By Chris Marler
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. College Baseball Christmas-time is officially here, as the NCAA Tournament kicks off this weekend with 16 Regionals around the country. Before first pitch, here’s a list of three key SEC players that will need to step up if they want their team to advance to the second weekend of the tournament.
LSU P Zac Cowan
Cowan has been one of my favorite players all season long. He reminds me of the type of pitchers I watched a decade or two ago that were dominant because of how they pitched and not just how fast they threw. Cowan’s numbers were incredible this season. The former Wofford Terrier finished with a 2.38 ERA over 20 appearances.
Through 16 games, he had a 1.13 ERA and allowed only five earned runs over 40 innings. At that point in early May, LSU was 27-1 on the season when leading after seven innings. Then the Texas A&M game happened, and over his last four outings we’ve seen a much different version of the junior. Cowan has allowed seven earned runs in his last four outings resulting in a 1-3 record and an 11.81 ERA. LSU is in a great position to advance to the Super Regionals regardless, but the Tigers will need Cowan to be the Cowan of February-April.
Alabama SS Justin Lebron
It feels foolish to say that a potential No. 1 overall pick needs to pick his game up if his team is going to win games. Don’t get me wrong, Lebron has been awesome this season. Defensively, he’s elite at shortstop and finished the season with a .315 average, 18 home runs, and 72 RBIs. However, the numbers in conference play fell off a cliff from last year to this year.
Conference Play Stats by year (BA/OBP/SLG)
2024: .342/.410/.500
2025: .252/.341/.479
The biggest concern is his strikeout percentage increasing from 21.6 percent to 31.9 percent while his line drive percentage decreased from 35.9 percent to 20.0 percent. Kade Snell has been phenomenal for the Tide as well, but Lebron is the guy in that lineup that has to live up to the hype and play like he did a season ago. He’s off to a good start in postseason play going 4-for-5 in the SEC Tournament and reaching base six times in nine plate appearances.
Oklahoma P Cade Crossland
By now, any SEC baseball fan knows who Kyson Witherspoon is. The potential top 15 pick in this year’s MLB Draft has been great all season. And anytime he toes the rubber the odds for Oklahoma to win feel pretty great. The key to NCAA Regional play is getting to 2-0. If you can get to 2-0, you’re in the driver’s seat to advance to Supers.
That’s why Crossland is here. You have to feel confident in getting one of those two wins. But who’s going to get the second? It has to be Crossland. The numbers don’t look great from afar, but dig a little deeper. He finished the regular season with just a 4-5 record and an ERA over 7.0. However, the Sooners won 10 of the 15 games he started this season. That includes a 7-4 record in SEC play and a win over No. 8 Seed Oregon State.
