Super Regional Preview: OK State at Louisville

The Louisville Cardinals will host Oklahoma State in a Super Regional this weekend. The games will be played on Friday at 2 pm ESPN 2, Saturday at noon ESPN U, and on Sunday at 4 pm ESPN (if necessary).

Oklahoma State (41-19)

The Cowboys head to Louisville coming off a perfect regional after defeating Creighton 6-4, then Arkansas twice 14-3 and 7-6. Oklahoma State is led by fourth year head coach Frank Anderson. He leads a team with a .326 team batting average including seven starters who are hitting above .312. Tyler Mach leads the team in average with a .401 batting average including 16 homers. Corey Brown leads the team with 21 homers. The College Baseball Blog had the chance to see Matt Mangini last summer in the Cape Cod League. I believe that he has a very good chance at playing at the next level if he can get better defensively. He is hitting .343 with nine homers on the year. According to some of my sources, Oklahoma State plays in a launching pad type stadium which might inflate the power numbers of the team. Joe Kent leads the pitching staff with a 4-2 record with a 3.42 ERA. Oliver Odle (7-4, 4.39 ERA) and Andrew Oliver (6-1, 5.18 ERA) round out the starting staff with more then ten starts. The Cowboys also have a solid closer in Justin Friend who leads the team with seven saves with a 6-3 record and a 2.36 ERA.

OK State Series Notes
OK State Season Stats

Louisville (44-21)

The Louisville Cardinals shocked the baseball world by heading to the Columbia (MO) Regional and coming away with a spot in a Super Regional. Louisville won their first game over Miami 13-7 before facing the host Missouri in the winners bracket. The Cardinals picked up a 7-5 deficit so that set up an elimination match-up with Miami in which Louisville survived a late Hurricane rally to get an 8-7 win then defeated the host Missouri 4-3 which sent the regional to Monday. Louisville jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first inning as they cruised to a 16-6 win. The Cardinals are led by first year head coach Dan McDonnell who inherited a solid team from former head coach Lelo Prado who left for South Florida after last season. The Cardinals are led offensively by Isiah Howes who leads the team with a .392 average and also in home runs with 16 on the season. Boomer Whiting is the catalyst for the offense with a solid .368 average but he does most of his damage on the base paths with an unbelievable 72 steals in 84 attempts. Chris Dominguez had a huge regional by hitting five homers in the final four games of the weekend. He had 7 RBI in the 16-6 clinching victory over Missouri. The Cardinals starting pitching is led by Zack Pitts (9-3, 2.37 ERA) and Justin Marks (8-2, 2.61 ERA). Trystan Magnuson leads the Cardinals with nine saves in 34 appearances. He also has a 1.02 ERA.

UL Season Stats
UL Series Notes

Pitching Match-ups

Friday: UL Zack Pitts (9-3, 2.37 ERA) vs OSU Oliver Odle (7-4, 4.39 ERA)
Saturday: UL Justin Marks (8-2, 2.61 ERA) vs OSU Joe Kent (4-2, 3.42 ERA)
Sunday: UL TBA vs OSU TBA

Other published previews of Super Regional

NewsOK

The College Baseball Blog predicts that Louisville wins the Super Regional in three games with a deeper pitching staff.