Baseball Heading To Austin; Big Ced Hires An Agent

• NC State will be the #2 seed in the Austin, Texas regional. The Wolfpack will play third-seeded Stanford bright and early on Friday. Texas and UT-Arlington are the other teams in the regional.
  
  I thought NC State might earn a draw closer to home since it maintained good standing the RPI all season. No luck there. The Pack's performance at the ACC tournament shows they can be successful in the double-elimination format despite a lack of pitching--but only if they stay in the winner's bracket. To put that in less obvious-sounding terms: some teams have enough pitching to win out of the loser's side, and some don't. NC State does not.
  
  Disch-Falk Field is a pitcher's park, but it is the playing surface (astroturf) that NC State has to worry about, not the dimensions.
  
  After a quick overview of the team stats (which are thru 5-21), the matchup with Stanford appears a good one for us. Bearing in mind that Stanford plays in a pitcher's park: the Cardinal have put up modest offensive numbers (218th in scoring, 166th in slugging), and the team's ERA ranks 70th nationally.
  
  NC State is 4th nationally in scoring, 3rd in batting average, 15th in slugging, and 78th in ERA.

In other news...

• Cedric Simmons has hired an agent.
  
  Mocks:
  
  To Chicago at #16
  To Seattle at #10
  To Houston at #8 (Tony Mejia's mock); To Washington at #18 (Gregg Doyel's mock)
  To Sacramento at #19
  To Indiana at #17
  To New Orleans at #12