Austin Regional Superlatives
Most Exciting Player: Ivan Melendez, Texas. This feels like a trick question. It’s obvious who the most exciting player is, and it’s the Hispanic Titanic for the Longhorns. Melendez made headlines in the offseason by turning down the Marlins for a chance to return to Austin for another season. He’s had a massive, National Player of the Year type of season, hitting .406 with 29 homers and 87 RBIs, along with a ridiculously impressive .522 OBP. Buckle up this weekend.Best Hitter: See above. It’s Melendez yet again.
Best Defensive Player: Trey Faltine, Texas. Faltine has a .967 fielding percentage, and in addition to being such a key leader for this Texas team, he has knack for making the easy and the most difficult plays, while also having an accurate arm to first base. He also does a terrific job of quickly turning double plays. There are few shortstops in college baseball as fantastic as Faltine in the field.
Best Pitcher: Pete Hansen, Texas. The Longhorns might not have the most depth on the mound, but what they lack in depth they almost make up for it with star power at the front-end of the rotation with Hansen leading the charge. The talented lefthander has been outstanding the entire season, and will attack hitters with a fastball in the 89-92 mph range, while also showing an outstanding collection of breaking balls. Hansen has a 3.01 ERA in 92.2 innings, along with 107 strikeouts and just 16 walks.
X-Factor: Taylor Young, Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs have some quality hitters atop their lineup, and hitters who have a wealth of experience. Young is one of those guys. The veteran is having yet another outstanding season at the plate, hitting .358 with 21 doubles, four triples, 11 homers and 49 RBIs. He’s also 26-for-28 in stolen bases, while also having an outstanding .505 OBP.
Best Starting Rotation: Texas. Even though the Longhorns have a question mark when it comes to the No. 3 spot in the weekend rotation, I still give them a slight edge overall in the rotation department because of Pete Hansen and talented lefthanded pitcher Lucas Gordon. We talked about Hansen above, but Gordon, too, has had his bright spots this spring. Gordon enters the weekend with a 2.41 ERA in 74.2 innings of work, along with 65 strikeouts and 21 walks.
Best Bullpen: Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs have a lot of experience on the mound, and that includes the bullpen, which has some strong pieces. For instance, Kyle Crigger has appeared in a whopping 35 games this season and has a 1.79 ERA in 65.1 innings of work, Landon Tomkins has appeared in 22 games and has a 2.25 ERA in 28 innings and Ryan Harland has struck out 46 and walked six in 41.1 innings of work. The Bulldogs are confident when they can turn the game over to their pen.
Best Offensive Team: Texas. The Longhorns have had a terrific year offensively with hitting coach Troy Tulowitzki leading the charge. Ivan Melendez is having a Player of the Year type of season, Skyler Messinger has been red-hot as of late and Murphy Stehly is having one of the best turnarounds in recent history, hitting .377 with 21 doubles, 17 homers and 54 RBIs. Doug Hodo is another quality bat who can hit for average and power, while Trey Faltine and Silas Ardoin both have double digit home runs totals.
Best Defensive Team: Texas. The Longhorns have one of the best defensive teams in college baseball with Trey Faltine and Mitchell Daly leading the way up the middle, while backstop Silas Ardoin is one of the best in the business. Skyler Messinger has done a nice job at the hot corner, and the Texas outfielder has been consistent all-season long. They also have speedster Eric Kennedy back in the lineup, too.
No. 1 Seed Win Probability (1-10): 6. The Longhorns are very tough to beat at home in the postseason, but there are some dangerous teams in this field. For instance, DBU is a talented club that hasn’t put all the pieces together consistently this spring. But there’s big upside there. Louisiana Tech is an older team who knows what’s needed to win a Regional and Air Force is ultra dangerous with Paul Skenes and hard-hitting Sam Kulasingam leading the charge.
