The second weekend of the 2011 NCAA baseball tournament picks up on Friday with the super regional round commencing. The Stanford Cardinal will square off against the North Carolina Tarheels in a contest featuring two of the big names in college sports. While the two teams have combined for only two national titles, they annually produce top talent for professional baseball, and 2011 has been no different.
The 2011 MLB Draft wrapped up Wednesday afternoon with 1,530 players selected. The draft started with Pittsburgh selecting UCLA star RHP Gerrit Cole and it wrapped up with the Philadelphia Phillies selecting Kolya Stephenson, a RHP out of Ocean City (NJ) High School. In between, the Stanford Cardinal saw six players drafted and the North Carolina Tarheels had five players drafted into the big leagues.
One interesting note is that Stanford pitcher Brett Mooneyham and UNC pitcher Greg Holt were both selected by the Washington National. Mooneyham hasn't played this season but might be on the bench at the series. I'd say it'd be interesting to see them as teammates later this summer or next year, but it's not quite the same when one of them hasn't pitched all year.
Nonetheless, giving the level of talent on both sides, it should make for a fun best-of-three series.
Stanford Cardinal
LHP Chris Reed - 16th overall, 1st round - Dodgers
LHP Scott Snodgress - 171st, 5th round - White Sox
RHP Jordan Pries - 903rd, 30th round - Mariners
C/IF Zach Jones - 1024th, 34th round - Diamondbacks
LHP Brett Mooneyham - 1147th, 38th round - Nationals
RHP Danny Sandbrink - 1287th, 42nd round - Giants
North Carolina Tarheels
SS Levi Michael - 30th overall, 1st round - Twins
RHP Greg Holt - 247th, 8th round - Nationals
1B Jesse Wierzbicki - 730th, 24th round - Astros
RHP Patrick Johnson - 768th 25th round - Rockies
C Jacob Stallings - 1285th, 42nd round - Reds