College Baseball Series To Watch: Diamonds In The Rough

Okay, breathe everyone. The first few weeks of the college baseball season have been jam packed with titanic matchups and parity in all corners. This weekend doesn't carry the same surface-level star power, but there's still some excellent matchups.

Below, we'll look at four series that you should watch this weekend.

#9 Notre Dame vs. #22 NC State

What a way to kick off ACC play this season. Tommy White's ridiculous home run streak has ended, but he's still bringing the lumber with nine home runs through 13 games (second nationally). He faces the top pitching staff in the nation, Notre Dame (9-1), who leads the nation with a team ERA of 1.41.

It's not just White, the Wolfpack is tied for seventh in scoring (10.4) and ninth in slugging percentage (.555). The Fighting Irish are the current favorite to take the ACC this year thanks to their eight returning starters. The experience shows. This series is going to be a fight.

#16 Arizona vs. Cal

The defending champs open Pac-12 play this weekend in the Bay‼️ #BearDown pic.twitter.com/k72WTBg6NQ
— Arizona Baseball (@ArizonaBaseball) March 9, 2022

While Cal's record of 6-6 may not jump off the page to anyone, they've endured one of the most difficult schedules to open the season. They took down a top-20 TCU squad in their opening tournament, faced ranked Gonzaga out of conference (see below), and traveled cross country to a top-10 Florida State. Yikes.

They now host another ranked opponent, Arizona (10-3), to open up Pac-12 play. Aside from a series loss to a scorching hot Texas State last weekend, the Wildcats have taken it to everyone they've played including ranked Texas Tech. This should be a terrific series to open up conference play.

#25 Gonzaga vs. Long Beach State

Due to expected weather conditions, this weekend's previously scheduled series with @MizzouBaseball has been altered. Instead the Zags will head to Long Beach for a three-game weekend series with @LBDirtbags after today's game.
🔗: https://t.co/NEUi7qwXEs pic.twitter.com/nVXLOTCjlh
— Gonzaga Baseball (@ZagBaseball) March 9, 2022

This is a series that wasn't until Tuesday. A big winter storm headed for much of the central US canned both these teams' series at Missouri and Nebraska. Instead, Gonzaga (10-2) faced Mizzou in a midweek one-off and will play Long Beach State (5-6) for the weekend series.

Boy, did we luck out. The Zags are off to a hot start, losing their only two games this year to Oregon State. They most recently held Oklahoma State to just five total runs in a three-game sweep in Stillwater. Gonzaga is the latest appointment TV team and a serious, serious contender to keep your eyes on for the rest of the season.

Virginia at Duke

A familiar look on the mound this weekend at Duke #GoHoos pic.twitter.com/vzYuta8Dmu
— Virginia Baseball (@UVABaseball) March 10, 2022

Why is no one talking about Virginia? They're off to a 12-0 start– albeit against a looser schedule– but have scored at least 10 runs per game while allowing no more than four in any game but one so far. They're winning the games they should and in emphatic fashion.

The Cavs take on Duke (8-5) in their first ACC action of the season. The Blue Devils haven't gotten off to their ideal start, but they're a talented ballclub. Bats won't be an issue in this series, as Virginia is second in scoring in the nation (12.1) and Duke is in the top third in the country (7.1).

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