Will the real DBU please stand up?
With all due respect toward Rhode Island and Little Rock, the Baton Rouge Regional is likely going to be a two-horse race. The Tigers are, of course, the overwhelming favorite to advance, but be wary of this regional’s very dangerous No. 2 seed.
Dallas Baptist Patriots
2025 Record: 40-16 (21-6)
RPI Rank: 20
SOS Rank: 14
Quadrant Results: Q1 (7-4), Q2 (8-7), Q3 (10-4), Q4 (15-1)
Team ERA: 4.97
Team Batting Average: .304
Team Fielding: .982
We hear all the time that “such and such university is a BLANK school,” well Dallas Baptist is, quite literally, a baseball school as baseball is the only D1 sport they have and they’re making the most of it.
There’s five programs who have made every regional since 2014: LSU, Florida, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma State…and Dallas Baptist. That’s three elite SEC programs who have won a combined four national titles over that span, the best Big 12 program in the country and historical powerhouse Oklahoma State, and little ole DBU.
DBU’s part of Conference USA so they have to do things opposite of what the power conference teams do: schedule tough outside of conference play, and coast once C-USA play starts. They are top-15 in both non-conference RPI (13) and SOS (15). They’re not scared of anybody and they can hold their own against the big boys.
The Pats played Oklahoma twice—once on a Tuesday in March, the other on a Tuesday in April—and won both games by a combined score of 20-1. They played three games against UTSA (top-25 RPI) and won the series; they split a pair of games with both Oklahoma State and TCU; and they, of course, played LSU at Globe Life Field that the Tigers won 7-3.
C-USA was a two-bid league: DBU and Western Kentucky. Dallas Baptist actually lost two out of three to Western Kentucky, but the Pats still managed to win the league’s regular season championship by three games. They did, however, get upset in the C-USA Tournament, going out in the semifinal round to Jacksonville State.
Ironically what’s been giving the Patriots problems the past couple of years in the NCAA Tournament isn’t losing to the No. 1 seed, but the No. 3 seed. Friend of the website Hunt Palmer did some homework for louisianasports.net and found that in each of the past three seasons, DBU’s lost the 2-3 game all three years. The Pats have started off in the loser’s bracket the last three years and haven’t been able to climb out of that hole. And for all the success Dallas Baptist has had the past 15 years, they’ve only managed to advance to two Super Regionals and have yet to make it to Omaha.
The Patriots look to flip that narrative this weekend in Baton Rouge. They’ll open with Rhode Island today (weather permitting) and will try to knock out big, bad LSU.
As I wrote about in the Rhode Island preview, DBU can really swing it but the pitching’s a little iffy. Grant Jay has a team-leading 19 homers, Nathan Humphreys is right behind him with 17, and Chayton Krauss has 14. Shoutout to Jake Bennett who has 12 homers in just 87 at bats. As a team, DBU has a .535 slugging percentage and, like Rhode Island, they’re aggressive on the bases. The Pats have stolen 104 bases on 122 attempts (85 percent, and average 1.8 steals per game) so Luis Hernandez and/or Cade Arrambide will need to be prepared.
DBU can score a lot, but their pitching will give some right back. The Patriots have a pretty solid rotation in Ryan Borberg, James Ellwanger and former Tiger Micah Bucknam, who has found a role as DBU’s No. 3 starter. Borberg will likley get the nod for the opening game against Rhode Island and, should the Patriots buck their trend of losing tournament openers, hand the ball to Ellwanger in the winner’s game.
Tyler Schott is DBU’s most effective bullpen arm (2.65 ERA in 17 innings), but Mason Peters leads the team with four saves despite a 4.70 ERA. This bullpen can be exploited. All five relievers who have logged 20 innings all have an ERA of 4.54 or worse.
LSU got a very favorable draw with Rhode Island Little Rock being lumped into its region. And while DBU’s a very, very good team—arguably one the strongest two-seeds in the field— LSU’s already beaten them with one of their midweek arms. This won’t be a cakewalk for LSU, but they’re clearly the best team in this regional, and if the Tigers play up to their standard, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t go a perfect 3-0 this weekend and advance to the Supers.