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Editor's note: Baseball America contacted college coaches familiar with the 16 Super Regional teams for analysis. Anonymity was granted in exchange for their candor.

New Orleans Super Regional
Rice (45-19) at Tulane (55-10)
At Turchin Stadium
New Orleans
Saturday, June 11
Rice 9, Tulane 5
Sunday, June 12
Tulane 7, Rice 0
Monday, June 13
Tulane 9, Rice 6
Tulane (55-10) advances to College World Series

Rice Owls
CWS History: Four trips to Omaha (last in 2003), one title (2003)
Coach: Wayne Graham (14th season)
How They Got Here: Won the Baton Rouge, La., regional in three games, beating Louisiana State in the final.

Scouting the Owls: They're a very young and talented club that's jelling at the right time. They struggled some earlier this season but that's because they were young. Wayne Graham's teams are always mentally and fundamentally sound. If you make a mistake they get you.

The pitching is still dominant but it's different this year. While they don't have three power guys like last year, they have one in Joe Savery. He's cut from the mold of those guys last year and throws 93-94. For a freshman, he commands the zone with all his pitches and is very polished for a young guy. Nothing in a super regional or Omaha will fluster him. Josh Geer and Eddie Degerman throw breaking balls for strikes. If any of their starters get ahead in the count, the breaking stuff they have is so good, you can't lay off it. It's a hard-breaking slider or hard curveballs. They let their catcher call the games so it helps the tempo and they work fast. The one weakness they might have is the bullpen. If you get past the starting pitchers, you might have a good shot.

To beat Rice you have to score first. If you don't, the players get on a roll and they start building their confidence. You can't let them have the big inning, because when they get going, it's a snowball effect and they can throw a 5- or 6-spot up in a heartbeat. You can't let them control the tempo at the plate, or on the mound.

They go as leadoff guy Tyler Henley goes. You've got to keep him off base. Adam Rodgers can always hurt you. They have really swung the bats well lately. Savery's the guy you don't want to let beat you. He really does a nice job of making adjustments. It's hard to believe he's a freshman You can't get lazy, they'll swing at first-pitch fastballs and hit them. Josh Rodriguez is good. He's played very well defensively for them. Putting him at short really worked well.

Tulane Green Wave
CWS History: One trip to Omaha (2001), no titles.
Coach: Rick Jones (12th season)
How They Got Here: Won the New Orleans regional in three games, beating Alabama in the final.

Scouting the Green Wave: They have dominant starting pitching, a very solid, experienced defense, and power in the middle of the lineup. Of course, the front-line starting pitching is as dominant as you can have in college baseball. Even J.R. Crowell, who started on Sunday, would be a Friday guy for a lot of teams. Brian Bogusevic was fastball, slider and maybe a cutter right on our hands all night. We couldn't get good swings on him. Micah Owings is a rear-back-and-chuck-it guy. He works up and down, fastball at the chest and slider low. He doesn't throw the ball in the same place twice. You can't miss pitches early in the count when they give you a pitch to hit. Attack early, because when they get two strikes on you, they have weapons.

The bullpen gets overshadowed because it's not relied upon to do much. After all, they jump on teams early and don't have a lot of close games, but they can bring quality arms out of the pen. Brandon Gomes is 88-90 with a slider, and he's coming out of the pen and can be a fourth starter. Rick Jones has done a great job convincing guys to be part of that program when they could be starters elsewhere.

They don't make mistakes, they defend the field real well and dominate the routine play, which is exactly what good teams do. Tommy Manzella sets the pace on that club with great defense. It took three years, but now he's a proven shortstop defensively and hits atop or in the middle of your lineup, too. They've done a good job protecting Brad Emaus, the freshman third baseman, with experienced guys in the lineup. Nothing's new to them. Even in spite of Brian Bogusevic's lack of power because of his hamstring injury, Georgia Tech transfer Micah Owings picked up the slack in the power department. Most clubs can't replace a third or fourth hitter, and they did with Owings. Nathan Southard, the leadoff man, can go yard any time. Most college baseball teams can't overcome losing a middle of the order guy you're counting on to hit a bunch of home runs, and they did. It's amazing.

Will Kimmey covers college baseball for Baseball America.