturday night to cover the game against UTSA. Let me say: the stadium was nice, the environment was good, and it was a really good overall experience. For a program with two College World Series appearances, Tulane has one of the nicest stadiums at that level. Not only was it an amazing experience, but it was a good reminder that college baseball remains the people’s sport; there’s nothing like it. This is one of the last sports that we have, where relationships still matter,  and no matter the name on the uniform, college baseball is still college baseball. Ahead of a busy postseason that will likely end in Omaha for me personally, the time spent at Tulane on Saturday night was a reminder of how special this sport truly is. If you’re ever in the New Orleans area during the baseball season, check out a Tulane baseball game; the stadium itself won’t disappoint. 

Second, now we talk about the action on the field for the weekend. Georgia continues to impress. Before we dive into Georgia, let me say this: Ole Miss is still a Regional host, and I fully expect the Rebels to finish the last three weeks on a high note. With that said, when I saw Georgia play a few weeks ago in Starkville, they jumped off the page as an elite team with all the intangibles to not only reach the College World Series but to win a National Championship. What Georgia did this weekend was play chess with Coach Bianco and the Rebels, and they earned that series. Coach Wes Johnson had the quote of the weekend following Sunday’s win over Ole Miss, when he said, “I just kept telling everybody, if we can be in the game till the sixth and stay there, I had a plan to match this up till the game was over.” For those unfamiliar with coachespeak, that means Coach Johnson and the Georgia Bulldogs played a game of 4D chess with Ole Miss, and the Bulldogs left Oxford with a massive series win over the Rebels. With Missouri, LSU, and Auburn remaining in conference play, there’s a really good chance Georgia will earn the outright SEC Championship, as they’ll likely be the top seed in the SEC Tournament, setting up a path to the weekend slate in Hoover. 

Staying in the Southeastern Conference, Mississippi State has seemingly turned the corner with back-to-back sweeps of conference foes in South Carolina last weekend and LSU this weekend. The Bulldogs have rattled off eight straight victories and have completely shifted the trajectory of the season from where they were a couple of weeks ago, when they had gotten swept in back-to-back weeks at Dudy Noble Field. As far as the hosting goes, Mississippi State is right there, the Bulldogs could use a series win at Texas this weekend, then take one of the two series between Auburn at home and at Texas A&M, taking two out of the three series would all but secure a Starkville Regional heading into the SEC Tournament where all they could do is help their tournament resume, with quite possiblty playing as a top-four seed in Hoover. Mississippi State will face Ole Miss in the Governor’s Cup game on Tuesday night in Pearl, Mississippi. 

One more in the Southeastern Conference before touching on the American and Sun Belt, the concern meter for Kentucky is growing by the day. Kentucky has been a weird team to figure out. With the series loss this weekend to South Carolina, the Wildcats have now lost six straight Southeastern Conference series, dating back to week two of SEC play, when they lost two out of three to Ole Miss. Kentucky sits at 9-12 in conference play, and is now likely on the wrong side of the bubble for a Regional. Kentucky needs 13 conference wins to earn an auto bid. With Tennessee, Florida, and Arkansas remaining, the margin of error is almost at zero. Kentucky will need to win two out of three series to earn a trip to a Regional or win one series, and not get swept in the other two. The best-case scenario for the Wildcats is to protect Kentucky Proud Park and use the hometown crowd to their advantage, and earn the two series, securing a bid to a regional where Hoover goes from a must-win to win a game or two, then having a landing zone to rely on as they will likely be a tournament team. 

Deserving of credit this weekend from the SWAC were the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats, who took two out of three on the road, improving to 31-13 on the season and 17-4 in conference play. Bethune-Cookman continues to impress and will likely be a tough out to draw in a Regional. Just watching this team play, you’ll notice how much more mature they are as a baseball team compared to last season. Fully expect Bethune-Cookman to keep doing what they do best: winning baseball games. 

Like the rest of the country, the American Conference is shaping up to be a wild ride to end the regular season. With a three-way tie for first with UAB, UTSA, and East Carolina sitting there with 12-6 records in conference play, Wichita State is there in 4th place at 10-8, then you have the cluster of Memphis, Tulane, FAU, and Rice at 8-10, and South Florida sitting right there at 7-11. Of the three at the top, East Carolina has the easiest path to win the outright championship, with series at Memphis, Rice, and Florida Atlantic. With that said, if it comes down to UTSA and ECU, UTSA has the tiebreaker head-to-head, as the Roadrunners took two out of three over East Carolina. East Carolina has the series over UAB, and then UAB and UTSA close the season before heading to Clearwater. With all of that said, this season of American baseball has delivered to the fullest extent, and the race to Clearwater will likely deliver a lot of late-season drama. 

Lastly, it’s been discussed before, but it’s a damn shame to the sport of college baseball that Coastal Carolina and Southern Miss don’t play each other in the regular season to decide the Sun Belt outright championship. Coastal is at the top of this point in the season with an impressive 17-4 conference record and has been doing so without a few key players, while Southern Miss faced the adversity of losing games and has since returned to the level expected of the Golden Eagles. With that said, people seem to be forgetting about the existence of App State, which sits there waiting in the shadows at 12-8 in conference play. App State wouldn’t have the tiebreaker over either Coastal Carolina or Southern Miss, as they lost both series to both teams, but the Mountaineers could be a team that could make some noise next month in the Sun Belt Tournament. With that said, the sport deserves a Sun Belt Championship game between Coastal Carolina and Southern Miss to decide the top dog of the 2026 Sun Belt conference. 

Overall, another really good weekend of college baseball. With only three weekends remaining until the postseason, take a moment to enjoy this season and all the craziness it has brought us. This will likely end as a season we talk about for generations to come, where mayhem and chaos reigned supreme, and the logic of college baseball continues to captivate on any night, setting the scene for an insane postseason that will have its fair share of drama, forever leaving lore for future generations to enjoy. 

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