CBT: Three In, Five To Go. Follow The Yellow Brick Road.
Day two of the Super Regionals is in the archives and we've already scanned three tickets to Omaha as Texas, Louisville and UC Irvine advanced to the promised land with series wins over Houston, Kennesaw State and Oklahoma State respectively. Five other teams hope to avoid the green-skinned witch and her flying monkeys before they get to meet the Wizard who grants their wishes of making the Field of Eight.
With those three slots filled already, here are three things I'm thankful for.
1- I'm thankful that Texas didn't pull the plug on Augie.
You know how big-money programs are. They think they are SEC football programs who will fire their coach for one season of .500 play. When Texas didn't make the last two NCAA tournaments ? even suffering a last place finish in the Big 12 ? UT fans wanted to put the kibosh on old Augustus Garrido. But coach was defiant. He said last year, "This can be fixed. And I'm the one who can fix it."
Sure enough. The old war horse with the Hall of Fame smile did it. Our own Mike Rooney even predicted Texas would win the national title back in the preseason, albeit it was a "Drunk Uncle" prediction. Now, a national title would really put it in the face of all those UT curmudgeons who wanted Augie gone.
Augie Garrido has now led Texas to its record setting 35th appearance in Omaha
Augie Garrido has now led Texas to its record setting 35th appearance in Omaha
Tell you what, all you Texas fans who wanted Augie fired, you are not allowed to come to Omaha. And as I tweeted earlier, you must watch the College World Series on a black and white TV in your basement.
2- I'm thankful UCI didn't sustain another painful Super Regional loss.
The last two times UCI went to the Supers they were within one strike of making it to Omaha but lost gut-punching games to LSU and Virginia on the road in 2008 and 2011. If that had happened again this year, I'm fully convinced Mike Gillespie would've reverted to his 60s roots and gone to the desert and taken more peyote than Jim Morrison for a month.
But this time Andrew Morales was spot-on the entire nine innings, holding the Cowboys of Oklahoma State to five hits, two walks and tossing eight strikeouts. No painful endings this time.
Another weekend, another weekend where we get a picture of UC Irvine dogpiling after knocking off a black & orange OSU team.
Another weekend, another weekend where we get a picture of UC Irvine dogpiling after knocking off a black & orange OSU team.
3- I'm thankful that Louisville made it to Omaha as a mid-major one last time.
Not that I'm not going to pull for them next year when they move on to the ACC, but it's cool that for the third time the Cardinals will play in Omaha from a mid-major conference. It just sets a good example to follow for other mid-majors. Their inclusion once again says, "Hey Southern Conference team, you can do this." "Hey Big 10 Conference team, you can do this." And, "Hey Mountain West Conference team, you can do this."
For the third time in eight years, Louisville dogpiled over getting a chance to go to Omaha again.
For the third time in eight years, Louisville dogpiled over getting a chance to go to Omaha again.
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The rest of Day Two of the Super Regionals in a snapshot or two.
BIGGEST WIN:
- Stanford's jog-off.
Think about what the Cardinal were looking at going into today. They lost game one by an 11-6 count. They were facing Vanderbilt ace All American Carson Fulmer. They were throwing a freshman against him. And yet, the Trees still won? Wow.
The Stanford Cardinal celebrate the jog-off home run from Wayne Taylor which took down Vanderbilt.
The Stanford Cardinal celebrate the jog-off home run from Wayne Taylor which took down Vanderbilt in the 9th inning.
Although it seemed like they tried their damnedest to give it away by getting all walk-happy in the 8th and 9th innings and even having nearly been a victim of the dreaded dropped third strike where the runner made it to 1st base. Still they won and advanced their season one more day
at least.
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BIGGEST LOSS:
- College of Charleston.
Saturday was their chance to put the Raiders on their heels. But the Cougar offense could only muster four hits and no runs against Texas Tech. This all wasted a great effort from CofC starter Taylor Clarke, who went the distance and gave up only five hits. Now, the Coogs are going to have to face Dylan Dusek in game two, whose last outing was throwing 8.0 innings of four-hit work in a 3-0 shutout at Miami.
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BEST BET TO GO THREE GAMES:
- Maryland at Virginia.
The Terrapins looked good. Damn good. That first game win at Davenport Field is pretty impressive for a team that hasn't sniffed any kind of post-season experience. But you know Virginia is going to shake the cobwebs and get things straight on Sunday. There's no way they go belly up in two, right?
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BEST BET TO END AFTER TWO GAMES:
- Louisiana over Ole Miss.
When the Cajuns knocked out Rebel ace Chris Ellis in the 3rd inning, it sent a shockwave signal that this wasn't going to be one of those pitching-first weekends. Sure enough, the Cajuns ended up blasting 11 hits and two home runs in their 9-5 win. A five-run 3rd and a three-run 5th put the Rebels in a ditch they could never get out of. Just like last weekend, the baseball-playing Cajuns got all those crazy Cajuns in the stands to adrenalize them and I'm not sure if the Magnolia Staters can rebound against that momentum.
Although the crowd was announced to be 4,278 inside Tigue Moore Stadium, there were thousands of Cajun fans outside the stadium watching the game on giant 90-foot TV screens in the parking lot.
Although the crowd was announced to be 4,278 inside Tigue Moore Stadium, there were thousands of Cajun fans outside the stadium watching the game on giant 90-foot TV screens in the parking lot.
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PLAY OF THE DAY:
- Charlie White's diving catch, relay throw to home.
In the bottom of the first with the bases loaded, Virginia's Kenny Towns sliced a liner to centerfield, which White made a diving catch of, bounced up and threw to Blake Schmidt, who wheeled and threw to catcher Kevin Martir, who tagged Mike Papi out at the plate. That play saved a number of runs from scoring and putting the Terrapins in a serious hole..
Now I wish I would've at least gotten a screen grab of it. Curses!
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TOUR DE FORCE:
- Chris Sadberry, Texas Tech
Nothing sad here for Sadberry, especially after being drafted by the Marlins in the 6th round on Friday. But to put it bluntly, the Red Raiders would've lost today if not for the stout lefty, who gave up just four hits with eight Ks in his 8.0 innings of work. The Raiders look to close out the Cougars of College of Charleston on Sunday and make their first-ever trip to Omaha.
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TOUR DE FORCE II:
- Josh Vidales, Houston
The Coogs might not've advanced to Omaha, but you can't blame J.V. as he went 6-for-7 in the two games and gave the Coogs their only RBI of the weekend. Houston went 18-for-67 in the two games overall.
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NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME PLAYERS:
- Houston's 1-thru-3 batters
In the two games vs. the Longhorns, the top three hitters in the batting order went just 4-for-24. Three of those hits were by Josh Vidales today (he hit in the 7-spot on Friday), but could get no support around him.
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SAY GOODBYE TO:
- Kennesaw State.
A great run for the Owls. You guys had the attention of the entire nation and it was fun to watch. Anything that reminds us of the runs by Fresno State, Stony Brook and Kent State is a good thing, even though the Owls couldn't quite make the magical run end in Omaha. Major kudos to coach Sansing and Co., they've had a great season and deserve our accolades.
- Houston
A school-record tying 48 wins and a remarkable performance in last week's wins over LSU will be a lasting legacy to this year's team. It's been an incredible run of success for the UofH program since Todd Whitting took over four years ago. This weekend's 0-2 performance shouldn't sour that.
- Oklahoma State.
The Cowboys were just squashed by a pair of soul-killing Anteater pitching performances. And yes, their defense was a little befuddled with that frustrating west coast offense that Irvine employs. Either way, it was a great season for the Pokes, making it to the final 16, winning 48 games and hosting a Super Regional. You can officially say it now, Oklahoma State baseball is back again.
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BEST LINE
- Mike Patrick on Robbie Coman, who came in to pinch hit for the final at-bat of the game for Virginia.
"Right now the butterflies have to be flying in formation."
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ANOTHER GOOD LINE.
- Tom Hart, after Ole Miss thumper Sikes Orvis legged out a double, beating the relay throw.
"Somewhere along the way from Oxford to Lafayette he bought some wheels."
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BEST TWEET OF THE NIGHT:
Here's one I saw while tweeting for ESPNU today:
Usually college football teams have a display that counts down to opening day. At Stanford, the in-locker room countdown is for when exams begin. Damn smart boys.
StanfordTweet
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QUICK HITS
- As reported a number of times already today during the games on TV, in the 15 years of the Super Regional play, the team that won the first game has gone on to win 78% of the time. And of course, add Texas, Louisville and UC Irvine to that list.
Thanks to this Caleb Adams catch at the wall that kept Ole Miss from scoring two or three runs, the Cajuns keep their winning ways alive, meaning they're one of those first-game winners who have won 78% of the time in the Super Regionals.
Thanks to this Caleb Adams catch at the wall that kept Ole Miss from scoring two or three runs, the Cajuns keep their winning ways alive, meaning they're one of those first-game winners who have won 78% of the time in the Super Regionals.
- Going into this weekend, the SEC has had a streak of 21 straight years of teams in Omaha for the CWS. The Pac 12 is second in the streak business with 17 straight years of having a team in the field of eight. Tomorrow's Vanderbilt-Stanford game three could decide which streak ends this year, depending on how the Louisiana-Ole Miss series ends up of course.
- Louisville is now 39-0 when scoring five runs or more, the best record in the country.
- Texas is now 8-1 in Super Regional games, the best such record in the country. Secondly, is North Carolina who has a 6-1 mark in Super Regional games.
- Virginia gave up five runs today in the loss to Maryland, after having given up only three runs all weekend in the Regional round.
- With his eight strikeouts in tonight's win over Oklahoma State, UC Irvine's Andrew Morales moved into a tie with Middle Tennessee's Zac Curtis for the most strikeouts this season with 136. LSU's Aaron Nola is next with 134 Ks and Maryland's Jake Stinnett is fourth with 130 K's, although he only picked up two more punchouts in today's win over UVa.
Okay StitchHeads, time to put head to pillow. Hope you dig my stuff.
G'night.
CBT: Three In, Five To Go.