re: How does Stony Brook end up with more hitting talent than LSU?

The reason Stonybrook can have more talent is where they're located. They sit just outside of NYC, have 25K+ students and don't have a ton of competition for players. Baseball isn't like football in that talent isn't so obvious to see, especially when you're talking about kids from cold weather climates who aren't in position to be scouted/recruited as heavily as kids from warm weather climates. Most recruiting classes in the SEC are wrapped up by the fall before HS kids play their senior years and there are tons of kids in the northeast who don't develop until well after that. All the Stonybrook's and St. John's of the world have to do is sit back and wait on the kids who fall through the cracks. You'd be amazed at the quality of players who are looking for places to go up that way.