By Chris Marler
Every day in Omaha is a big day during the College World Series, but today is a very big day for the SEC teams in the College World Series. Here’s what you need to know and what to watch on Monday.
Number to Know – 74%
LSU and UCLA face off Monday night at 6 p.m. for a chance to get to 2-0 and one win away from the Championship Series. That’s important for a number of reasons, but it’s primarily important because in the history of the CWS, 74 percent (31 of 42) of teams that started 2-0 made it to the Championship Series. A loss sends LSU to the losers bracket where it will be” win or go home” and most likely against Arkansas, who is the highest seed in the entire tournament.
What to Watch For – SEC, Enemy of the State
The SEC is no stranger to being the enemy to anyone and everyone in every sport. Today will be no different. The afternoon game features Arkansas and everyone’s favorite Cinderella, Murray State.
Hog fans took over Omaha and were reportedly greatly outnumbering LSU fans in Saturday’s round one game against the Tigers. Regardless of how many fans are in Omaha, every person in America not wearing cardinal and white will be pulling for Murray State.
Arkansas is an overwhelming favorite to win against the Racers. Vegas currently has the line at -500 with the run line as high as -4.5 runs in some books.
Non-SEC Player to Watch – Roch Cholowsky
If you’ve followed along with the NCAA tournament or our site during it, this name is not new to you. I wrote about Cholowsky in our Regional Preview before the tournament started hoping he would be in a position to face an SEC team at some point.
Cholowsky is a true 1:1 prospect. He will almost certainly be a top five pick in next year’s draft and is currently the favorite over Georgia Tech’s Drew Burress and Alabama’s Justin Lebron to be the Number One pick overall.
He does everything well on a baseball field. He hits, hits for (a lot of) power, and is defensively one of the best position players in America at shortstop. He finished the season with a .362 average, 23 Home Runs, and 74 RBIs. He nearly had more home runs (23) than strikeouts (29). He also has an OPS of 1.223.
He’s hitting .308 in the NCAA Tournament but has yet to collect a hit in the CWS or a home run in the tournament.
Picks and Best Bets – UCLA +2.5 Runs
I like LSU to win against UCLA. I like LSU to win against the 1927 Yankees if Anthony Eyanson is pitching, to be honest. But don’t sleep on UCLA. The Bruins were a national seed and are very talented despite not getting a ton of national attention. So far in six games this postseason, they are 6-0 and have a +36 run differential outscoring opponents by an average of 6 runs per game.
Their pitching staff has been especially solid allowing just 3.3 runs per game in the NCAA tournament.
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