Beyond the Diamond

- Recap of NC State Disaster 

- Vanderbilt Highlights on their way to the Championship

- Mississippi State Highlights on their way to the Championship

- Picks for the Series

Colby and Hunter give their picks for each bracket and the CWS!

Hunter is BACK! Colby and Hunter open up with a UConn sendoff with Hunter giving us a rundown of how special this team was and how great a run they made. We then get into the 8 super regional matchups, starting with the most shocking of events: Arkansas losing to NC State in 3 games. Highlighted by the game 3 decision to start Kopps and leave him in into the 9th by Dave Van Horn. Kevin Kopps is not to blame for this loss at all. The man had one of the most incredible years by a collegiate baseball player and should be praised because Arkansas would not have made it this far without him. Then we recap Texas vs USF series in which Texas was tested in game 1, but rolled to the sweep in game 2. Texas is now undefeated through the super regionals and is entering the CWS 5-0. Tennessee vs LSU was a great environment with Tennessee having a home run derby to sweep the series in game 2, but not before a great send-off to one of the greatest college coaches ever, Paul Mainieri. Vandy vs ECU was the pitching duel in game 1 everyone expected with projected first-round picks Kumar Rocker and Gavin Williams dueling for 8 innings. Unfortunately for ECU, they had to face Jack Leiter in game 2 and did not fare much better. Rocker and Leiter look to be in peak form making Vandy the hardest out now in Omaha. For the national 5 seed, Arizona, they faced a tough team in Ole Miss led by folk hero Tim Elko, but that did not prevent them from having a HR derby of their own in Tuscon. DBU vs UVA was the battle of the two 3 seeds and it definitely was a great series with UVA winning on a Grand Slam in game 3. Mississippi State vs Notre Dame was the series everyone tabbed as much watch and boy did game 1 prove why. State ended up winning in 3 games. And the other shocker of a series, Stanford completely dismantled Texas Tech outscoring them 24-3 over the two games, a complete obliteration highlighted by starters Brenden Beck, Alex Williams, and slugging centerfielder Brock Jones. On Friday we will have another episode for you guys with a rundown of each of the final 8 teams and give our predictions for each bracket in Omaha.

Hunter is out again with UConn playing in the South Bend Regional, so we asked friends of the show, Ryan and Nick, to come and help fill in for him as they both have a vested interest in the CWS with Ryan at TCU and Nick at Fairfield. We began the show talking all about the top 8 national seeds and how each of their first games went last night particularly focusing on the Tennessee walk-off, TCU waking up with Ryan providing some extra commentary on what he has seen from his Horned Frogs thus far, Kevin Koppps, and Kumar Rocker. Then shifted into some UConn highlights from their dominating win last night over Michigan where Austin Pederson went 5.2 with 9K's and Erik Stock went 4-4 with a double and 3 RBIs. Then Nick gave us the recap of the electric Fairfield Arizona State game last night where the Stags lost a heartbreaker. We also highlighted some of the best games from the day yesterday including Florida getting stunned on their home turf by USF and again losing today to Southern Alabama to be the first 1 seed out of the tourney, Tim Elko igniting the greatest home run celebration in college baseball with his grand slam on a torn ACL. And recapping the best game of the early slate in South Carolina vs. Virginia with South Carolina winning 4-3. Then we transitioned to some MLB talk highlighting the great home run race that is going on, MLB cracking down on pitchers using foreign substances, Kevin Gausman for NL CY Young, and much more. You sure don't want to miss another great episode of Beyond the Diamond. Be sure to check us out on Instagram @beyondthediamondpodcast and Twitter @beyondthediapod!!

Hey guys sorry for putting this episode out a little later than usual. Colby got caught up with some editing for my summer internship. This week, Hunter was out at the BIG EAST Championship so our friend Dylan Stiles filled in for him. Colby and Dylan recapped the new power rankings, each conferences' regular-season champ, and all the regular season awards. Then we got into some MLB talk highlighting the great MLB race between the 3 Jr.'s and Garcia as well as Kevin Gausman hopefully getting some national attention soon and how good the NL West and AL East is along with the Astros and White Sox. Thanks, guys for hanging with us this week, this upcoming week we'll try to start getting better with timing. Hunter will be out at the South Bend Regional with UConn scheduled to face Michigan as the #2 seed in that regional so it might be a solo show for Colby but you'll have to tune in to find out.

Colby and Hunter are back with another episode of Beyond the Diamond

College Baseball Rankings stay fairly similar with the biggest move being Vandy dropping to #3 and Mississippi State dropping to #10

Kevin Kopps is the best pitcher in college baseball or at the very least, the most valuable

Jack Leiter is back and better than ever after his week off 

La Salle Baseball is doing all they can to keep their program running past this season

NCAA has announced 100% capacity at all stadiums pending local and state guidelines

Hunter recaps UConn's successful week at Villanova and URI

Shohei Ohtani is the most skilled player we have ever seen and it appears that he is now the favorite for AL MVP with Mike Trout headed to the IL for a little bit

Spencer Turnbull no hits the Mariners and Corey Kluber follows that up with his own no-hitter less than 24 hours later against the Rangers

Is this the year of the pitcher? and What is the value of a no-hitter now?

Corbin Burnes broke the record for most consecutive strikeouts without allowing a walk at 58 K's and less than a week later Gerrit Cole breaks Burnes record with 61 straight K's without a walk

Trey Mancini's return to baseball is awesome and no one deserves CPOTY more than him

Tatis goes 4-4 with a homer in his return from the IL

deGrom is making single-A hitters question their existence in his rehab start

TONY LA RUSSA not much more to say than that

And Kevin Gausman is the most underrated starter in baseball: Top 3 in ERA WHIP IP and SO

Be sure to tune in and check out our Twitter @beyondthediapod and Instagram @beyondthediamondpodcast where we have a new graphic for you to check out

Thanks for tuning in hope to see you next time at Beyond the Diamond!

Colby and Hunter are back with another episode

We open the show talking about the new top 25 from D1Baseball

Including the top 5 in particular:

Arkansas

Vanderbilt

Mississippi State

Tennessee 

Texas

Then Colby and Hunter go around the country highlighting some of the top stories around college baseball

Including the top story of the week: Ole Miss ace Gunner Hoglund tearing his UCL and having to get Tommy John

After Colby gives his weekly update on Fairfield who swept second-place Niagara to clinch the MAAC Regular Season Title

And Hunter recaps UConn's great week against rival St. John's in which they took 3/4 behind the bat of Kyler Fedko

And of course, Colby and Hunter had to highlight the top High School moment of the week

Marc Cedrone for our alma mater Xaverian Brothers High School threw an 11K no-hitter, the first in 17 years

And our MLB highlights for the week include:

Posey is hitting .400

Acuna takes back the HR lead

Ohtani is the most skilled player in baseball

Jarred Kelenic gets the call and much more!

Be sure to tune in and check out our Twitter @beyondthediapod and Instagram @beyondthediamondpodcast where we have a new graphic to for you to check out

Thanks for tuning in hope to see you next time at Beyond the Diamond!

We are back for a special Sunday postgame episode! 

The race in the top 25 is really starting to heat up as we enter the last month of the regular season

With Arkansas holding strong at #1:

Colby and Hunter break down their weekend series in Baton Rouge against LSU

Where they took 2 out of 3 and outfielder Christian Franklin was the hero on multiple occasions

We then discuss #14 Florida's impressive showing against #2 Vanderbilt

Where they handed them only their second series loss since 2019:

Weighing what went wrong for the Commodores in perhaps their toughest test yet

We also highlight #3 Texas:

Who took the finale in an in-state showdown between them and #5 Texas Tech (apologies for the error in reporting during the show; misread information)

Other notable performances from around the league include Clemson sweeping #7 Louisville

#8 Notre Dame taking care of business versus North Carolina

#25 Old Dominion winning 3 out of 4 against #15 Charlotte

#23 Southern Miss pounding Rice after a tough opening game

TCU handing it to West Virginia

And Seton Hall's Tyler Burnham no-hitting Georgetown. C

Colby breaks down Fairfield's weekend against Siena, where they took 3 out of 4 in dominant fashion:

Led by Jake Noviello (who else?!) and the returning Trey McLoughlin

Unfortunately, the baseball gods did not want the winning streak to continue, but maybe it's for the best to get the monkey off of the Stags' backs. 

Hunter then breaks down UConn's last week:

Including a highly competitive series at Xavier where our friends Kenny Haus, David Langer, Chris Winkel, and company starred for the Huskies in their 2-2 split. 

After the Butler series did not end up taking place due to logistical issues

The #HookC​ pivoted to welcome Bucknell to Storrs, where they continued to take care of business:

Led by a ridiculous 14-strikeout performance by Ben Casparius and a two-homer game from Pat Winkel. 

Afterward, we get into a little MLB action:

Colby makes us all envious by detailing his adventures of watching King Jacob deGrom live and in-person last week when the Red Sox visited Queens. 

We discuss our MVP votes at the one-month point of the year

Wondering how Mike Trout continues to just get better and if J.D. or Shohei even stand a chance, 

Why we are now on #TeamBryce​ after Harper's classiness following the hit-by-pitch in St. Louis

The Dodgers' slide thanks to an array of injuries and why the 2020 season led to this

Max Scherzer continues to be an absolute star and if the Nationals may trade him at the deadline

Ronald Acuna being Captain Excitement, and more. 

Thank you so much for your support, and don't forget to follow the show @BeyondTheDiaPod on Twitter and @beyondthediamondpodcast on Instagram for the latest! 

More content than ever is coming soon after Finals season concludes...

Colby and Hunter are back to break down the latest college baseball and MLB news! 

We begin with our weekly check-in on the D1Baseball Top 25:

Discussing if we think Arkansas can hold onto the #1 spot for much longer (and how Robert Moore is doing everything in his power to make the answer to that question yes)

The epic series between Vanderbilt and Tennessee last weekend

How LSU is bouncing back after being counted out once Jaden Hill was injured

The run that Pitt has been on of late

Baylor taking down Texas Tech on Friday night

Boston College demolishing Notre Dame in the series opener, and more. 

Colby gives us the lowdown on the still-undefeated #1 RPI team in the nation Fairfield Stags:

Led by the nation's WHIP leader Jake Noviello

And weighs their odds of potentially hosting a regional. 

Hunter then gets us ready for the return of the UConn Huskies after a two-week Covid pause:

With an important Big East series at Xavier coming up Sunday-Tuesday. 

Afterward, we take a division-by-division look at MLB:

Breaking down how Jacob deGrom keeps being one of the best pitchers we've ever seen

Corbin Burnes somehow still matches him

and the Giants, Mariners, Royals, and Red Sox defying their preseason projections. 

Don't forget to check out the show @beyondthediamondpodcast on Instagram and @beyondthediapod on Twitter, and thank you for listening!

Beyond The Diamond is back! 

After some busy (and quite successful) homestands for Fairfield and UConn Colby and Hunter get back at it to give you the latest college baseball news

We break down the latest D1Baseball Top 25 rankings

Highlighted by Arkansas' return to #1

Vanderbilt dropping to #2 after a tough weekend against Georgia

And the conferences to watch out for in the second half of the college season

Colby gives us a recap of how Fairfield, the #2 team in the country in RPI, has gotten it done in their undefeated start to the year

Including why friend of the show Justin Guerrera is a dark-horse Golden Spikes candidate

Hunter discusses how the Huskies have dominated in their new home Elliot Ballpark (winning 10 of 11 on the homestand)

Especially in a huge win against Boston College that was capped off with a two home run game from team captain Chris Winkel

We then turn to MLB, which has lived up to the billing (and more) thus far this season

After a division-by-division analysis, we talk about the hype provided by Ronald Acuna

Why Shohei Ohtani might be the best athlete we've ever seen

And, of course, the issues with replay and other rule changes

Thank you for listening, and don't forget to check us out @beyondthediamondpodcast on Instagram and @beyondthediapod on Twitter for the latest from the show!