No one team meets every criteria heading into Omaha, but Florida and UCLA come closest, each on the verge of meeting all criteria.
With fielding and pitching being the most important aspects of winning in Omaha, we can virtually eliminate three teams from contention: Arizona, Florida State and Kent State.
Arkansas has stellar pitching, but the fielding and batting leave something to be desired and having South Carolina and Florida in the same bracket spells doom for the Hogs.
That leaves us with 4 teams.
The Gamecocks are the two-time defending national champs and have the best fielding in either bracket, but have struggled some at the plate, with the worst batting average of any team in Omaha. Will their bats remain clutch in Omaha?
Stony Brook looks great on paper and great in Baton Rouge. My question is what happens if they have to come out of the loser’s bracket? Despite playing in a regional and then a super regional the Seawolves still have by far the worst SoS in the field and that means the Cinderella season will end before the final.
That leaves us with a UCLA-Florida final and a tough call. Two weeks ago I said UCLA looked like a weak #2 national seed. I was wrong about that.
Florida has an advantage in the two most important categories and 3 of the 4 on field measures and for that reason Seldom Used Reserve is forecasting Florida as the 2012 CWS Champion.
