2013 Baseball World Series Raleigh Regional Breakdown
North Carolina State, Mississippi, William & Mary, Binghamton
North Carolina State just narrowly missed out on a national seed to Oregon. However, they bring a loaded team to the postseason capable of making a run well into June and to Omaha. The Wolfpack, 44-14, are an explosive bunch offensively. They make contact with the ball and when they get on base they run and run some more, totaling 100 stolen bases in 129 attempts. Trea Turner, a sophomore infielder, leads the way with a .376 batting average and has 24 stolen bases. Turner is also tied with Tarran Senay with six homeruns. The Wolfpack traditionally are not going to beat you by hitting the ball out of park. However, they are very efficient with their scoring chances and that is what makes them very dangerous. On the mound, Carlos Rodon is the key to this NC State puzzle of advancing deep this postseason. Rodon is 8-2 with a 3.48 earned run average. He has 151 strikeouts as well in 101.0 Innings. If Rodon is locked in, he should go toe to toe with Bobby Wahl of Ole Miss if they were to beat William and Mary in what could be one of the best pitching matchups of the entire regional weekend. The bullpen is also a huge strength for this Wolfpack team. Chris Overman and Grant Sasser have combined for 13 saves and sport earned run averages below 1.25 on the season. The ability to have multiple closer caliber pitchers in a regional weekend is a very huge asset for veteran Head Coach Elliott Avent and his team. The Wolfpack are tough to beat at home and should get some good challenges from the rest of this bracket.
The Ole Miss Rebels out of the Southeastern Conference earned the number two seed in this regional. The Rebels strength is the combination of Bobby Wahl and Brett Huber. Wahl is the ace of the staff and has a 9-0 record with a 1.99 earned run average while Huber locks down games and has 12 saves. It will be interesting to see if Bianco holds off using Wahl until the Saturday night winners bracket round against NC State or uses him off the bat against William and Mary. The offense has been solid throughout the season for the most part and is led by Stuart Turner who has 50 runs batted in on the season.
The third seed, William & Mary out of the Colonial Athletic Association, is a very strong offensive team and is led by Michael Katz and Ryan Lindemuth, both hitting over .360. Several times during the conference slate the Tribe put up some huge crooked numbers. The key for them will be finding enough pitching to grind their way through this double elimination regional format.
The number four seed is Binghamton out of the America East Conference. Binghamton is led by sophomore outfielder, Jake Thomas, with a .382 batting average and 36 runs batted in. The Bearcats also have a couple of strong starting pitchers in seniors Jake Lambert and Jay Lynch, complemented by junior Jack Rogalla. This depth gives the Bearcats a chance to do some damage in this tournament if they pitch up to their capability.
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