This article is part of our College Baseball Picks series.
College Baseball Best Bets Today: Expert Picks for
Saturday, June 1
The first day of the tournament was crazier than I thought. Six walk-off wins, two four seeds took down ones. There were about five other four seeds that were spitting distance away from the upset as well. It wasn't the best day for me since Vandy, DBU and Nebraska were flat as a surf board. Trying to rebound today.
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Clemson Tigers (-200) vs. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (+154) | Total: N/A
The Day 2 matchup in the Clemson Region is a beauty, and not just visually speaking with their eye-popping colors. Two fire offenses that have a lot of swag will duke it out in the 1-0 game to see who takes a stranglehold on the region. Clemson, in typical fashion, had a flair for the dramatics last night with its 25th comeback win where it looked like the four-seed High Point was going to steal a huge game. Coastal didn't have as much drama as it took Vandy out behind the woodshed and did the round of applause in a 13-3 victory. This is a showdown that will potentially see a lot of fireworks.
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As is with this tournament, we usually don't get pitching matchups until five minutes before. The better thing with Saturday is we can often discern who most teams would go with since we saw who they burned in Game One. This is something that needs to be changed next season. In the MLB, you know five days in advance who is pitching. My best guess for Coastal is LHP Henry Weycker.
Weycker, a grad student, was a hybrid guy for most of the year, but given the season-long pitching troubles for the Chants, he has slotted himself into the weekend rotation. Having taken over as the Saturday guy, Weycker has back-to-back quality starts. The Tiger offense is definitely one of the best lineups in the country, and the Chants have seen one as good as this. There's a lot of depth with power, speed and average. The catalyst is CF Cam Cannarella, a likely top-10 pick in next summer's draft. As long as Weycker can keep the Clemson lineup at bay and go six innings, there's a really good chance Coastal can steal this pivotal Game Two. If the Chanticleers' lineup is all the way back, then we can see some runs!
No confirmation, but my best guess for Clemson is Ethan Darden on the mound. If it is Darden, then there is a lot of potential for the Chanticleers to attack him. He's been a little rough lately, lasting just 1.1 innings last week against Miami in the ACC Tournament giving up five earned runs and five hits. The week before against BC, two innings, six runs (two earned). There have been some massive blowups for him this year. Got bombed against Duke and Pitt. Not sharp against FSU or Wake Forest. Coastal's offense was disappointing this year with just 83 tanks and a .296 average, compared to last year's 108 bombs and .311 average to go along with 91 steals. A little regression was bound to happen since they lost two of their best bats in Nick Lucky and Payton Eeles. But make no mistake, this lineup can still do damage with big dogs like Caden Bodine, Derek Bender, Graham Brown. Their offense is used to a smaller ballpark and focused on hitting homers, which has thrown them out of rhythm. But yesterday against Vandy they focused on moving the line.
Coastal was a team I gave up on after their second-half debacle. And after finishing seventh in the Sun Belt, they only made the tournament because their pals are on the committee and they recognize it's Head Coach Gary Gilmore's 29th and final season after an illustrious career. It was a team preseason I had making Omaha with a small ticket to win it all. I don't want to speak to soon, but this team could be dangerous in June. Today is featuring a big number, so I'm taking a shot on them.
Pick: Coastal Carolina ML +154
