Week Nine of the regular season is upon us, and brings with it some excellent matchups and some opportunities for a plethora of teams to pull off upset victories. Let’s take a look at some teams that you might want to keep an eye on this weekend.
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
Despite dropping a midweek game to Louisville on Wednesday night, the Hilltoppers have had a particularly impressive 2019 campaign to this point, with the loss to the Cardinals just their sixth on the year. The Toppers hosted their largest crowd of the season in that game, indicative of a fanbase wanting to support winning ways. A sharp contrast to the 2018 season, when the team ended the year 28-26, the upstart Toppers stand at 9-0 in conference play, having swept past Florida International, Charlotte, and Florida Atlantic, with a midweek win at Kentucky also thrown in for good measure. The Louisville loss ended an 11-game winning streak for the Toppers, who will look to get back to their winning ways in a three-game set in Huntington, West Virginia against the Marshall Thundering Herd.
South Carolina Gamecocks
One of several SEC teams that have experienced something of a teeter-totter season thus far, the Gamecocks will take on Alabama, who were the nation’s last remaining undefeated team and have just two losses on the year, both of them in conference play. Hosting the Tide in Columbia will be to the Gamecocks’ benefit, but that might be where that label ends. Montana Fouts has set the tone for an impressively-deep Tide pitching staff, and the offense is high-powered. South Carolina will need to quiet at least one of those dangerous weapons in the Tide’s arsenal to pull out some wins this weekend; they’re also hoping to improve their conference standing that currently sits at 3-8.
Campbell Fighting Camels
It took just three games into Sharonda McDonald’s tenure as head coach for the Camels to record the first win of her head coaching career, but the rest of the non-conference season was rather spotty for McDonald’s club. The story has been quite different in conference play, however, as the Camels have won four out of their five conference series’ to this point (the lone outlier a sweep at Longwood), and currently sit fourth in the league standings, but hold the most victories of anyone in the league against conference opponents. The Camels will play host to USC-Upstate this week, one of the three teams above them in the league standings and the team that leads the Big South in overall winning percentage, with a .737 mark and twenty-eight victories on the year.
Stanford Cardinal
Yet another team that started the season surprisingly successful, very few doubted that Jessica Allister would be able to return her alma mater to its winning ways of old. Many were of the opinion, however, that the Cardinal would not quite be to that level in just Allister’s second year on the job. The Cardinal have both met and exceeded expectations, having already surpassed their 2018 win total just two weeks into conference play. Sitting at 26-6 going into a three-game series in Corvallis against Oregon State, the Cardinal split a doubleheader with Sacramento State on Wednesday and will look to improve on their 4-1 PAC-12 record that includes a split, two-game series against Cal and a series win over Oregon. The Cardinal’s PAC-12 slate is ridiculously backloaded, as they’ll end the regular season against Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA, and Washington in consecutive weeks.
Columbia Lions
The Lions have put together an impressive start to conference play, boasting a 5-1 record in Ivy League games and leading the conference standings heading into the weekend. The Lions lost all-star Taylor Troutt after last season, but don’t seem to be horribly worse for wear, as they are one of just two teams in the conference with overall records over .500. The Lions carry a three-game winning streak into the weekend, after taking a series win over Princeton and emerging victorious from a midweek battle with Manhattan, and will visit Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Harvard Crimson. Currently third in the conference standings and never an easy opponent, the Crimson have finished in the league’s top two in each of the last three seasons and could be the Lions’ biggest obstacle en route to a challenge for a conference championship and NCAA tournament berth.
Indiana Hoosiers
Outside of a road series against Wisconsin, this weekend’s three-game set vs. Michigan is the by-and-large biggest conference test of the year for the Hoosiers. Currently 3-3 in conference play, having been on both ends of a series sweep to begin their B1G slate, the Hoosiers travel to Ann Arbor for a trio of games that could be an early make-or-break for the team’s championship hopes. A non-conference schedule that began with a 14-game winning streak was a good start for the Hoosiers, but they’ve looked somewhat sluggish to start conference play. A series sweep at the hands of Ohio State got the Hoosiers off on the decidedly-wrong foot, though they rebounded with a sweep of their own against Michigan State last week. Throw in a non-conference jaunt against Northwestern that will not count in the league standings and the Hoosiers very evidently still have some work to do to solidify their resume for the postseason opportunities that lay ahead. A series win against the always-hearty Wolverines would be a large step in the right direction for Shonda Stanton’s squad.
Seattle Redhawks
Perhaps the unsung heroes of week eight, the Redhawks’ series win over New Mexico State proved that the WAC crown is squarely up for grabs, and the Redhawks are firmly in play for the top seed in the conference tournament. The pair of wins over New Mexico State both took extra innings and were one-run wins, but the Redhawks proved resilient and came out ahead. Now 4-2 in conference play, the Redhawks will step out of WAC play for a week to host a four-team tournament that includes North Dakota State, Portland State, and Santa Clara. The most intriguing matchup is a pair of games between the Redhawks and the Bison of NDSU, as the two teams will square off on Friday, then again on Saturday. A pair of wins, or even a series split, would be a solid feather in the Redhawks’ caps as they attempt to build a championship resume.
Oklahoma Sooners
Facing the massively-struggling Baylor Bears, you could see Oklahoma show out this weekend, even in conference play. Twelve Sooners have recorded at least one home run on the year, while senior Sydney Romero leads the team with thirteen longballs. Five everyday starters boast batting averages above .400, a category that Romero also leads with a .442 mark. The program’s pitching staff has also been impressive and dominant, but it should be the Sooner offense that takes center stage in Norman this week.
Photo of Sharonda McDonald via Campbell Athletics
