View Full Version : The 2009 College Baseball Season
I've been considering starting this thread for a couple of weeks now. With conference play coming up soon and some pretty nice match-ups this weekend, might as well go ahead and do it.
So far this season, Arkansas has been the cardiac kids, winning half of their games in the final at-bat. Last night, Arkansas hit a 2 run homer in the bottom of the ninth with 2 outs to force extra innings and then won it in the bottom of the 10th with a squeeze play over California. Pretty good match-up, packed house, good weather, rest of the series should be great.
Only loss on the season was a Tuesday afternoon match with Kansas. That two-game series was split the next night with, not surprisingly, a walk-off homer for the Hogs.
8-1 on the season and looking good. Would love to see some updates from your favorite teams and conferences. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only CB fan on board.
cartman
03-07-2009, 12:55 PM
Texas has gotten off to a nice start, and are 11-0 after beating Stanford last night 6-2. They play the Cardinal again today and tomorrow in Palo Alto, then head home to start Big 12 play on Wednesday against a Top 15 team in Baylor. They are currently #2 in the Baseball America poll, and #4 in the ESPN/USA Today poll.
DeToxRox
03-07-2009, 12:59 PM
Michigan is doing alright, 8-2 so far. They're quickly becoming the best program in the North. Hopefully this is the year they finally head to Nebraska.
StLee
03-07-2009, 05:37 PM
#1 LSU found their bats today after being shut down 3-1 yesterday by Illinois. Today LSU hit 7 HRs, including 3 grand slams to win it 22-10. Looks like football scores are back in college baseball! :D
Arkansas took 2 of 3 from Cal this weekend by winning game three 13-3. Eibner broke it open with a grand slam in the 6th inning.
JonInMiddleGA
03-08-2009, 05:43 PM
9th ranked Georgia Tech (9-1) got a pinch-hit three-run homer in the 8th to complete a sweep of Maryland with a 10-7 win, on the heels of yesterday's 24-3 rout.
DeToxRox
03-08-2009, 05:48 PM
Michigan sits at 10-2 with a huge 3 game set @ Arizona this coming up weekend.
Sophmore OF Ryan LaMarre is mashing for the Wolverines, hitting .440 with 6 HR and 25 RBI in 12 games, while our Ace Chris Fetter has looked good, at 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA with 24 K - 3 BB in 8 IP.
JonInMiddleGA
03-08-2009, 05:50 PM
2nd ranked UGAg sweeps Quinnipiac to remain unbeaten. An impressive two game mid-week series vs Lemoyne is next, followed by a trip to Alabama to open conference play.
JonInMiddleGA
03-09-2009, 04:06 PM
Still too early to mean much afaic but ...
UCSON, Ariz. — The University of Georgia (12-0) has been ranked No. 1 for the first time this season in Collegiate Baseball newspaper's NCAA Division I baseball poll.
The Bulldogs' 12-0 start is the best in school history, surpassing the 9-0 start by the 1911 team. Georgia is hitting .364 as a team with 20 homers, 36 doubles and 18 stolen bases over 12 games. The pitching staff has a 2.42 ERA with 115 strikeouts and only 32 walks.
Louisiana St., ranked No. 1 the previous three polls, slipped to third after losing two of three games at home to Illinois.
POLL NOTES: Several other teams have been red-hot. Virginia entered the poll for the first time this season with a perfect 12-0 record. Three other teams also made their entrance into the poll with U.C. Santa Barbara (9-2), Illinois (7-2), and San Jose St. (9-0). Coastal Carolina has won nine straight while Cal. St. Fullerton has won eight in a row. Teams that fell out of the poll include Florida St. (1-4 last week), Clemson (2-3), Mississippi St. (1-3) and San Diego (1-3). When Florida St. dropped two of three at home to Boston College last weekend, it marked the first time in school history that the Seminoles have dropped an ACC series opener, a span covering 18 seasons.
Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's
NCAA Div. I Poll (As of March 9, 2009)
www.baseballnews.com
Rank School (Record) Points Previous
1. Georgia (12-0) 496 2
2. North Carolina (10-2) 495 3
3. Louisiana St. (10-2) 492 1
4. Texas (12-1) 490 4
5. Arizona St. (11-1) 489 5
6. Georgia Tech. (9-1) 485 9
7. Cal. St. Fullerton (9-2) 482 12
8. Miami, Fla. (10-2) 479 10
9. Texas A&M (11-3) 477 8
10. Rice (8-4) 472 7
11. Texas Christian (9-2) 470 11
12. Oklahoma St. (9-2) 466 13
13. Baylor (10-2) 464 14
14. Coastal Carolina (12-1) 461 16
15. Cal Poly (8-2) 458 17
16. U.C. Irvine (7-4) 455 15
17. South Carolina (8-1) 450 18
18. Virginia (12-0) 447 —
19. Florida (9-4) 445 20
20. Mississippi (7-3) 441 21
21. Illinois (7-2) 437 —
22. Pepperdine (9-3) 436 22
23. Lamar (12-2) 435 23
24. U.C. Santa Barbara (9-2) 432 —
25. San Jose St. (9-0) 430 —
26. East Carolina (8-2) 429 24
27. Oklahoma (12-3) 427 27
28. Michigan (10-2) 426 28
29. Kentucky (9-2) 425 29
30. Ohio St. (9-2) 423 25
Arkansas opens the SEC season right, sweeping Florida at home. 12-6, 8-4, 4-2 (weird sort of regressive symmetry in those scores).
suck it tebow!!
JonInMiddleGA
03-15-2009, 04:41 PM
GT manages to get in only 1 of the 3 games scheduled with BC due to rain. 3-0 for the week with wins over Kennesaw State, Mercer, and BC.
UGA has already dropped a doubleheader to Alabama yesterday & is clinging to a 10-8 lead in the 7th inning of the final game of the series.
Arkansas opens SEC play 5-0 for the first time ever after taking the first 2 games on the road at Auburn. Yesterday 3-2 today 10-6. Two really good games.
This team, for the first time since I've watched them, seems to have that timely hitting factor. 2 outs, down 1 run, runners on first and second? Base hit. Over and over. Clutch hitting, welcome.
Izulde
03-21-2009, 06:22 PM
I haven't gotten to a Hogs baseball game yet, but I've been meaning to. Nice to finally have a good major-sport team this year.
We should try to hit one. They are a lot of fun. Best ballpark in the country, too.
JonInMiddleGA
03-21-2009, 07:03 PM
GT makes it 12 straight last night with a come from behind 10-9 win over Va Tech by scoring 6 runs in the ninth.
Thomkal
03-21-2009, 08:24 PM
Go Coastal Carolina. :) Thought they might struggle this season, especially with pitching, but they seem to have found replacements for the good ones that graduated. Had a long winning streak and beat their nemesis from last year already this season North Carolina and took two from Tennessee too.
JonInMiddleGA
03-21-2009, 08:28 PM
and took two from Tennessee too.
Not necessarily a big feat :(
Not really any question that CC is a better baseball program than UT right now.
Thomkal
03-21-2009, 09:10 PM
yeah looks that way Jon, but always nice when a small school like Coastal gets a win against a big conference school program.
JonInMiddleGA
03-21-2009, 09:13 PM
yeah looks that way Jon, but always nice when a small school like Coastal gets a win against a big conference school program.
Understood, definitely not taking anything away from Coastal in that regard.
I just know which one of them I'd rather face than the other at this point, one of them is a much easier W than the other.
Arkanas completes the sweep of Auburn, winning 12-6 today. Only undefeated SEC team, now, at 6-0.
I saw Alabama blasting Ole Miss 18-0 in the 5th earlier. Yikes.
SnDvls
03-23-2009, 09:14 AM
ASU sweeps Arizona with victories of 4-1, 7-3 and 23-9 for the woodshed beating and series sweep.
Thomkal
03-28-2009, 09:55 AM
Coastal Carolina had a tough week last week, scheduled to play just about every day, some travel, and it showed at the end of the week when Big South rival Winthrop took 2 of 3 from them. So where to go for some nice R&R? Hawaii of course.
Got to go a couple days before a 4 game series vs Hawaii, and apparantly they were well rested for Game 1 because Cody Wheeler threw the first (full 9 inning) no-hitter in coach Gary Gilmore's term as head coach of the Chanticleers. It was the first time Hawaii had been held hitless since 1998, and first time at home since 1982.
DeToxRox
03-28-2009, 09:58 AM
Michigan was swept by Arizona but bounced back to win their next five. They opened Big 10 play with a 4-3 W over Iowa yesterday.
Arkansas's series with Mississippi State will be struggling through the weather. Last night's game was stopped in the middle of the 5th inning with Arkansas leading 10-3 for rain. Today it is snowing. Supposed to resume at 2:05 this afternoon but there is a good chance that won't happen. Might have to finish game 1 tomorrow and then get in a 9 or 7 inning game two and that's it.
As far as the actual games, Arkansas is still getting timely hitting and good pitching, along with a healthy dose of just pounding it out of the park. Unless things go downhill fast, I expect the Razorbacks to remain undefeated in conference play through the weekend.
cartman
03-28-2009, 11:02 AM
The Texas bats went silent last week, and they had a four game losing streak. They dropped from #1/#2 in the polls to #9 in both.
JonInMiddleGA
03-28-2009, 11:34 AM
This week's #1 vs #3 rivalry game between Georgia & Georgia Tech was rained out. They'll meet at least two other times this year, once here in Athens & again at Turner Field toward the end of the season. Both teams were surprised in their other mid-week games, UGA losing at home to Wright State while GT lost at home to Georgia State.
Friday night's conference play saw Georgia pound Tennessee 12-6 and Georgia Tech hit five home runs en route to a 13-9 win at #2 Miami.
If not for the rainout, I wonder how often any team ends up scheduled to play both the #1 and #2 teams in the same week of the regular season, even moreso how often it happens that the team doing so is ranked #3?
larrymcg421
03-28-2009, 11:37 AM
#3 Ga Tech at #2 Miami this weekend should be some good stuff. GA Tech took first game 13-9.
Well Arkansas and Miss. State battled through rain and snow to finish yesterday's game today and it just ended at 20-9. Awful conditions, pitches all over the place, errors left and right, but it is over. The weather should be better tomorrow, so they will play two 7-inning games at noon.
StLee
03-28-2009, 05:27 PM
Watching the LSU-Ole Miss game right now. Blake Dean just hit an ultra rare 3-RBI single. Super speeder and former football wideout Jared Mitchell was running on a 3-2, 2-out pitch, and made it all away around on a poke single through the right side. I don't know how often 3-RBI singles happen, but I would bet it's not something most people have seen.
JonInMiddleGA
04-03-2009, 09:08 PM
#3 Georgia Tech loses the series opener at home to #5 UNC by a 4-2 final.
#1 Georgia trails #5 LSU (diff. poll?) 8-1 in the ninth.
Arkansas opens the series at South Carolina with a 6-4 win to go to 9-1 in the SEC.
Thomkal
04-04-2009, 10:05 AM
Coastal Carolina lost the remaiining three games against Hawaii sadly, as well as their leadoff hitter for a while, but have rebounded nicely with a couple tough one run wins against UNC-Wilmington, and then opening a series against division foe Gardner-Webb with a win where they hit six home runs.
Arkansas wins the series at South Carolina, 6-4 on Friday, losing 9-1 Saturday, and coming back today from 4-0 down after the 1st inning and winning 7-4.
Our Sunday starter Smyly has had two consecutive outings where he hasn't made it out of the first inning. He will likely be replaced in the rotation by Eibner or Bolsinger, who came in today and pitched the last 5 or so innings and completely shut down the Gamecocks.
Arkansas is still a clear first place overall in the SEC at 10-2 with a big mid-week series vs. #3 Arizona State coming up.
JonInMiddleGA
04-05-2009, 04:26 PM
Walk off grand slam in the 11th rallies GT over UNC last night to even the series but an 8-run 2nd inning doomed the Jackets today, 13-10 loss dropping 2/3 at home.
LSU took 2/3 from #1 Georgia in Athens.
Arkansas ranked #1 in the latest collegiate baseball poll:
NCAA DIV I POLL - Current - Collegiate Baseball Newspaper (http://www.baseballnews.com/polls/divI/currentpolldivI.htm)
Awesome.
and that poll has Arizona State at #2. Arizona State plays two midweek games at Arkansas this week. Should be fun. I might have to find a way to get to at least one of these now.
#1 vs. #2 game 1 (according to one poll anyway) about to start. Arizona State at Arkansas.
cartman
04-07-2009, 06:51 PM
I'm surprised at the number of losses teams already have. Usually heading into the CWS there are several teams that are 35-5, 40-6 or other records like that.
Tigercat
04-07-2009, 09:34 PM
Parity is huge in college baseball this year, and there are no great teams so far.
I think IF, and it may/may not be a big if, LSU hitting ever heats up to the talent potential, we are the clear best team in the nation. And that is something I would have never said at this point in the season about any other LSU baseball team. We have hit well below our potential so far as a team, and we are still #2 or #4 in the nation in all the polls.
Arkansas wins game 7-3. Great game. Game 2 tomorrow.
Izulde
04-07-2009, 11:53 PM
Arkansas wins game 7-3. Great game. Game 2 tomorrow.
About when you think the game will run tomorrow?
SnDvls
04-08-2009, 04:58 PM
#1 vs. #2 game 1 (according to one poll anyway) about to start. Arizona State at Arkansas.
it's billed as #1 vs #1 since ASU is #1 in almost every other poll.
Great game #1 was hopefully we pull out game #2 for a split.
About when you think the game will run tomorrow?
First pitch is 6:30 I believe. I think we will be trying to make it to at least one of the games this weekend against Vandy if you are interested.
it's billed as #1 vs #1 since ASU is #1 in almost every other poll.
Great game #1 was hopefully we pull out game #2 for a split.
Definitely a good chance of it. We are probably staffing it tonight.
After 4 innings, it is Arizona State 6, Arkansas 5. Great game to watch so far. ASU jumped out 6-1 and 4 runs in the 4th by Arkansas to get back into it.
School record 11,014 in attendance tonight. Previous record was in the 10s I believe. 8-7 Arkansas lead in bottom of the 8th right now. One of the most exciting games I can remember watching.
Game ends 8-7. Electric crowd, very happy with that sweep.
Tigercat
04-08-2009, 10:29 PM
Arky should be #1 if they win their weekend series. I am planning to try and make it up there for the LSU Arkansas series later in the season. Will be nice to see a game up there without that horrid Astroturf y'all used to have! That field + Aluminum bats used to give up the flukiest singles I have ever seen in my life.
Thomkal
04-09-2009, 08:28 AM
And the winning streak continues for Coastal Carolina. Travelled up to Winston-Salem to play Wake Forest and after scoring 11 runs in the fourth inning they had a 15-2 lead. Easy win you say? Nope they had to hang on to win 16-13. Still given their strength of schedule and conference they play in, a good win for their tournament hopes.
Arkansas is in the process of ruining the chance to be ranked in the top 5 next week in most polls by getting swept by Vanderbilt, and in convincing fashion. Vanderbilt has taken the first two games 9-10 and 13-6. Really, two embarrassingly bad performances this weekend. Might not even get to play game 3 because of weather, but if it is played, it will take a lot better play than this to salvage 1 of 3.
Izulde
04-11-2009, 11:19 PM
What's the rest of the home schedule look like?
JonInMiddleGA
04-11-2009, 11:30 PM
#8 Georgia Tech wins a rain-delayed Friday game on Saturday afternoon with three hits in the bottom of the ninth to prevail 8-7 but then blows a big lead in the nightcap as #11 Virginia scores 6 times in the top of 9th of win 11-10.
cartman
04-19-2009, 07:54 PM
Texas got a huge three game sweep of Oklahoma over the weekend. This puts them in the driver's seat for the Big 12.
JonInMiddleGA
04-19-2009, 08:02 PM
#10 Ga Tech sweeps Wake Forest on the road, completes a perfect week that started with wins over UGA & Georgia State. The wins keep GT one game ahead of UNC in the Coastal Division, 1.5 ahead of FSU in the conference overall.
#1 Georgia takes two of three from visiting Arkansas, Razorbacks avoid the sweep with a one-hitter, winning Sunday's game 2-0. First time UGA has been shut out since April 2007, first one-hitter against them since GT did it in April 1994.
The first two games of the Arkansas-Georgia series that Georgia won were almost identical. Arkansas scored to take the lead, Georgia came back and took the lead, Arkansas scored a single run to tie it, and in the bottom of the 9th in both games, Georgia scored a run to win 4-3. Really bizarre. The 3rd game was a fantastic pitching performance from Brett Eibner who was making his first weekend start of the year. He is also breaking out of a hitting slump in a major way, lately, becoming a force at the plate.
Encouraging to see that pitching performance as our other weekend starters aside from Dallas Keuchel have started struggling the last few weeks, suddenly.
SnDvls
05-01-2009, 10:27 PM
The season will be a week longer on the front end starting next season. Sucks for the "Northern" schools, but will be better for the "Southern" schools for travel situations midweek.
Thomkal
05-02-2009, 10:47 AM
Coastal Carolina has had its ups and downs this season, a winning streak of a few games, then a losing streak of a few games. More importantly they are losing more to Big South Conference teams, leaving them in third place coming into this weekend series against front runner Liberty. Coastal is coming off a win against Wake Forest that broke a losing streak, but it didn't look like the streak was going to go past one after they were down by five runs early. But they rallied back and the bullpen put in a strong effort, leading to a 13-7 win for Coastal in game one of the series. Better yet, the game was nationally televised on ESPN U.
Well I guess I can update on Arkansas. Had a good week, taking 2 of 3 from Tennessee (should've swept but Saturday was like a freak show of bad fortune and wound up losing by a run in the bottom of the 9th on a throwing error) and winning in dramatic fashion over Oklahoma at home on Tuesday.
This weekend's series is with LSU is obviously huge, and very unlikely to happen. Might get 2 games in tomorrow, but it is supposed to rain constantly for like, well forever is the best I can make out of the forecasts. Haven't thrown a pitch yet this weekend. Supposed to meet again to discuss possibilities at 3pm today.
Tigercat
05-02-2009, 03:56 PM
At first I was disappointed that I wouldn't be able to make it up for a game or two, now it looks like I may not have been able to see a game friday or today anyway.
Hasn't Arkansas already lost one SEC game completely this year due to weather?
Looks like they are going to try to play 2 tonight starting at 5pm. I'm going to throw my kid at my mom and see if we can get there and get 2 games for the price of 1. Weather looks okayish for the remainder of the evening.
StLee
05-02-2009, 06:07 PM
So far so good for the Tigers. Hitting it hard today with their best pitcher on the mound, the same who struck out 16 in 8 innings last week. LSU up 3-1 in the 4th.
StLee
05-02-2009, 06:18 PM
Apparently I typed too soon. Ranaudo is struggling this inning, walking two batters and giving up two doubles.
StLee
05-02-2009, 06:33 PM
Arkansas up 5-3 after 4 innings.
Arkansas won the first game 11-4 and lost the second game 5-0. Whoever the pitcher was in the second game (Coleman) threw a masterpiece. Razorback hitters never got a clue.
JonInMiddleGA
05-03-2009, 07:35 AM
#7 Georgia drops a pair to Florida at home, 7-6 and 10-9. That knocks them out of both first place in the SEC and first place in their division.
#10 Georgia Tech beats Presbyterian 9-8 in a non-conference weekend series (they're coming off exam week) although it took 10 innings to do it.
Thomkal
05-03-2009, 08:58 AM
Coastal had a nice pitching performance by Nick McCully who lasted into the 9th innning before being replaced as they won the second game of the series against Liberty 4-1
Tigercat
05-03-2009, 04:19 PM
Great series between LSU and Arkansas (LSU takes it 2 games to 1) in spite of the weather. Aside from LSU's pitching in the first game, great pitching all around. Both teams have a decent amount of young players, Arkansas's freshman at catcher has a howitzer for an arm.
As a LSU fan, I continue to be impressed by how good we are in spite of the fact that our hitting has never gotten in sync this year. I said it earlier in this thread, if the hitting ever does wake up to to the talent that is there, this is the best team in college baseball. Hopefully that happens by the time we get to Omaha... If not we may not be consistent enough at the plate to win it all this year.
cartman
05-03-2009, 04:39 PM
Texas sweeps Baylor over the weekend, and clinches the Big 12 title. They are also in a great position to get one of the coveted top 8 seeds for the CWS.
Great series between LSU and Arkansas (LSU takes it 2 games to 1) in spite of the weather. Aside from LSU's pitching in the first game, great pitching all around. Both teams have a decent amount of young players, Arkansas's freshman at catcher has a howitzer for an arm.
As a LSU fan, I continue to be impressed by how good we are in spite of the fact that our hitting has never gotten in sync this year. I said it earlier in this thread, if the hitting ever does wake up to to the talent that is there, this is the best team in college baseball. Hopefully that happens by the time we get to Omaha... If not we may not be consistent enough at the plate to win it all this year.
Just got home. I attended all 3 games of the series. Arkansas starting pitching let them down in games 2 and 3. Bullpen didn't allow a run all weekend. Frustrating.
LSU 4, Arkansas 11
LSU 5, Arkansas 0
LSU 4, Arkansas 3
Tigercat
05-03-2009, 05:30 PM
Just got home. I attended all 3 games of the series. Arkansas starting pitching let them down in games 2 and 3. Bullpen didn't allow a run all weekend. Frustrating.
LSU 4, Arkansas 11
LSU 5, Arkansas 0
LSU 4, Arkansas 3
I don't know, I think as talented as LSU hitting is, the starting pitching did a good job. The second game, that is just one of those instances where a great pitcher pitches a gem, nothing any team can do about that.
Today's game, I would say if any part of Arkansas's team came up short it was the hitting. Ross's fastball is pretty flat, that's why his ERA was just barely sub 5 before this game. If you are a good team with clutch hitting playing at home, like Arkansas is, you have to score more than 3 against a pitcher like that. Leaving the bases loaded and getting picked off at second was particularly costly.
Agreed. But my point was that the bullpen was better than the starters this in game 2 and 3.
SnDvls
05-04-2009, 02:36 PM
ASU lost it's 1st weekend series of the year vs. Oregon St., but they still have a firm grasp on the Pac-10.
Thomkal
05-04-2009, 04:04 PM
Coastal swept Liberty to get back in the driver's seat for the conference title.
JonInMiddleGA
05-09-2009, 02:34 AM
Friday night sees #8 Georgia Tech pound #6 FSU 12-3, ending the 'Noles 14 game winning streak.
Another streak continues however, as Vandy wallops #13 UGA 10-2, the 7th straight loss for the Dawgs. Vandy pitching held Georgia to just two runs in spite of 9 walks, escaping a pair of bases-loaded one out jams with 3 K's and a ground ball.
StLee
05-09-2009, 10:04 PM
#3 LSU beat #14 Florida 10-1, 4-0 to take the series and will have at least a 1.5-game lead going into the last four games of the season. LSU pitching has been outstanding so far this weekend.
JonInMiddleGA
05-09-2009, 10:06 PM
GT loses to FSU 8-6, Vandy jumps on UGA early again with 4 in the first en route to a 9-2 win.
JonInMiddleGA
05-16-2009, 05:49 PM
After beating GT at Turner Field midweek, Georgia completes their second half collapse by getting swept at South Carolina.
Ranked #1 twice during the season, the Dogs have lost 10 of their last 12 overall and 10 of their last 12 in the conference. They'll be either a 5th or 6th seed in the conference tournament next week while the Gamecocks are the SEC's hottest team with 7 straight wins while LSU and Florida will be the top two seeds.
Meanwhile 7th ranked Georgia Tech drops 2 out of 3 at Duke and looks to have slipped back to a #4 seed in the ACC tournament that starts Wednesday in Durham, NC. FSU, UNC, and Clemson all look to be safely ahead of the Jackets in some order.
Tigercat
05-16-2009, 05:59 PM
Ole Miss finished the season pretty hot as well, tying LSU for the SEC regular season championship with a sweep against Arkansas. (Who also tanked to end the season.)
Leon Landry for LSU, a guy who has been benched for most of the season due to early SO problems, had 5 hits today including 3 HRs. If he can provide that second fearsome bat in the lineup besides Dean, he may be the piece LSU needs to achieve up to the scoring potential that has alluded them all season long. If that happens LSU will be very, very tough to beat on the road to the CWS.
With all the parity in the SEC this year the tournament at Hoover should be a good one.
Arkansas. (Who also tanked to end the season.)
Tell me about it. I had to stop watching several games. Ugly, ugly, ugly collapse.
mauchow
05-16-2009, 08:03 PM
Bryan Fuller of Campbellsville pitched 21 shutout innings to get to NAIA World Series - ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=4171780)
What an incredible story... I figured this would be worthy of its own thread but I decided not to clutter.
Thomkal
05-16-2009, 08:09 PM
Coastal has won the Big South. They only had two series left against weaker conference foes and have won all five with one left to play. They also have the most wins of any NCAA team, which I find hard to believe given their mutliple losing streaks this season. They still may need to win the Big South Conference tournament to get a home regional and even that might not be enough given the number of other teams in the same geographic area that could get a home regional.
SnDvls
05-18-2009, 08:14 AM
ASU sweeps Oregon for at worst a share of the Pac-10 title, but with one win vs. UCLA (or a Washington St loss) next weekend will clinch it outright and have their 3rd straight title.
Tennessee's third baseman is off the team after an argument with the manager. The player failed to run out a dropped third strike and instead walked to the dugout. After the argument, the player was told to leave the field and that he'd be taken back to Knoxville.
Not to be outdone, the player arranged for his own flight back instead of waiting for arrangements to be made.
JonInMiddleGA
05-24-2009, 03:26 PM
NCAA announces baseball tournament's regional sites - ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=4202816)
The complete pairings for the 2009 field will be announced during Monday's The Road to Omaha selection show (ESPN, 12:30 p.m. ET).
Each regional features four teams playing in a double-elimination format.
The road to Omaha begins with regional play at the following sites/hosts:
• Atlanta/Georgia Tech
• Austin, Texas/Texas
• Baton Rouge, La./LSU
• Chapel Hill, N.C./UNC
• Clemson, S.C./Clemson
• Fort Worth, Texas/TCU
• Fullerton, Calif./Cal State Fullerton
• Gainesville, Fla./Florida
• Greenville, N.C./East Carolina
• Houston/Rice
• Irvine, Calif./UC Irvine
• Louisville, Ky./Louisville
• Norman, Okla./Oklahoma
• Oxford, Miss./Mississippi
• Tallahassee, Fla./Florida State
• Tempe, Ariz./Arizona State
Florida State is hosting a regional for a record 28th time. Arizona State and LSU each are hosting for the 19th time.
The eight super regional hosts will be announced at 11 p.m. ET on June 1.
The College World Series begins June 13 at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb.
cartman
05-24-2009, 04:18 PM
Texas beats Mizzou 12-7 to win the Big 12 tourney. The Horns should be a lock to land one of the 8 super regional host spots.
Thomkal
05-24-2009, 04:59 PM
Coastal Carolina had to come through the loser's bracket to win the Big South tournament, which probably cost them a regional host spot, but even then it might not have got one given the number of host teams in the Carolinas and the one in Georgia. It'll be interesting to see where they end up. Shame they didn't get to host this time around, they would have played it in the minor league Myrtle Beach Pelicans stadium instead of their homefield, which would have been a great place to play.
JonInMiddleGA
05-24-2009, 05:46 PM
6th-seeded Virginia wins it in the ninth, claiming the ACC title over FSU 6-3.
#1 seed LSU beats Vandy 6-2 to claim their second straight SEC title.
k0ruptr
05-25-2009, 06:47 AM
LOL Fresno St. the defending champs went from being in last place in the WAC about a month ago to winning the WAC tourney and getting a spot again! watch out people, they're back!
Thomkal
05-25-2009, 01:36 PM
well the teams in the regionals have been announced:
2009 NCAA Baseball Bracket - ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/bracket?id=4203475)
Coastal Carolina as expected did not get a #1 seed despite having the most wins of any team. Was hoping for East Carolina's, Clemson, or Georgia Tech's regional, but instead they got sent to North Carolina's regional. Some bad blood there (Coastal's fault) between them from when Coastal got knocked out in the Super Regionals last year in two straight blow out games by Carolina. Coastal did beat Carolina in a one game series in February, but then they had beat Carolina during the regular season last year too.
Feel bad for #1 UC Irvine who gets the defending champ Fresno State, Virginia, and San Diego State with the #1 pitching prospect in the nation in their regional. See some big conference teams got in after playing poorly at the end of the season-Baylor and Oklahoma State is what the ESPN "pundits" pointed out.
JonInMiddleGA
05-25-2009, 01:51 PM
GT has no one to blame but themselves really, although I'm sorry to see Georgia State get stuck in the same bracket with the Jackets. The team that actually worries me in that foursome is Elon who wouldn't surprise me at all if they advance.
Not happy to see Florida as the looming super regional opponent for the Jackets, I don't see any way they get past that one unless Miami pulls the upset in the all-Florida quartet (with Jacksonville & Bethune-Cookman).
Tigercat
05-25-2009, 07:27 PM
I cannot believe what an overall HORRIBLE job this committee did. The worst thing you can do is only favor one indicator for success, to the benefit of mostly one conference. The committee seemingly only looked at RPI for regional births, giving two teams with horrible resumes out of the Big 12 births. (One team, Oklahoma State, missed a conference tournament that takes the best 8 teams out of 10!)
And what conference has an official as the head of the selection committee? The Big 12.
*And don't even get me started on the pathetic job they did this year in regional and super regional matchup considerations.
Huckleberry
05-26-2009, 07:36 AM
I cannot believe what an overall HORRIBLE job this committee did. The worst thing you can do is only favor one indicator for success, to the benefit of mostly one conference. The committee seemingly only looked at RPI for regional births, giving two teams with horrible resumes out of the Big 12 births. (One team, Oklahoma State, missed a conference tournament that takes the best 8 teams out of 10!)
And what conference has an official as the head of the selection committee? The Big 12.
*And don't even get me started on the pathetic job they did this year in regional and super regional matchup considerations.
Are you serious, Clark?
Oklahoma State is not a terrible selection. College baseball is completely dominated by the West. Out of 62 CWS titles, 44 have been won by teams west of the Mississippi, 10 by teams east of the Mississippi, and 8 by teams on the Mississippi.
Anyway, the RPI is pretty much solely responsible for screwing western teams, not helping them, every year.
I take all this back if you're a fan of a California or west coast school. They indeed do get hosed every year. Oregon State's 3 seed, for example, is a damn joke.
cartman
05-26-2009, 10:38 AM
I was a little surprised to see Texas get the #1 overall seed, when they were ranked #5 in the last poll. But no team looks to have an easy path to Omaha. There are a ton of talented teams this season.
Tigercat
05-26-2009, 02:07 PM
Are you serious, Clark?
Oklahoma State is not a terrible selection. College baseball is completely dominated by the West. Out of 62 CWS titles, 44 have been won by teams west of the Mississippi, 10 by teams east of the Mississippi, and 8 by teams on the Mississippi.
Anyway, the RPI is pretty much solely responsible for screwing western teams, not helping them, every year.
I take all this back if you're a fan of a California or west coast school. They indeed do get hosed every year. Oregon State's 3 seed, for example, is a damn joke.
This isn't about East or West, I don't even consider the Big 12 the "West" when it comes to college baseball.
Check in with Baseball America, who every year pimps Western teams exclusively if they can. (And were big Big 12 conference supporters before this year.) They are absolutely killing the committees selections, for the same reasons I am. Oklahoma St and Baylor had no business being in the field this year. The only thing OSU and Baylor had going for them is RPI and my other complaint, non conference scheduling.
Heavily rewarding teams in college baseball for scheduling strong non conference teams is horrendous bullshit. Any person who has followed college baseball for a long time knows that you are almost just as likely to lose to a decent small conference team in the mid week games or in the early season as you are really good teams. This is because your rotation isn't set or used for those games, it gets set and prepared for conference games.
To reward Oklahoma State heavily for squeaking by good teams in OOC when both teams aren't throwing their regular pitches or the bullpen isn't at full strength yet, and then to ignore the fact that when Oklahoma State does come at full strength in the conference slate Oklahoma State was HORRIBLE..... How can anyone defend that?
RPI alone, and especially RPI influenced by OOC scheduling has no buisness being the sole factor determining the field of teams for college baseball, period. And this year it was.
SnDvls
05-26-2009, 08:45 PM
I was a little surprised to see Texas get the #1 overall seed, when they were ranked #5 in the last poll. But no team looks to have an easy path to Omaha. There are a ton of talented teams this season.
Fullerton does...they can pretty much punch their ticket to Omaha. If they fail it will be a major failure.
Huckleberry
05-27-2009, 01:26 PM
Fullerton does...they can pretty much punch their ticket to Omaha. If they fail it will be a major failure.
ASU's is almost as easy.
The Road to Omaha | Barking Carnival (http://www.barkingcarnival.com/huckleberry/the-road-to-omaha)
This isn't about East or West, I don't even consider the Big 12 the "West" when it comes to college baseball.
Check in with Baseball America, who every year pimps Western teams exclusively if they can. (And were big Big 12 conference supporters before this year.) They are absolutely killing the committees selections, for the same reasons I am. Oklahoma St and Baylor had no business being in the field this year. The only thing OSU and Baylor had going for them is RPI and my other complaint, non conference scheduling.
Heavily rewarding teams in college baseball for scheduling strong non conference teams is horrendous bullshit. Any person who has followed college baseball for a long time knows that you are almost just as likely to lose to a decent small conference team in the mid week games or in the early season as you are really good teams. This is because your rotation isn't set or used for those games, it gets set and prepared for conference games.
To reward Oklahoma State heavily for squeaking by good teams in OOC when both teams aren't throwing their regular pitches or the bullpen isn't at full strength yet, and then to ignore the fact that when Oklahoma State does come at full strength in the conference slate Oklahoma State was HORRIBLE..... How can anyone defend that?
RPI alone, and especially RPI influenced by OOC scheduling has no buisness being the sole factor determining the field of teams for college baseball, period. And this year it was.
Well, I agree that college baseball RPI is terrible. But Okie State had more than just that going for it. They're a good baseball team (http://www.barkingcarnival.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/2009cbewp.htm), they split two games at East Carolina, beat Oregon State at that neutral site, split with Fullerton at home, etc.
And if you don't reward teams for scheduling tough non-conference games, then you encourage them to schedule weak non-conference games. Furthermore, with the condensed schedule these days, winning mid-week games now that there are usually two and not just one requires pitching depth, something that can come up again during the regionals.
digamma
05-27-2009, 01:28 PM
Trying to bust out of work early on Friday to see the Strasburg kid pitch against Virginia. We'll see how that goes.
JonInMiddleGA
05-27-2009, 01:31 PM
And if you don't reward teams for scheduling tough non-conference games, then you encourage them to schedule weak non-conference games.
While I don't have a problem with the use of the RPI for seeding, or even to send a message about the committee's desire to see quality teams schedule other quality teams, I just hope that the end result is that teams will be less likely to treat midweek games as glorified exhibitions as seems to often be the case.
Spontaneous dance-off during a 5 hour rain delay in the big east tournament. Pretty funny. I like to see the teams having fun together like this.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aazG7dMhE7I&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aazG7dMhE7I&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Huckleberry
05-27-2009, 02:23 PM
While I don't have a problem with the use of the RPI for seeding, or even to send a message about the committee's desire to see quality teams schedule other quality teams, I just hope that the end result is that teams will be less likely to treat midweek games as glorified exhibitions as seems to often be the case.
I agree.
Also, I don't have a problem with the RPI as far as its supposed intent, I have a problem with it because the NCAA's RPI formula simply can't work for baseball. There is not enough interregional play during the season in baseball.
Tigercat
05-27-2009, 05:02 PM
I just don't buy that Okie State is a good baseball team arguement. Plenty of strong 3 and 4 seeds that aren't OSU can consistently win more games against strong major conference talent than OSU did down the stretch. Hell, it is my view(and the RPI last I saw) that SEC was stronger than the Big 12 this year, and Auburn and Kentucky did better inconference than OSU did, but still I am plenty confident that there are four seeds and teams left out that could have done better in the SEC than those two teams. It is easier to beat great teams as a decent team in baseball, cause "that's baseball." I find it hard to believe that a good baseball team can't win more games against other good baseball teams down the stretch.
Huckleberry
05-27-2009, 05:18 PM
I just don't buy that Okie State is a good baseball team arguement. Plenty of strong 3 and 4 seeds that aren't OSU can consistently win more games against strong major conference talent than OSU did down the stretch. Hell, it is my view(and the RPI last I saw) that SEC was stronger than the Big 12 this year, and Auburn and Kentucky did better inconference than OSU did, but still I am plenty confident that there are four seeds and teams left out that could have done better in the SEC than those two teams. It is easier to beat great teams as a decent team in baseball, cause "that's baseball." I find it hard to believe that a good baseball team can't win more games against other good baseball teams down the stretch.
Well, your view carries a lot more weight than the RPI. Nothing personal against you, but I dismiss out of hand any argument that relies on the college baseball RPI as its sole supporting evidence. The RPI in college baseball really is that worthless.
Regarding the rest of your argument, we simply disagree. You are saying that going 10-16 against very good baseball teams is something that plenty of teams left out could have done better than. I disagree. Yes, lesser teams win more often in baseball, but the variance among college baseball teams is far greater than the pros. This isn't MLB. 10-16 against a very tough conference means you're a very good team.
Oklahoma State is 38/25/33/31 in the four systems I know of that don't use MOV in college baseball (Massey/ISR/NMV/EWP). Yes, the last two are mine.;)
They are 20/21/19 in the three systems that are purely MOV, all of which I run. They are 22/25 in my two combination sets. I find it hard to get worked up about such a team getting an at-large bid into a tournament where there are 34 such recipients.
I'd be happy to take up the cause for other teams that got left out. Whom should we examine? I'll check back tonight as my evening errands are getting started.
JonInMiddleGA
05-29-2009, 02:18 PM
Live scoreboard for the baseball tournament/CWS is at
NCAA.com - The Official Web Site of the NCAA (http://www.ncaa.com/brackets/2009/ncaa_bracket_DI_baseball.html)
So far on day one UGA has jumped all over Ohio State 10-2 in the fifth and Southern U. leads LSU 2-0 in the fifth.
The first inning of that UGA game was lolbad.
Thomkal
05-29-2009, 03:16 PM
Coastal handling Kansas easily so far, leading 10-2 in the 7th.
StLee
05-29-2009, 03:21 PM
LSU exploded in the 7th for 7 runs. Now leads 8-2 in the bottom of the 8th.
Tigercat
05-29-2009, 03:23 PM
Ugh, LSU should roll for the rest of this game against Southern, but it again showed the team's HUGE weakness: the inability to string together any amount of hits against decent+ lefty starters. 13 of LSU's 16 loses this year were against lefty starters! (LSU trailed Southern 2-1 through 7.2 against a lefty, before scoring 7 with 2 outs in the 7th, mostly against righty relief.)
When facing RHPs this year, LSU is the best team in the nation and it isn't even close. (30-3) When facing LHPs this LSU team isn't close to a top 8 seed team. They better address this before Omaha, or the teams there just need to start their best lefty on the roster to roll for an easy win.
Oklahoma State is leading Alabama 8-5, so props to them for taking the opportunity and making a good showing thus far.
Arkansas continues to be utterly unable to hit the ball, striking out 156 times in 7 innings so far and trails WSU 3-1 bot 8th.
Finally getting some hits and Arkansas has tied it at 3 in the bottom of the 8th. 2 out and runners on 2nd and 3rd.
edit: Arkansas takes the lead on an error. (and that opened the floodgates, 7-3 now)
StLee
05-29-2009, 03:44 PM
Finally getting some hits and Arkansas has tied it at 3 in the bottom of the 8th. 2 out and runners on 2nd and 3rd.
edit: Arkansas takes the lead on an error.
All right! I'm an LSU fan first and an SEC fan second. Geaux Hogs!
StLee
05-29-2009, 03:47 PM
Final: LSU 10, Southern 2
All right! I'm an LSU fan first and an SEC fan second. Geaux Hogs!
ditto for Arkansas. Glad to see LSU get it going. Let's see if Bama and Vanderbilt can follow suit.
lol WSU finally gets a new pitcher first pitch is monstered off the scoreboard, 10-3.
Radii
05-29-2009, 03:52 PM
Live scoreboard for the baseball tournament/CWS is at
NCAA.com - The Official Web Site of the NCAA (http://www.ncaa.com/brackets/2009/ncaa_bracket_DI_baseball.html)
That is a *really* slick website, very impressive stuff from the NCAA web guys.
Thomkal
05-29-2009, 04:03 PM
Coastal wins 11-3 on 15 hits. Let's hope they saved some of both runs and hits for the next game against likely to be North Carolina, their nemesis.
Arkansas 10, WSU 3 Final. Go Wichita State in game 2!
larrymcg421
05-29-2009, 06:52 PM
Strasburg struggling so far.
JonInMiddleGA
05-29-2009, 07:32 PM
After what must have been a heck of a rain delay, Georgia extends their lead over Ohio State to 24-6 & still batting in the bottom of the 8th.
Georgia Tech meanwhile off to their usual stellar post-season start, trailing Georgia State 3-1 after four.
JonInMiddleGA
05-29-2009, 07:48 PM
3B Matt Skole with a grand slam in the fifth to give GT a 6-3 lead. Cool part was that my son called it about five seconds before he hit it.
Imagine the obnoxious nature of my child at this moment
("Oh yeah ... MASTERMIND !")
digamma
05-29-2009, 08:34 PM
Strasburg struggling so far.
Seems to have calmed down 15 Ks through 7. Unfortunately, the Aztecs aren't hitting at all and UVA leads 2-0.
SnDvls
05-29-2009, 10:59 PM
ASU is up 12-3 in the bottom of the 4th
k0ruptr
05-29-2009, 11:23 PM
also Oklahoma State beat alabama, so maybe they did deserve to get in.
JonInMiddleGA
05-29-2009, 11:29 PM
Assuming FSU doesn't blow a 15-4 lead in the ninth, the ACC will have gone 7-0 in opening day play, SEC was 6-2, Big 12 was 5-3.
Big 10 was 0-3, the Sun Belt was 2-0 with MTSU beating Vandy & Western Kentucky beating Missouri.
Tigercat
05-29-2009, 11:32 PM
also Oklahoma State beat alabama, so maybe they did deserve to get in.
I don't think that word means what you think it means. ;) Baylor and OSU won, so they are certainly talented enough to compete in the post season. Doesn't change if their merits were deserving or not. Rhode Island, a team many think was more deserving, may have ended up advancing many games further than Baylor or OSU will end up at. But we will never know...
A team does not deserve to be in a tournament based on what it does once it is in the tournament, in other words. They deserve to based on what they di before the tournament. A team could be gifted a berth into the tournament by the committee, win the whole thing, but still not actually deserve to be in.
k0ruptr
05-30-2009, 12:46 AM
I don't think that word means what you think it means. ;) Baylor and OSU won, so they are certainly talented enough to compete in the post season. Doesn't change if their merits were deserving or not. Rhode Island, a team many think was more deserving, may have ended up advancing many games further than Baylor or OSU will end up at. But we will never know...
very true indeed.
Thomkal
05-30-2009, 12:05 PM
nice to see my "hometown college" Marist on TV today, and last I looked leading Ohio State. Looking forward to the Coastal/North Carolina battle today at 5pm. Cody Wheeler, starter for the Chants is 10-0 this season, and 16-0 in his Coastal career. A lefty which should give the Tarheels some problems. They are countering with a guy who beat Coastal pretty easily in the Super Regionals last year though.
Thomkal
05-30-2009, 06:00 PM
well neither starting pitcher was up to the task in the Coastal/N Carolina game. Cody Wheeler was lucky to get out of the 1st inning looking very nervous-gave up three walks and two hits I think, but just 2 runs. And then was removed after giving up 4 runs in the third. Alex White started off well for N. Carolina but was lucky to get out of the first unscathed after two errors. He made it to the third before he gave up his first runs (3) in the game, then gave up another in the fourth and fifth before finally being removed. So its 6-5 N Carolina in the bottom of the fifth right now. C'mon Coastal!
Thomkal
05-30-2009, 07:35 PM
it just got worse from there for Coastal, including hitting into a double play with the bases loaded in the 9th to end the game. They lose 14-5 and will have to hope for a very strong starting pitcher performance tomorrow when they take on Kansas again if they want any hope of winning the regional now.
StLee
05-30-2009, 07:59 PM
LSU locked in a pitcher's battle, up 2-1 in the 7th. Ranaudo had a one-hit shut out going into the 6th, but gave up a solo homer.
StLee
05-30-2009, 08:03 PM
Ranaudo is looking a bit tired. I hope he can will this one out.
Wow! I thought that was strike three. Full count on the first batter.
Struck him out! #9. One out.
<---------Oops! Meant to post this on an LSU board! :)
larrymcg421
05-30-2009, 08:06 PM
Canes eating it right now. Losing 7-2 in the 7th.
StLee
05-30-2009, 08:07 PM
Since I posted it, Ranaudo may not be tired at all. He struck out the side in the 7th. Now he has 11 Ks on the day. LSU up 2-1 in the 8th.
Arkansas jumped out well on Oklahoma, leading 6-1 in the bottom of the 3rd. Bats warm for the first time in a LONG time. Might be getting hot at the right time. Here's hoping.
k0ruptr
05-30-2009, 08:50 PM
San Diego St. wins and eliminates the defending champs Fresno St. 4-1
k0ruptr
05-30-2009, 08:52 PM
Dola Oklahoma St. beat clemson today as well.
JonInMiddleGA
05-30-2009, 09:07 PM
Georgia Tech digs too big a hole & a 9th inning rally falls well short, losing 10-7 to Southern Miss. Jackets face Elon in an elimination game tomorrow after Elon knocks out Georgia State.
FSU handles Georgia 8-2, sending UGA into a rematch with Ohio State who beat Marist 6-4.
#2 seeds gone so far include Alabama, Texas State, and Georgia Southern.
#3 seeds starting 2-0 include Southern Miss & Oklahoma State, while Baylor & Boston College are tied in late/extra innings trying to join that group
DaddyTorgo
05-30-2009, 09:08 PM
GO BC!!!!!
Arkansas still looking lively, up 10-1 after 5 innings over Oklahoma.
StLee
05-30-2009, 09:23 PM
LSU pulled one out of their asses today thanks to their great pitching.
Final 3-2 over Baylor in 10 innings.
Ranaudo pitched 9 innings, striking out 14 and giving up only 3 hits. Ott came in to get his 15th save on the season.
LSU left 14 runners on.
digamma
05-30-2009, 09:27 PM
Just back from the Georgia SOuthern-Utah game. Nice venue at Fullerton. THose fans love their baseball. GSU really tightened up and blew a game in which they were pretty clearly the better team.
Tigercat
05-30-2009, 09:33 PM
This Texas BC game will seemingly never end. Doesn't help that Texas has no pop in their bats and play in a stadium built for low scoring baseball. (bottom of the 13th, still tied at 2)
Oklahoma storming back, Arkansas still leads 10-6 bottom 6th
Tigercat
05-30-2009, 10:13 PM
Texas and BC going to the 16th inning, Texas's closer has now pitched 8+ innings.
Tigercat
05-30-2009, 10:21 PM
Dola, Texas and BC going to the 17th inning. Texas's closer has now pitched 9 2/3 innings of NO HIT baseball. Insane.
DaddyTorgo
05-30-2009, 10:24 PM
cmon EAGLES!!!
DaddyTorgo
05-30-2009, 10:24 PM
http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1624551&segment=223076 (http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1624551&segment=223076)
-- the game
Tigercat
05-30-2009, 10:27 PM
Someone has to turn on a bad pitch from one of these tired pitchers sooner or later.... Right....? Hopefully it is BC in the bottom of this inning.
DaddyTorgo
05-30-2009, 10:29 PM
hopefully
leadoff baserunner for BC
larrymcg421
05-30-2009, 10:35 PM
This is amazing.
Tigercat
05-30-2009, 10:36 PM
Texas can't hit, but they sure can field (and pitch). Texas's closer is over 10 innings, over 140 pitches, of no hit baseball.
larrymcg421
05-30-2009, 10:37 PM
Don't tell Dusty Baker about this guy.
DaddyTorgo
05-30-2009, 10:40 PM
Texas can't hit, but they sure can field (and pitch). Texas's closer is over 10 innings, over 140 pitches, of no hit baseball.
ditto for BC actually
Tigercat
05-30-2009, 10:42 PM
OK, so combined right now we have a closer and a DH pitching 20 innings of 3 hit ball with over 20 strikeouts. Sheesh.
Tigercat
05-30-2009, 10:43 PM
ditto for BC actually
Yea but the disparity in the longhorn's game is even stranger because they are the top seed in the nation.
Arkansas finishes off Oklahoma finally at long last 17-6. 4 hour game.
Tigercat
05-30-2009, 11:14 PM
The closer for Texas finally gives up a hit after 12 1/3 innings of no hit baseball. (161 pitches.) His arm will be sore for the rest of his life. Craziest college game I have ever seen or listened to.
BC threatening with two on in the bottom of the 19th with two outs.
DaddyTorgo
05-30-2009, 11:29 PM
now the longest game in NCAA postseason history
even if BC loses - i'm proud of the boys
DaddyTorgo
05-30-2009, 11:30 PM
And Austin Wood is still in (166 pitches so far)
he looked mortal last inning though, so hopefully we can end this now
DaddyTorgo
05-30-2009, 11:31 PM
1 out single by bc
DaddyTorgo
05-30-2009, 11:32 PM
these guys are so cramped up and tired they can't even run the bases - at this point maybe they should finish the game tomorrow?
DaddyTorgo
05-30-2009, 11:32 PM
HBP...1st and 2nd with one out for BC
Tigercat
05-30-2009, 11:32 PM
he looked mortal last inning though
Only in the way those guys in the bible that lived to 1000 look mortal at the age of 950.
DaddyTorgo
05-30-2009, 11:35 PM
Only in the way those guys in the bible that lived to 1000 look mortal at the age of 950.
:lol:
JonInMiddleGA
05-30-2009, 11:46 PM
I wonder at what point exactly this goes from "unbelievable classic" to "this has gotten ridiculous"?
But if you're the Army team that faces the loser of this one tomorrow afternoon then you gotta be loving it.
DaddyTorgo
05-30-2009, 11:52 PM
bottom of the 21st inning...
Tigercat
05-30-2009, 11:52 PM
FYI, one thing I haven't heard them mention in the broadcast, the record for innings in a college game is 22. So they are three outs away from at least tying that one.
Tigercat
05-31-2009, 12:14 AM
Dola, weird the NCAA record book says 22 innings is the longest, but others are saying 23. Well this game is close to tying that mark too.
DaddyTorgo
05-31-2009, 12:14 AM
*sigh* 2 outs
Tigercat
05-31-2009, 12:32 AM
Going to the 24th, longest college baseball game ever for sure now. Games having an ending are overrated.
26 innings is the MLB record, and since 27 innings would be three full games, that's the number I am hoping for.
DaddyTorgo
05-31-2009, 12:59 AM
bah
eagles can't pull this out i don't think.
bummer.
being on our 7th pitcher, a crappy freshman, definitely hurt, as his nerves have clearly been showing in his poor control
DaddyTorgo
05-31-2009, 01:06 AM
gg eagles. if you just had another arm or two as opposed to those crap relievers you had to bring in
Tigercat
05-31-2009, 01:08 AM
Crap, I was hoping for 27 :( Hard to imagine anyone giving Texas a run tomorrow night. Texas's pitching depth is bound to be 2x that of BC as it is, and I have a hard time imagining that Army has the pitching staff to threaten out of the losers bracket in any regional.
Huckleberry
05-31-2009, 01:39 AM
Worst job of coaching a college baseball game I've ever seen by Augie Garrido.
The offensive strategy was terrible all night, the decision to lift Keyes was bad at the time and the 25-inning length made it a terrible move, and letting Wood throw 169 pitches was disgusting.
Good win, but I never figured this team was good enough to win it all (didn't even pick them in my Omaha bracket). Tonight just made it more obvious. The anemic offense won't get it done.
RainMaker
05-31-2009, 09:55 AM
This is the first year I've really followed the college baseball playoffs and have to say it's really fun. I love their setup and digging the fact ESPNU is playing games all day.
Thomkal
05-31-2009, 03:00 PM
And Coastal's season is over after a 5-1 loss to Kansas. :( It would not surprise me if this was the temporary end of their dominance in the Big South and they don't make the post season for a while. They have to find a lot of good starters and especially relievers if they want to make it back. Good luck to those of you with teams still alive.
Oklahoma gets a grand slam in the bottom of the 8th to pull away from WSU and win 7-2. Oklahoma gets a revenge match with Arkansas, but must win twice to advance.
Huckleberry
05-31-2009, 04:12 PM
Oklahoma and Arkansas, huh? I'm pulling for mass disqualifications. :p
JonInMiddleGA
05-31-2009, 04:40 PM
Elimination game for the Buckeyes, FSU leads Ohio State 20-0 (after tOSU knocked out Georgia earlier in the day with a 13-6 win)
Losers bracket finale, Georgia Tech leads Elon 8-4 in the bottom of the 6th, winner still has to play Southern Miss in an elimination game for GT/Elon.
JonInMiddleGA
05-31-2009, 04:42 PM
Oh yeah, earlier today Army knocked out Boston College 5-4. They'll play Texas later tonight.
DaddyTorgo
05-31-2009, 04:59 PM
Oh yeah, earlier today Army knocked out Boston College 5-4. They'll play Texas later tonight. :(
JonInMiddleGA
05-31-2009, 05:29 PM
Meanwhile in the women's CWS, Georgia is threatening to make the final an all SEC affair. They upset Washington 9-8 earlier today with a run in the bottom on the 9th (walk-off bases loaded walk) and will play again starting in about a half hour with the winner advancing to face the winner of Florida-Alabama.who are just underway with the Alabama needing to beat the #1 seeded Gators twice in order to stay alive.
FSU is up 32-0 now top 5th. hahhaha ouch
JonInMiddleGA
05-31-2009, 05:35 PM
FSU is up 32-0 now top 5th. hahhaha ouch
And with 31 hits to go with three tOSU errors.
edit to add: And it might not end for a while yet. Of the six pitchers Ohio State has used so far the lowest season ERA for any of them was 5.54 and four of the other five had double digit ERA's.
DaddyTorgo
05-31-2009, 05:38 PM
Meanwhile in the women's CWS, Georgia is threatening to make the final an all SEC affair. They upset Washington 9-8 earlier today with a run in the bottom on the 9th (walk-off bases loaded walk) and will play again starting in about a half hour with the winner advancing to face the winner of Florida-Alabama.who are just underway with the Alabama needing to beat the #1 seeded Gators twice in order to stay alive.
i'm actually watching this today and enjoying it
JonInMiddleGA
05-31-2009, 05:40 PM
Hold on, not so fast there my friend.
Here come the Buckeyes, it's 32-2.
StLee
05-31-2009, 06:41 PM
LSU is pitching the SEC Pitcher of the Year against a Minnesota pitcher with a 8.84 ERA. So far it's LSU 3-0 in the top of the 2nd.
larrymcg421
05-31-2009, 07:01 PM
Ohio State still batting in the bottom of the 9th. There's two outs, but they've added two runs and are now only down 37-6 with the bases loaded. Go Buckeyes!
Arkansas leads 6-0 going to the top of the 5th. Arkansas advances with a win.
StLee
05-31-2009, 08:07 PM
Ole Miss was in control, but gave up 6 runs in the 8th. Now they are tied with Western Kentucky, 9-9.
LSU leads in the 7th, 9-0. The game is in cruise control right now. As I type this, Minnesota just led off the bottom of the 7th with a solo HR. Now 9-1.
Arkansas leading 9-0 after 7 innings. Arkansas #4 pitcher Drew Smyly faced the minimum through 7 and has a no-hitter going.
Going to the 9th now, still a no-hitter. He looks like he's in complete command. Making hitters look silly.
JonInMiddleGA
05-31-2009, 09:17 PM
Army leads Texas 10-6 in the 8th, trying to force another game on Monday.
Georgia Tech leading Southern Miss 8-2 in the 9th, trying to force a deciding game tomorrow as well.
And I believe Florida has eliminated Miami to advance, joining FSU & UNC in the next round so far.
Bottom 9 coming up for Arkansas's Drew Smyly. If you want to see if he can pull the no-hitter, now is the time to tune in.
broken up with an infield with 1 out :( :(
Game just went final, Arkansas wins the Norman Regional, 11-0 over Oklahoma.
cartman
05-31-2009, 09:52 PM
Texas was trailing Army 10-6 going into the bottom of the 9th. They picked up one run, then with the bases loaded Brandon Loy just missed a grand slam to win by a couple of feet, but tied the game with a bases clearing double.
The next two batters walk to fill the bases, and Preston Clark then clears them with a walk off Grand Slam!
What an incredible weekend of baseball in Austin!
MrBug708
06-01-2009, 12:36 AM
Meanwhile in the women's CWS, Georgia is threatening to make the final an all SEC affair. They upset Washington 9-8 earlier today with a run in the bottom on the 9th (walk-off bases loaded walk) and will play again starting in about a half hour with the winner advancing to face the winner of Florida-Alabama.who are just underway with the Alabama needing to beat the #1 seeded Gators twice in order to stay alive.
UCLA really screwed things up by losing to Mizzou
JonInMiddleGA
06-01-2009, 12:56 AM
Nice little bit of snark in the midst of the local coverage of the Georgia Tech regional.
Tech coach Danny Hall said he wants to see some fans.
“Maybe it would be nice to have more fans rooting for Georgia Tech than for Southern Miss, since we are hosting the regional,” said Hall, who has led Tech into the postseason for the 14th time in his 16 seasons on The Flats.
Yeah, it probably would. Then again it would also be nice to have a coach that knew how to build teams that didn't collapse with predictable regularity down the stretch & in the clutch. If we did, then being outnumbered at home might be less of an issue.
I've been ready for Hall to be gone for several years now, even moreso now.
Arkansas fans outnumbered and completely drowned out Oklahoma fans at the Norman, Oklahoma regional, too.
JonInMiddleGA
06-01-2009, 11:06 AM
For those who don't follow college baseball regularly, much less Tech baseball, let me expand on what I meant.
-- Since losing to Oklahoma in the CWS final in his first season in 1994, we've been to the CWS twice, going 1-4.
-- Last four seasons finished no higher than 4th in the ACC.
-- Last three seasons has gone 2-6 in the ACC tournament & haven't won a conference tournament game since the opener in '08
-- ACC regular season champ or runner-up in 03, 04, and 05 but couldn't make it to Omaha.
-- Since Tech last won a CWS game (2002), the ACC has sent Miami 4x, UNC 3x, and Clemson & FSU 1x each. Georgia has been 3x. And with the exception of FSU all have won at least one game and have five final four appearances between them.
But these are Tech teams that have won 40 or more in the regular season 9 of the last 10 years, and have had 10 players drafted in 2005, 10 again in 2007, and a total of 39 draft picks in the last 5 years. During his tenure 16 players have made it to the majors already, 12 since the '94 team he inherited (which included Nomar, Varitek, Jay Payton, and Brad Rigby), and 11 others are currently playing in the minors.
In short, it's not as though there's been a lack of talent in the program.
JonInMiddleGA
06-01-2009, 03:28 PM
South Carolina has beaten East Carolina on the road 8-6 this afternoon, advancing to face North Carolina in the Super Regional.
-- Of the five remaining games to be played today, 4x start at 7p while Western Kentucky at Ole Miss starts at 8p.
-- Based on the brackets, the biggest underdog tonight would be Southern Miss at Georgia Tech (GT presumably considered #9 national seed since they're bracketed with #8 Florida)
-- Four of the five open slots are 1 vs 3 matchups while Rice & K-State is a 1 vs 2.
-- So far from the 11 slots filled in the next round, 8 are #1's and 3 are #2's.
The big talk around here is who will host the super regional, Arkansas or FSU. Apparently FSU has put in their bid of $92k (2 day) and $100k (3 day). Arkansas has larger facilities and will easily sell out so I'm sure our bid will be larger, but no one has made the numbers public.
Lots of discussions about the rules for hosting, but the reality is, this is coming down to bid + merit. Both teams have similar RPI and SOS numbers, but FSU finished the season much stronger and have a better record, in addition to winning their conference. Based on merit, FSU should host. The facility difference might be enough to make up the difference, though. Supposed to be announced tonight.
Huckleberry
06-01-2009, 04:33 PM
South Carolina has beaten East Carolina on the road 8-6 this afternoon, advancing to face North Carolina in the Super Regional.
I'm showing South Carolina at East Carolina starting at 6:00 Eastern. Did they move it?
JonInMiddleGA
06-01-2009, 04:39 PM
I'm showing South Carolina at East Carolina starting at 6:00 Eastern. Did they move it?
I wondered about that myself, since the official scoreboard gets wonky occasionally. But I found two matching results in two different places on the site, so I took it as being accurate.
edit to add: Both the SC athletic site & the Columbia newspaper say 6pm, so apparently I had too much faith in the NCAA's own scoreboard. Sorry for any confusion.
Game is going on now, so yeah.
The big talk around here is who will host the super regional, Arkansas or FSU. Apparently FSU has put in their bid of $92k (2 day) and $100k (3 day). Arkansas has larger facilities and will easily sell out so I'm sure our bid will be larger, but no one has made the numbers public.
Lots of discussions about the rules for hosting, but the reality is, this is coming down to bid + merit. Both teams have similar RPI and SOS numbers, but FSU finished the season much stronger and have a better record, in addition to winning their conference. Based on merit, FSU should host. The facility difference might be enough to make up the difference, though. Supposed to be announced tonight.
Word is Arkansas's bid was around 50% higher. Personally, I'm not hopefully, but a lot of people think it's about 50-50.
JonInMiddleGA
06-01-2009, 06:55 PM
GT took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first, Southern Miss answers with 9 runs on six hits, including a pair of homers off the ACC pitcher of the year, in the top of the second
digamma
06-01-2009, 06:58 PM
You still have time to get to the game, Jon. The bats need you. And there's plenty of hitting left to get done.
JonInMiddleGA
06-01-2009, 07:48 PM
Now 11-3 USM and still batting in the fifth.
Hall need to be on the same rail out of town that Coach Useless, I mean Hewitt should be on. And Hall can take Luke "David Justice" Murton's mouth with him as he departs.
JonInMiddleGA
06-01-2009, 08:20 PM
Louisville beats Vandy 4-2 and advances to meet CS-Fullerton.
South Carolina trying to hold on to a 9-6 lead in the 8th, Tech trying to find some offense down 11-3, Rice is rolling 10-3 over K-State , Clemson bats in the 8th down 5-4 to Oklahoma State & Ole Miss-Western Kentucky are scoreless in the 5th.
JonInMiddleGA
06-01-2009, 08:22 PM
A pair of walks & a 3-run homer pull GT within 11-6 in the sixth. Next batter up gets plunked ... but a ground out ends the rally.
JonInMiddleGA
06-01-2009, 08:31 PM
Clemson gets a 2-out single in the 8th, driving in a pair for a 6-5 lead.
East Carolina hits a 3 run HR to tie South Carolina in the bottom of the 9th at 9 apiece.
ECU wins it 10-9 in bot 10th.
GAMES BEGIN FRIDAY, JUNE 5 - All Times are Eastern
Louisville (47-16) at No. 2 Cal State Fullerton (45-14)
10:30 p.m. (ESPN2), 5 p.m. (ESPN), 10 p.m. (ESPN2)
Arkansas (37-22) at Florida State (45-16)
Noon (ESPN), Noon (ESPN2), Noon (ESPN)
Virginia (46-12-1) at Mississippi (43-18)
2 p.m. (ESPN2), Noon (ESPN2), 3 p.m. (ESPN)
Rice (43-16) at No. 3 LSU (49-16)
7 p.m. (ESPN), 5 p.m. (ESPN), 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
The following four best-of-three super regionals will be played Saturday, June 6, Sunday, June 7, and Monday, June 8 (if necessary).
GAMES BEGIN SATURDAY, JUNE 6 - All times are Eastern
TCU (39-16) at No. 1 Texas (44-13-1)
6 p.m. (ESPNU), 3 p.m. (ESPN), 1/7 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)
Southern Miss. (38-24) at No. 8 Florida (42-20)
3 p.m. (ESPNU), 7 p.m. (ESPN2), 1/7 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)
Clemson (44-20) at No. 5 Arizona State (47-12)
9 p.m. (ESPNU), 10 p.m. (ESPN2), 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
East Carolina (46-18) at No. 4 North Carolina (45-16)
Noon (ESPNU), Noon (ESPN), 1/7 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)
The determination of the Men's College World Series order of first-round games both Saturday, June 13, and Sunday, June 14, will be announced Monday, June 8. The ESPN family of networks and www.ncaa.com (http://www.ncaa.com/) will release the MCWS game dates and times as soon as they are available.
Tigercat
06-02-2009, 02:24 AM
Well, I will say again that post season performance doesn't validate a bad resume (and therefore doesn't invalidate a good/bad resume), but after the way the KSU administrator run committee rewarded the Big 12, I do find it interesting that only 1 out of 8 big 12 teams advanced. At least OSU and Baylor made good showings out of their undeserving bids.
Looking forward to having all the super regionals on TV this weekend. I am a little worried about LSU's matchup with Rice. The bats need to wake up against LHP and with runners in scoring position or there will be an upset out of Baton Rouge.
Huckleberry
06-02-2009, 06:32 AM
Well, I will say again that post season performance doesn't validate a bad resume (and therefore doesn't invalidate a good/bad resume), but after the way the KSU administrator run committee rewarded the Big 12, I do find it interesting that only 1 out of 8 big 12 teams advanced. At least OSU and Baylor made good showings out of their undeserving bids.
Looking forward to having all the super regionals on TV this weekend. I am a little worried about LSU's matchup with Rice. The bats need to wake up against LHP and with runners in scoring position or there will be an upset out of Baton Rouge.
You still haven't shown why a team that is a Top 35 team in nearly every objective measure going into a tournament with 34 at-large bids is an undeserving recipient of one of those bids. Especially considering that multiple teams in front of them received automatic bids.
Huckleberry
06-02-2009, 08:15 AM
Quick Supers Preview (http://www.barkingcarnival.com/huckleberry/previewing-the-super-regionals)
Tigercat
06-02-2009, 12:52 PM
You still haven't shown why a team that is a Top 35 team in nearly every objective measure going into a tournament with 34 at-large bids is an undeserving recipient of one of those bids. Especially considering that multiple teams in front of them received automatic bids.
Objective measure? How about "Did this team finish at least in the top 80% of wins in their conference?" College RPI has been broken for years, all major college baseball publications have been saying this for at least a decade. You act like I am the one that is off base here, when everyone I have heard from baseball america and collegiate baseball talk in depth about the brackets agree with me.
As a comparison of methods, they wouldn't be picked in the NCAA basketball tournament, and in that respect the basketball tournament does it correctly. Everyone who follows college basketball selection would agree that a top 35 RPI team with that kind of poor second half of the season resume should not be in the tournament. You do not pick teams for the tournament that gel into sub par teams. And second half of the season should be MORE important in college baseball, because a college baseball team takes longer to gel due to the intricacies of building a pitching staff.
It is just common sense, national college baseball writers understand that. The committee didn't.
JonInMiddleGA
06-02-2009, 01:04 PM
Objective measure? How about "Did this team finish at least in the top 80% of wins in their conference?"
I'm not sure what that proves either though, given the disparity in conference strengths.
Let's face it, the 18 one-bid conferences (who could often fit that criteria) didn't exactly set the tournament on fire. 14-34 to be exact, and 3 of those wins came from Louisville. And the 4 two-bid conferences weren't a lot better, just 5-16 with only one win that didn't come from the Sun Belt. Did the B12 lay an egg? Absolutely. But I'm not sure I see any reason to think replacing half their teams with four other candidates would have produced a different result ... (edit to add) unless maybe you just hand out bids to teams in the Pacific time zone regardless of their records (as western teams were really the primary source of 3 bid or less representatives that did much). But there's already concern about the western & southern bias in college baseball, politically I'm not sure the committee felt like they wanted to go down that road too far. Now that bias doesn't bother me, it's just the reverse of NCAA hockey afaic, but it's a reality I'm sure they have to address.
Truth is, there probably aren't 64 baseball teams that are competitive at the highest level, and a 32 team tournament would be sufficient at this point.
Tigercat
06-02-2009, 01:23 PM
Mid major level three and four seeds that have a consistent resume can threaten to win it all though. See: Fresno State last year, San Jose State in 2000. The old "that's baseball" idea. I don't remember the last major-conference-barely-got-in three to make it to Omaha though. That's usually because those teams struggled consistently for a reason, and they won't suddenly find a formula in the post season to be consistent enough to make it to Omaha.
Rhode Island probably had a much better chance of going 2 and out than Baylor and Okie State. But they had the more praise worthy season and a better chance at making serious noise in the tournament.
JonInMiddleGA
06-02-2009, 01:30 PM
On a more positive note, I'm awfully glad we had this thread this season. With the exception of helping my dad chase down results (he's not web active) this is by far the most conversation I've had about college baseball ever. And I mean this thread this season versus the entire rest of my life combined.
I've followed it to some extent for a pretty long time now but other than my father I've honestly never known a single other person who does.
Lathum
06-02-2009, 01:39 PM
UW women go for the win tonight!
cartman
06-02-2009, 01:50 PM
I've followed it to some extent for a pretty long time now but other than my father I've honestly never known a single other person who does.
In Austin, the Longhorns baseball team is well followed and gets more than decent press coverage. But since Dallas and Houston are pretty far away, and San Antonio only has the Spurs, the Longhorns sports teams get a ton of local press.
Huckleberry
06-02-2009, 02:38 PM
Objective measure? How about "Did this team finish at least in the top 80% of wins in their conference?" College RPI has been broken for years, all major college baseball publications have been saying this for at least a decade. You act like I am the one that is off base here, when everyone I have heard from baseball america and collegiate baseball talk in depth about the brackets agree with me.
As a comparison of methods, they wouldn't be picked in the NCAA basketball tournament, and in that respect the basketball tournament does it correctly. Everyone who follows college basketball selection would agree that a top 35 RPI team with that kind of poor second half of the season resume should not be in the tournament. You do not pick teams for the tournament that gel into sub par teams. And second half of the season should be MORE important in college baseball, because a college baseball team takes longer to gel due to the intricacies of building a pitching staff.
It is just common sense, national college baseball writers understand that. The committee didn't.
Are you under the assumption that I am arguing from an RPI standpoint? The RPI is worthless, I've said as much on this very thread, and the RPI has nothing to do with my position on this matter. I posted Oklahoma State's ranking in multiple (good) computer systems earlier on this thread.
You want to reward teams for having good records in bad conferences. I want to look at a team's true strength by all available measure and put the best teams in the tournament.
Rhode Island's ranks in Massey/ISR/Mine are 106/96/127. You want that team in over 38/29/29? Apparently only because they are in an easier conference? That's crazy, man.
Appealing to the fact that someone else shares your opinion is pointless. I want you to point out the teams that belonged in the tournament instead of Oklahoma State. So far you've mentioned Rhode Island and that is simply a bad choice.
For the record, I agree with JiMGa that the tournament is too big. That's the problem.
On a more positive note, I'm awfully glad we had this thread this season. With the exception of helping my dad chase down results (he's not web active) this is by far the most conversation I've had about college baseball ever. And I mean this thread this season versus the entire rest of my life combined.
I've followed it to some extent for a pretty long time now but other than my father I've honestly never known a single other person who does.
+1 on this. My wife and I have been into college baseball since we went to college and student tickets were free. It's been difficult to find others to talk about it with, but I'm glad there are others here. Your contributions to the thread have been a big part of that.
Tigercat
06-02-2009, 05:02 PM
Are you under the assumption that I am arguing from an RPI standpoint? The RPI is worthless, I've said as much on this very thread, and the RPI has nothing to do with my position on this matter. I posted Oklahoma State's ranking in multiple (good) computer systems earlier on this thread.
You want to reward teams for having good records in bad conferences. I want to look at a team's true strength by all available measure and put the best teams in the tournament.
Rhode Island's ranks in Massey/ISR/Mine are 106/96/127. You want that team in over 38/29/29? Apparently only because they are in an easier conference? That's crazy, man.
Appealing to the fact that someone else shares your opinion is pointless. I want you to point out the teams that belonged in the tournament instead of Oklahoma State. So far you've mentioned Rhode Island and that is simply a bad choice.
For the record, I agree with JiMGa that the tournament is too big. That's the problem.
I often used RPI as a general term for ALL computer rankings. They don't work in college baseball for the same reason the RPI itself doesn't work:
ALL WINS ARE NOT EQUAL IN COLLEGE BASEBALL. YOU CANNOT LEAN ON COMPUTER RANKINGS AND SOS THAT EMPHASIZE WEEKDAY AND WEEKEND WINS AS EQUAL IN COLLEGE BASEBALL.
Sorry for the caps, just want to emphasize that this is the point I have been making all along. Midweek major conference teams are way, way, way different their weekend counterpart. Hell, oftentimes unless they save a specific pitcher, so are small conference teams. Baylor and OSU's true team/pitchers did not pitch during midweek games (and in some cases not in OOC weekend games) they played during the conference weekend slate. And they failed to be consistently good.
I point to Baseball America and Collegiate baseball sharing my opinion because they know more about the sport than you and I. I would have easily put in Dallas Baptist, Tulane, and RI in over OSU and Baylor. All had the consistent resume that deserves a birth and that it takes to threaten a run in the tournament.
Midweek games are a test of pitching depth. Pitching depth is required to go deep in regionals/CWS.
Tigercat
06-02-2009, 05:20 PM
Midweek games are a test of pitching depth. Pitching depth is required to go deep in regionals/CWS.
Not necessarily on both counts. Many teams use their true 4th starter in the regionals/supers/CWS as their main middle relief guy in the weekend during the regular season. Talking about LSU specifically, our midweek pitchers pitched one whole inning in the regionals, and they wouldn't have started a game or necessarily pitched any if we had to play one more game.
Pitching depth isn't as important as having a team that can win behind your three best pitchers. So while you can certainly argue that midweek games show some importance in how good your team is, they still aren't equal to weekend games in testing a team's strength now and for the future.
I think treating midweek games somewhat importantly has led to being included in the tournament field, so maybe the ends justify the means?
JonInMiddleGA
06-02-2009, 06:19 PM
I point to Baseball America and Collegiate baseball sharing my opinion because they know more about the sport than you and I.
The same publications that spent about half the year thinking UGA was a top five team (even the rabid locals knew they were overrated) & thought Georgia Tech was a top 15 team?
Collegiate Baseball seems to be very spotty to the point of being strictly amateurish & Baseball America has gone downhill in credibility in my mind for at least a decade, especially over the past few years. I'd trust even an NCAA committee as far as I trust either of them to be honest but your mileage is certainly free to vary.
Lathum
06-02-2009, 09:47 PM
Huskies win the girls softball title!
JonInMiddleGA
06-02-2009, 10:25 PM
Huskies win the girls softball title!
Has to be tough for Florida to swallow, going 63-5 for the year but losing twice in, what, about 25 hours from the last out of each game?
Huckleberry
06-03-2009, 08:47 AM
I often used RPI as a general term for ALL computer rankings. They don't work in college baseball for the same reason the RPI itself doesn't work:
ALL WINS ARE NOT EQUAL IN COLLEGE BASEBALL. YOU CANNOT LEAN ON COMPUTER RANKINGS AND SOS THAT EMPHASIZE WEEKDAY AND WEEKEND WINS AS EQUAL IN COLLEGE BASEBALL.
Sorry for the caps, just want to emphasize that this is the point I have been making all along. Midweek major conference teams are way, way, way different their weekend counterpart. Hell, oftentimes unless they save a specific pitcher, so are small conference teams. Baylor and OSU's true team/pitchers did not pitch during midweek games (and in some cases not in OOC weekend games) they played during the conference weekend slate. And they failed to be consistently good.
I point to Baseball America and Collegiate baseball sharing my opinion because they know more about the sport than you and I. I would have easily put in Dallas Baptist, Tulane, and RI in over OSU and Baylor. All had the consistent resume that deserves a birth and that it takes to threaten a run in the tournament.
Let's define "mid-week" games as all games taking place Tuesday through Thursday. Not perfect, but close enough for government work. I will not throw out those games starting on 5/19 because of conference tournaments. We are basically taking your argument to the extreme, saying that mid-week games have nothing to do with pitching depth and are completely worthless for figuring out who the better team is. Not your argument, but for illustration purposes and all. So, using only weekend games through 5/18 but all games from 5/19-5/24, here are some numbers:
Oklahoma State tumbles all the way to 41/42 in the ratings (looks an awful lot like a 3-seed in a 64-team tournament to me)
Baylor is 44/44 (ditto)
Rhode Island is 93/110
Tulane is 52/56
Dallas Baptist is 68/68
I think we can assume that assigning a mid-range importance to mid-week games will only cause the ratings to be somewhere between these numbers and the baseline numbers. There is pretty much no objective measure that says your three teams are better than Baylor and Oklahoma State. The bottom line remains that you want to reward teams for playing in weaker conferences.
Super-Regionals underway!
Tigercat
06-05-2009, 12:19 PM
The bottom line remains that you want to reward teams for playing in weaker conferences.
I want to reward them for actually winning in those conferences, as opposed to Baylor and OSU bringing their best stuff and consistently losing in their conferences, yes. I would also personally favor Dallas Baptist, Tulane, and RI in a three game series against OSU and Baylor, as the teams were playing pre tournament. Not by much, but with parity in college baseball I give the much more coherent team the advantage if there isn't a huge talent gap. (Which there isn't between said teams.) So it isn't so much that I only think its a reward, I would legitimately think those teams are better.
Arkansas takes a 1-0 lead against a FSU team with an impressively noisy crowd. Good to see the rest of the nation starting to give college baseball a little bit of that college football atmosphere.
Another rain delay at FSU, taking the tarp off now, though. 1-1 Top 4th, Arkansas has bases loaded nobody out.
Virginia at Ole Miss just started.
DP scores a run, 2-1 Ark. Rain starts again, Bot 5th. FSU has 1st and 2nd no out.
Still not resumed, might resume around an hour from now. Ole Miss wins over Virginia with a walk-off HR in bottom 11th.
Arkansas finally wins 9 hours and 14 minutes after the first pitch, 7-2 over FSU!
Tigercat
06-05-2009, 09:38 PM
Disappointed that the ESPN night game for college baseball involved LSU and Rice (especially LSU) playing such sloppy baseball. It is a bit of a surprise, since LSU's defense has been very crisp all year.. But not so much when you consider all the lineup shifts over the year and that most of them involved freshman players.
Good to get the early win though, and to see us touch up a lefty. Would be obviously big if Coleman can get us a two game sweep tomorrow.
Tigercat
06-05-2009, 09:39 PM
Dola, glad to see the SEC start the supers with a 3-0 day! I like the conference's chances at making up half the CWS field.
Florida State 5, Arkansas 1 End 5th
Ole Miss 2, Virginia 2 (not sure, around the 5th)
Florida State 5, Arkansas 4 Bot 7th.
Ole Miss, 3, Virginia 2 Top 7th
Florida State 5, Arkansas 6 Mid 8th
Ole Miss 3, Virginia 2 Top 8th
Florida State walks in a run in the bottom of the 8th. Now 7-5 Arkansas, bases still loaded, 1 out.
Lyons grounds into a double play (again, sigh). Top of the 9th now, Arkansas is 3 outs away.
FSU has tied it. Arkansas was within 1 strike twice.
dola
fml
Florida St. 8, Arkansas 7 mid 9th
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