March 12, 2010

Titantic tussle in Tallahassee

The top series of the weekend will be in the ACC as No. 3 Virginia travels to No. 2 Florida State to kick off conference play.

The Cavaliers are 10-2, while the Seminoles are a perfect 12-0. Virginia won both meetings a season ago. The Cavs won 15-2 in Charlottesville, as the other two games of the series were washed out. Virginia scored three in the ninth to knock off FSU 6-3 in the ACC Championship Game. The Cavs have not won at Dick Howser Stadium since May 1, 2005, dropping four straight in Tallahassee.

There are two other intriguing series in the ACC. There should be plenty of offense as NC State (11-1) travels to Clemson (10-1). Boston College (5-6) heads down the East Coast to play at Miami (8-3). North Carolina (11-2) makes the short trip to Durham to face Duke (9-3).

There should be a post-season atmosphere in Oxford, Miss., as No. 10 Louisville (12-0) visits No. 18 Ole Miss (11-2).

There is a strong field in the Whataburger College Classic, as host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (7-4) welcomes No. 12 UCLA (10-0), No. 20 Oklahoma (13-1) and Mississippi State (9-3). Tennessee (7-6) hosts Ohio State (8-2), Connecticut (6-2) and Marshall (5-5) in its tournament. Bethune-Cookman (5-9) brings in Wagner (0-6) and VCU (9-3) for its Invitational.

Two teams from the Southeast have traveled west. Auburn (9-2) heads to No. 4 Arizona State (12-0) for a three-game series. No. 17 East Carolina (7-5) looks to rebound from a pair of losses with two more at Pepperdine (5-8). The Waves defeated the Pirates 5-3 on Thursday.

Several conferences begin league play this weekend. Undefeated Appalachian State (10-0) heads to Georgia Southern (6-7), one of the preseason favorites in the Southern Conference. Middle Tennessee (8-4) entertains ULM (6-5) in Sun Belt action. Atlantic Sun favorite FGCU (7-4) visits USC Upstate (7-7).

The Southland opened a week ago with preseason pick Texas State (5-6) taking two of three from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. This weekend, UTSA (7-4) visits Southeastern Louisiana (12-1).

Other interesting series include Kansas (9-3) at No. 1 LSU (12-0), Texas Tech (8-6) at No. 8 TCU (9-2) and Washington State (9-1) at Texas A&M (11-2). California (8-3) won 8-6 Thursday at No. 19 Rice (8-6) in the opener of their four-game set.

Enjoy the games!

(photo by Jimmy Jones)