The Blue Workhorse

We’ve previously previewed the NCAA college baseball Regionals and each of the Super Regionals, and with the College World Series set to begin Saturday, it’s time for us to preview the teams that will be playing at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha for the chance to be crowned national champions.

Today, we preview Bracket One (tomorrow we’ll give you Bracket Two) giving you each teams’ projected starting lineup, projected pitching rotation, “Road to Omaha,” and some keys to success:
Schedule/Results (will be updated daily):

Saturday, June 13

* Game 1: Arkansas vs. (2) Cal St. Fullerton - 2 PM EST (ESPN)
* Game 2: Virginia vs. (3) LSU - 7 PM EST (ESPN)

Monday, June 15

* Game 3: Loser Game 1 vs Loser Game 2 - 2 PM EST (ESPN2)
* Game 4: Winner Game 1 vs Winner Game 2 - 7 PM EST (ESPN2)

Wednesday, June 17

* Game 5: Loser Game 4 vs Winner Game 3 - 7 PM EST (ESPN2)

Friday, June 19

* Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs Winner Game 5 - 2 PM EST (ESPN2)

(if necessary) Saturday, June 20

* Game 7: 2 PM or 7 PM EST (ESPN)

Cal State Fullerton Titans (47-14)

Projected Starting Lineup:
1. Christian Colon - SS
2. Gary Brown - LF/RF
3. Josh Fellhauer - CF
4. Jared Clark - 1B
5. Khris Davis - DH/RF
6. Dustin Garneau - C
7. Jeff Newman - LF
8. Joe Scott - 2B
9. Joey Siddons - 3B

Projected Pitching Rotation:
1 - Noe Ramirez (R)
2 - Daniel Renken (R)
3 - Tyler Pill (R)
4 - Kyle Witten (R)

CL: Nick Ramirez (L)

Fullerton’s Road to Omaha:
With an impressive non-conference schedule that included tournament teams TCU, San Diego State, Southern Miss, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Oral Roberts, and Arizona State, the Titans were awarded the national number two seed after a 42-14 campaign, and the Titans have shown they are no fluke dominating the Fullerton Regional and Fullerton Super Regional to make it to Omaha for the fifth time in seven years!

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Schedule/Results:

* Game 1: Friday 7 PM EST (ESPN)
* Game 2: Saturday 5 PM EST (ESPN)
* Game 3: (if necessary) Sunday 7 PM EST (ESPN2)

Baton Rouge Super Regional

LSU (49-16) vs. Rice (43-16)

Louisiana State Tigers -
Road to the Super Regional: The LSU Tigers earned the number 3 national seed following a stellar season, which included capturing the SEC regular season and tournament titles. In the conference tournament, the Bayou Bengals fought back from an opening round loss to Vanderbilt to win the SEC tourney. LSU was able to make it to the Super Regionals on ESPN due to a sweep through the hosted Baton Rouge Regional over the likes of Southern, Baylor and Minnesota with their only real test coming when the Tigers needed a 10th inning Austin Nola RBI single to beat Baylor 3-2.

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Baton Rouge Regional

1. LSU Tigers (46-16) vs 4. Southern Jaguars (30-15)
2. Minnesota Golden Gophers (38-17) vs 3. Baylor Bears (29-24)

Winner to take on champion of Houston Regional.

The LSU Tigers earned the number 3 national seed following a stellar season, which included capturing the SEC regular season and tournament titles. The Bayou Bengals fought back from an opening round loss to Vanderbilt to win the SEC tourney last weekend in Hoover, Alabama.

The Tigers feature a very balanced offense, which includes eight starters that enter the tournament hitting over .300. The power in the middle of the lineup will be provided by Blake Dean (.327, 14 HR, 62 RBI) and Ryan Schimpf (.324, 17 HR, 56 RBI). Two-sport star Jared Mitchell has emerged as a star for the Tigers, putting together an impressive season with eight home runs and 30 stolen bases.

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Last season after each round of the NCAA men’s basketball national tournament, we compiled the candidates for the ‘Workhorse’ of the round (our version of Most Outstanding Player) and then let your votes decide who should be given the award. We culminated the ‘Workhorse candidates’ series by naming Mario Chalmers the NCAA ‘Championship Workhorse’ and you voted the tourney darling, Stephen Curry, as the NCAA ‘Tournament Workhorse.’

And we’re bringing it back!

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Is Sam Bradford still throwing touchdowns? Because that seemed to be the only thing he could do on Saturday night. Oklahoma’s dominating performance against Texas Tech shakes up our rankings a bit and makes the BCS even more confusing.

Another week means another re-evaluation, and thus, we give you our new The Blue Workhorse College Football Top 25 after Week 12. Some things to note from this week’s rankings:

Earlier this week in Part I, I gave you my predictions for some big time conference matchups on Wednesday and Thursday nights. I was right about Ball State remaining undefeated, but I was shocked by the performance of Georgia Tech last night.

The Ramblin’ Wreck absolutely destroyed Miami with their triple option attack as they piled up 472 rushing yards…yea, 472 rushing yards! I should have known better than to take an ACC squad their first week entering the Top 25, but I was completely unprepared for Miami’s inability to play assignment football.

No problems, though, as I am completely prepared to predict the rest of Week 13’s dynamite college football games:

While their weren’t any true marquee games this week, Oregon State did beat Cal positioning themselves even further for the Pac-10 title. Coach Mike Riley has quietly put together a solid season after the Beavers started terribly slow.

In other conference races: no one wants to win the ACC; the Big 10 is Penn State’s to lose; the SEC & WAC races are already over; and the Big East, Mountain West, MAC, Sun Belt, and Big XII could be all but determined this weekend.

Congrats to Rosenblogger and his Vanderbilt Commodores as they have become bowl eligible for the first time in his lifetime. Bobby Johnson is a great coach who wins the right way, and we applaud his accomplishment.

Another week means another re-evaluation, and thus, we give you our new The Blue Workhorse College Football Top 25 after Week 11.

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I didn’t have my best showing last week, but I’m bound to rebound with authority this week. Unfortunately, there aren’t any true blockbuster games like there have been almost every weekend for the past month or so.

Nonetheless, there still are some intriguing matchups this week.

So what kind of predictions do I have this week? Probably not any good ones, but here they are:

(all rankings from are from The Blue Workhorse College Football Top 25)

#23 South Carolina at #3 Florida

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