The ninth weekend of college baseball started up yesterday, beginning the second half of the college baseball season. Two of the top pitchers in this draft class squared off tonight in the Arkansas/LSU game. These players, and many others, have less than two months to impress scouts in advance of the draft. The schedule for the top college players this weekend can be found here. Check out the draft preview posted here and the recap of the eighth week’s action here. Just a reminder, the Pirates pick #9 and #14 in this year’s June amateur draft, so for the duration of the college season, leading up to draft day, we are following the players closely that are ranked in that range. This year’s draft will be held June 6-8. 
San Diego’s Kris Bryant, went 1-for-3, with an RBI and run scored. He batted lead-off and started the game with a home run. Bryant walked in his second and third plate appearances. Pepperdine’s Aaron Brown went 1-for-4, with a single. He played center field, but recently he has only been pitching, where he has had marginal success. He was a 2011 draft pick of the Pirates. Jackson McClelland, a 2012 draft pick of the Pirates who is also on Pepperdine, pitched 2/3 innings, giving up a hit and walk, but no runs. The walk was an intentional one, issues to Bryant.
Colin Moran went 3-for-5 in North Carolina’s 21-8 win over Virginia Tech on Friday night. He drove in four runs, getting RBI’s on a double, single and sacrifice fly. He also drew a walk, getting seven plate appearances in the route. On Saturday, Moran was even better. He went 3-for-4, with two walks, two doubles and a home run. He scored five runs and drove in four, in NC’s 9-8 win in ten innings.
Austin Wilson finally returned to action last week and has been hitting well in his brief time back. Today, he hit his first home run of the season. Wilson played in the field(RF) last night for the first time since the season opener, but was back in the DH spot today. He finished the game 1-for-4.
DJ Peterson of New Mexico and Aaron Judge of Fresno State squared off for the second time today. Judge had the better stats in the first game, but Peterson walked away with the win. Peterson’s team won again today, scoring 14 runs and the New Mexico first baseman also had a slightly better game. Both players went 2-for-4, with two singles and an RBI, but Peterson scored two runs, while Judge never crossed the plate. The Fresno State outfielder was able to swipe two bags, giving him five steals on the year.
In LSU, Ryne Stanek from Arkansas and Ryan Eades for LSU, went head-to-head tonight. Eades did not have a good outing in this battle between two of the top college pitchers in the country. He went four innings, allowing five runs on eight hits, three walks and he struck out five batters. Eades was topping out at 94 MPH early in the game. Stanek was sharp all game, throwing 6.2 scoreless innings. He gave up four hits, three walks and struck out five batters. In his previous start, he threw eight shutout innings.
Sean Manaea from Indiana State, took on Creighton today and helped his team to a 5-4 win. He went 6.2 innings, allowing two runs on five hits and four walks, while striking out eight batters. He needed 95 pitches to get through his night, 60 of them went for strikes.
Braden Shipley from Nevada had a difficult outing on Friday night against UNLV, but was still able to pick up the win. He pitched seven innings, allowing four runs on six hits and five walks, while picking up eight strikeouts. Shipley needed 122 pitches to get through his outing.
Chris Anderson from Jacksonville, had very poor outing against Kennesaw State on Friday night. He went 4.1 innings, giving up seven earned runs, as his team lost 14-4. Anderson allowed nine hits, three walks and he recorded three strikeouts. He has not been sharp in his last three starts and his quality of opposition hasn’t been strong either. Keith Law was at the game and posted this report for Insiders. He mentioned Anderson was throwing 89-93 MPH and even the outs were hit hard.
Phillip Ervin from Sanford went 2-for-4, with a triple, home run and two RBI’s in his team’s 9-8 loss to Western Carolina yesterday. The outfielder went 1-for-3, with an RBI today, as his team got trounced by a 21-7 score. Ervin and many of the other Samford starters left the one-sided game early.
Dan Kirby from Through The Fences, had stats for High School catcher Jon Denney and they are impressive. He is hitting .567, with 10 homers and 29 walks in 25 games. Denney seems destined for the Pirates if you go by recent mock drafts, as he has been ranked by three major ones in the 9-14 range.
