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NCAA Baseball Tournament 2013: Corvallis Regional Preview -- The Teams Texas A&M Will Face

There's a lot of west in the Aggies' bracket, from Pac-12 champion Oregon State to Big West contender UC Santa Barbara to WAC champion Texas-San Antonio

Brandon Wade

Looking at the NCAA baseball tournament regionals that involve SEC teams

CORVALLIS REGIONAL
Winner faces winner of the Manhattan Regional

(1) Oregon State
RPI: 5
Record: 45-10, 24-6 Pac-12

The Beavers started out the season with 15 straight wins and basically never looked back. They lost two games in a row once during the season and won nine of their 10 conference series. (Technically, if you count their "nonconference" game with Oregon as part of that series, they split with the Ducks.) As you might expect, that success translated into a Pac-12 title. That success starts with the pitching staff; the team ERA is 2.15. Among pitchers who started at least 10 games, the highest ERA is 2.10, but the ace is arguably Andrew Moore, who's 12-1 with a 1.22 ERA and three complete games. At the same time, don't miss Matt Boyd, who struck out 98 batters and walked just 24 in 107.2 innings. The best offensive player is probably Michael Conforto, who has an OPS of .969 and nine home runs. The lineup overall only has middling power numbers, putting up a .390 slugging percentage, but you don't need a ton of runs when the other team can't score.

(2) Texas A&M
RPI: 34
Record: 32-27, 13-16 SEC

After being Vanderbilt and playing relatively deep into the SEC tournament, the Aggies still probably made the tournament only by the skin of their teeth. A lot of that success is due to Daniel Mengden, who has a 1.84 ERA and 91 strikeouts in 107.1 innings. He also clocks in at fourth in slugging (.409) and fifth in on-base percentage (.361) for the Aggies. A&M seemed to find something of a groove late in the season, winning eight of its last 11 regular-season games and pulling the upset of the Commodores in the championship event.

(3) UC Santa Barbara
RPI: 56
Record: 34-23, 17-10 Big West

Your two-way player for the Gauchos is Robby Nesovic, who leads the team with an .875 OPS, and whose 4.76 ERA is really not that out-of-line for this pitching staff. This team is not overwhelming on offense or pitching -- the team OPS is .734, which isn't that bad, and the ERA is 3.99, which isn't that great in the BBCOR era. That doesn't mean that UCSB can't make a run in the tournament -- they got here somehow -- but they're a long-shot even for a No. 3 seed.

(4) Texas-San Antonio
RPI: 109
Record: 35-23, 15-11 WAC

The WAC champions -- yes, the WAC is still technically a thing for the next few weeks -- come into the NCAA tournament after sweeping through the conference's tournament last week. They did play Texas A&M once this year, and it did not go well for the Roadrunners, who lost 11-4. Closer Matt Sims struck out 59 batters in 55.0 innings, but that will only matter if UTSA can get him the ball with a late lead. With a team OPS of .800, it's not out of the question, but the rest of this regional isn't exactly the WAC. Your offensive leaders are RJ Perucki, who has 12 home runs, slugs .556 and has a .411 on-base percentage, and Daniel Rockett, who has 10 home runs, a .579 slugging percentage and an OBP of .408.