NCAA Baseball Week 9 Standings

At the beginning of the season, I wrote about how Texas were the best team in college baseball. They really impressed me in how they handled the LSU Tigers in the Shriners Classic. In that same tournament, the Longhorns handed the Volunteers their only defeat of the season.

How wrong I was. The Longhorns may have halted their slide, or at least they are pumping the brakes, but the Volunteers now look unstoppable. They have put together an impressive 23-game winning streak and are 12-0 in the SEC. They are now the first team in conference history to manage that kind of start. Their sweep of Missouri was everything that they have been promising all season: it was comprehensive, methodical, and unwavering.

For their trouble, Tennessee have now become the team to hate in college baseball. Partly, this is down to being number one. When you are on top, everybody wants to take a swipe at you. But this vitriol also stems from the way that Tennessee wins. They put up big numbers, outscoring opponents often by double digits, and they have fun doing it, wearing their hearts unashamedly on their sleeves.

But they take all of that in their stride. First baseman Luc Lipcius said, “You’re with us or you’re against us. And if you’re against us then we couldn’t give one heck about you. If you’re with us, you’re riding or dying with us.” He went on to add, “I think the style of ball we play, a lot of emotion, it gets under people’s skin. Let them do whatever they want, we’re going to keep winning.”

The rest of the top 10 reshuffled, with Texas halting their slide at seven for the straight second week, but the real movement was in the bottom end of the top 25. With five new teams making an appearance, this is the biggest reshuffle of the season so far. Texas State, Arizona, and Ole Miss fell to the bottom rung, hanging on by their fingernails, after poor performances this weekend. Alabama, Florida, Stanford, Virginia Tech, and Auburn make their appearance in the poll after tightening up their belts during conference play.

Week 9 NCAA Division I Baseball Top Twenty Five