Top College Baseball Performances Week 1
A blog by Will from Overdue Sports
Well folks, we finally made it to the college baseball season! It was a long cold winter (still sub-zero in Wisconsin), and I spent my hibernating time previewing and covering teams and players across the country in preparation for this. I spent my whole weekend double and triple barreling games and let me tell you, heaven on Earth. All of that is just a long winded way to say college baseball is back, I’m happy as a clam, and here’s the best performances from opening weekend.
Marek Houston/SS/Wake Forest
As my good friends at Backside Groundballs Media like to put it, many top teams like to ‘get their lineup fat’ on opening weekend. Essentially, scheduling a lesser team early to get your barrels in and get guys feeling good to kick it into gear. Now, this has a downside too when a good team gets slapped with reality early, but this Wake Forest offense ate good this weekend after starting 4-0, outscoring LIU and Marist 63-12.
Houston is known for his defensive prowess, but head coach Tom Walter expressed how impressed he was in the steps he took at the plate over the Fall. This weekend may have been a sign of things to come after going 10/14 (.714) with 3 HR, 1 2B, 13 RBI, and a 2.218 OPS. Yep, you read that right. I anticipate Houston trending this direction all year and is why he’s one of my top shortstops in the 2025 draft class.
Dax Whitney/RHP/Oregon St
I’m not sure you could start your college career better than true freshman Dax Whitney did on Saturday for the Oregon State Beavers. The 6-5 18-year old turn down draft money to go to Corvallis, and took full advantage of his first career start against UNLV, going 5 shutout innings with 8 strikeouts, and surrendering just 4 hits while earning his first victory.
Whitney ran it up to 98 mph with his over-the-top fastball, and flashed a diabolical curveball to match. With a short arm action that is definitely deceptive to hitters, Whitney is going to be a problem for college baseball this season.
Pierce Coppola/LHP/Florida
Heading down south, we saw Pierce Coppola take the bump against Air Force, and put together what was the most dominating performance on the mound in college baseball this weekend. Standing at 6-8, Coppola led the way racking up 12 strikeouts over 5 shutout innings surrendering just 1 lone hit. If Coppola keeps this up, and is the Gators Saturday guy, they can be an awfully dangerous team in SEC play. Not to mention, he brought some of the biggest energy to the bump while flashing multiple pitches for strikes.
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