26.05.2023

College Baseball Betting Picks May 26th

Conference tournament play is heating up as we head into championship weekend. With teams fighting to make a regional or host one, college baseball should be garnering a lot of attention. I’ll scream from the rooftops that postseason college baseball is underrated, so it’s worth checking out, especially since you can bet on it. This is one sport that is not as heavily covered and is slowly growing in the betting world, but there is money to be made from today’s board, and I’ll break down how to do it.

Pick One: Kansas vs. Kansas State (-180)

What do these two teams have in common besides being in the same state? They both beat Texas in the Big 12 Tournament, which knocked them out and likely ruined the chances of an Austin Regional. Focusing on tonight’s game, the loser will go home since both teams have one loss. Their first win over Texas was huge, but I don’t see the Jayhawks being able to stick around.

The Jayhawks and their 6.69 ERA from starting pitching and 5.72 bullpen ERA reared its ugly head yesterday as they allowed 14 runs to TCU in eight innings. Now they face a Kansas State team that also got blown out by TCU but responded with a 6-0 win over Texas. The Wildcats pitching staff held the Longhorns scoreless in the game, as their bullpen ERA of 4.83 came up big and will likely be a factor in this game.

K-State swept the Jayhawks in the regular season on the road, and that pitching depth gives them an advantage tonight. The deeper these teams get into the tournament, the thinner their pitching gets, and with the K-State pitching staff having the best BB/9 and 4th best K/9 in the conference, I think they are built for this type of tournament. German Fajardo will get the start for the Wildcats, and he already has a win over the Jayhawks this season.

Kansas has been a team that struggled the later it got in a series, so by the end of the weekend, they struggled to keep runs off the board. They allowed 21 runs to K-State in the final game of their regular season series, and the Wildcats are coming off an impressive performance yesterday as they jumped on Lebarron Johnson and ended the game with 13 hits.

Pick Two: Notre Dame vs. Wake Forest (-175)

The number one team in the country, Wake Forest, showed why they last night as they took it to Virginia 10-2 in their first action of the tournament. The Demon Deacons sit atop the conference in most pitching categories this season, posing as a tough matchup for a Notre Dame team that already lost this tournament and is hitting .246 this season.

Notre Dame will likely see lefty Josh Hartle tonight, and when they faced him earlier in the season, they could only scratch two runs across while striking out seven times. Hartle finished the regular season with a 2.32 ERA, and when his done tonight, he will hand the ball to a Wake Forest bullpen with a 2.87 ERA.

Run support shouldn’t be hard to come by tonight, as Wake Forest was second in the ACC in runs per game and slugging .539 on the season. The Demon Deacons scored 17 runs in three games against the Fighting Irish during the regular season, and they look like a team on a mission right now.