Content: When he was still the head coach at Arkansas, Norm DeBriyn remembers talking to Larry Chase before a game. A Mets scout at the time, Chase related a story about one of his lengthy drives on the highways of the Midwest to go see a draft prospect when he saw a car on the side of the road.

“He said he’d seen a woman pulled off the road and he helped get her going again,” DeBriyn remembered with a laugh. “I asked how he helped her, and he just said he took a look at the engine and realized she needed a new fan belt, and he just happened to have one in the car.

“How lucky was she? How many people just happen to have a fan belt? But Larry loved cars. As long as I knew him, he loved working on them, not so much restoring them as just fixing them.”

Chase probably had more than one instance when he was a Good Samaritan on the highways, considering how much he drove. If you worked in baseball in Arkansas in the last 30 years, chances are you met Chase, and chances are you remembered the conversation. According to . . .

Content: BATON ROUGE, La.—Most of Alex Wood’s outings for Georgia this spring have been like his start in Week 12 against Auburn, when he struck out 10 over eight strong innings, allowing just two runs.

Wood’s consistency—he is 6-2, 2.68 with 87 strikeouts and 19 walks in 91 innings—is an illustration of how far he’s come in a year. But the way the redshirt sophomore lefthander persevered when he had his worst command a week earlier against LSU reveals just as much about his maturation.

On a night when his changeup lacked its usual disappearing life and his fastball location was off, Wood still gutted his way through seven innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits and getting the Tigers to strand the bases loaded in his final frame.

“That’s the worst he’s thrown the ball in a year and a half. He was just too jacked, too pumped,” Georgia coach David Perno said of the start in Baton Rouge. “Wood wouldn’t have been able to survive throwing the ball like that last year. He would have been in there for four and a third or five innings maybe. When you’re bad or unlucky and you still give your . . .

Content: STARKVILLE, Miss.—Chris Stratton’s transformation from a talented enigma into one of college baseball’s most dominant pitchers reached a crescendo last summer in the Cape Cod League.

Stratton, a 6-foot-3, 198-pound righthander, had flashed overpowering stuff in his first two seasons at Mississippi State, but he posted ERAs of 5.29 and 5.21 as a freshman and sophomore. After his 2011 sophomore campaign ended in super regionals, he headed off to join the Harwich Mariners, where he began working with a pitching coach he knows only as “Big Sexy.” (His actual name is Jason Blanton, but Stratton couldn’t tell you that).

“I got there the first day,” Stratton recalled, “and the pitching coach was like, ‘Two-seam inside.’ I said, ‘Coach, I don’t throw a two-seam.’

“He was like, ‘I said, two-seam inside.’ So I just tried to fill one out, and it ended up working for me. The slider, he kind of taught me—just throw it off your ear. Just little things that helped me.”

By the time Mississippi State coach John Cohen saw Stratton later that summer on a trip to the Cape, it had become “a powerful pitch” and “a difference maker.” His two-seamer and changeup were also making strides, . . .

Content: THIS WEEK:
1. Rice visits Central Florida in a battle for the C-USA crown.
2. Indiana State sits on the brink of a rare MVC title heading into showdown with Missouri State.
3. Four more teams will punch their tickets in conference tournaments this weekend.
4. Quick takes on the weekend’s other big storylines.

Four conference tournament champions will be crowned this weekend, clinching trips to regionals (more on those later). For most of the other conferences, tournies begin in the middle of next week, so series in most leagues will be played from Thursday through Saturday this week. There is plenty on the line across the country in the regular-season finale for most teams, but let’s focus on the clash between the two teams tied atop the standings in Conference USA.

Conference USA Powers Collide In Orlando

Rice is the perennial powerhouse, looking to extend its streak of 16 consecutive seasons with either a regular-season or tournament title, dating back to its Southwest Conference tournament title in 1996 (and including its dominating run in the Western Athletic Conference). The Owls have won at least a share of the regular-season title in five of their first six seasons in C-USA. . . .

Content: BATON ROUGE, La.—Even though Kevin Gausman was a veteran of the high-profile showcase circuit, his emergence as a true blue-chip pitching prospect in high school snuck up on him a bit, the way he tells it.

“I kind of thought I just threw hard and I didn’t really have any other pitches all through high school,” the lanky righthander said. “My senior year people were saying I could be a late first-round guy, and I was sitting there like, ‘Wow, I have no other pitch.’ I threw a fastball and a crappy slider, and I didn’t even have a changeup.”

Sure, Gausman entertained the notion of heading straight from high school in Colorado to pro ball in 2010, but for a variety of reasons it became clear to him that he should attend Louisiana State and take his chances with the draft as an eligible sophomore in two years.

It was the right decision. As a sophomore this spring, Gausman has blossomed into one of the nation’s premier Friday starters, going 8-1, 2.95 with 112 strikeouts and 21 walks in 92 innings through 13 starts. And he is one of the leading contenders to be drafted No. 1 overall next . . .

Content: DURHAM, N.C—Florida State maintained the No. 1 spot in the Baseball America College Top 25 amid a chaotic week for the teams at the top of the rankings.

The Seminoles stayed atop the rankings despite a 1-3 week, though they haven’t had a chance to complete their series at Clemson due to a rainout Sunday. Clemson won the series opener on Saturday, with a doubleheader scheduled for Monday. The upheaval began at No. 2. Last week’s Nos. 2 and 3 teams, Baylor and Louisiana State, both lost their series, clearing the way for South Carolina and Florida to move up to those spots. Kentucky also got back into the top five at No. 4.

Baylor, which entered the weekend undefeated in Big 12 conference play, dropped to No. 7 after getting swept by Oklahoma. LSU fell to No. 9 after a home series loss to Vanderbilt, becoming the only team in the top 10 with four series losses. Starting with No. 10 Texas A&M, the middle portion of the rankings were more stable, as the teams ranked 10 through 17 all won their series and saw their rankings remain unchanged.

Appalachian State and Mississippi joined the rankings this week. The . . .

Content: 1. FLORIDA STATE

Last Week: 1-3. Overall: 40-10, 21-3 in ACC (5-3 vs. Top 25). Weekend Series: 12-0 (one series pending).

Florida State posted its first losing week of the season, though it can still salvage its weekend series at Clemson by sweeping a doubleheader Monday. Brandon Liebrandt (5.2 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 6 K) fell to 6-2 in Saturday’s loss, as Clemson erased a 2-1 deficit with four runs in the sixth. Sunday’s game was rained out and will be made up Monday at 1 p.m. ET.

RESULTS

May 7: Maryland: L 8-5

May 8-9: @ Stetson: W 9-1, L 6-5

May 12-13: @ Clemson: L 7-2, PPD

UPCOMING

May 14: @ Clemson (DH)

May 17-19: (13) North Carolina State

2. SOUTH CAROLINA

Last Week: 2-1. Overall: 38-13, 17-9 in SEC. (5-4 vs. Top 25). Weekend Series: 10-2-1.

The Gamecocks split a pair of games at Georgia, but Sunday’s game was rained out. South Carolina fell a half-game behind Kentucky in the SEC, as the Wildcats swept Alabama. Michael Roth (7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 6 K) improved to 5-0, 2.60 on Friday, as L.B. Dantzler’s solo homer broke a scoreless tie in . . .

Content: Aaron Fitt: Hi everybody. Only one more Monday chat
left this season after today — time does fly. Hope everybody had a good
week 13 and a happy Mother’s Day. Let’s chat!

Terry (Houston): Would taking 2 out of 3 from Central Florida and winning the CUSA tournament guarantee a National seed for Rice?

Aaron Fitt: I wouldn’t say “guarantee,” no, but I think
the Owls stand a pretty good chance to snag a national seed under that
scenario. Lose this weekend and I think their national seed hopes are
dashed.

Joel (Baltimore, MD): As a Beaver it’s hard to
take, but the Ducks are cruising. Do they, though, have the arms to get
them to Omaha? Is the depth in the pitching staff sufficient?

Aaron Fitt: Well, I have questioned Oregon’s pitching
depth all season, but the Ducks have actually handled themselves quite
well every time they’ve had to deal with a five-game week (like two
weeks ago, when they went 4-1 on the road against Gonzaga and Arizona).
Also, they’re likely to be home in regionals and supers, and if they can
stay in the winner’s bracket in regionals, they could get to Omaha
without having to use . . .

Content: THIS WEEK:

1. Louisville hosts St. John’s in critical Big East showdown

2. Streakin’ Travis Parker and A-10 leader Saint Louis head to Charlotte

3. Quick takes on other big series around college baseball

Big Weekend In The Big East

Since Louisville’s 2007 trip to Omaha in Dan McDonnell’s first season as head coach, the Cardinals and St. John’s have been fixtures in the top third of the Big East standings. The two teams have played plenty of important series over the last five years, but none bigger than this weekend’s set in Louisville—the marquee weekend on the Big East calendar this season.

Saturday’s game starts at 11:30 a.m. ET in order to accommodate ESPNU, and the television factor adds a little extra excitement to a series that features the top two teams in the Big East standings. St. John’s (16-5) has a two-game lead over Louisville (14-7) and Connecticut.

“I’m assuming that’s why ESPN picked this game—you’ve got No. 1 and 2 going at it on the second-to- last weekend of the year,” McDonnell said. “Kyle Peterson’s in town—this is a big game, now! He doesn’t do just any game. This is big.”

Louisville and St. John’s entered the . . .

Content: FULLERTON, CALIF.—Mitch Haniger has more home runs than the top two teams in the Big West standings combined. Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State have hit five homers apiece, while Haniger has hit 11 for Cal Poly. So it’s fair to say his power stands out in Southern California.

“Out here in the West, it’s tough to put up really solid power numbers,” Poly coach Larry Lee said. “You look at his power numbers compared to anybody in our conference, there’s a difference, especially this year.”

In an April 21 win at Big West power Cal State Fullerton, Haniger put his pop on display, hitting a missile over the left-center-field fence for a three-run homer that put the Mustangs ahead in the fifth inning. The junior center fielder jumped on a 2-0 fastball from Kenny Mathews and hit a low line drive that left the park in a hurry. He also ripped two other hard singles to left field in the game.

Haniger has serious bat speed and plus righthanded power potential in his 6-foot-2, 215-pound frame, but he doesn’t punish only fastballs. Over the course of his career, he has learned to be more selective at the plate; . . .