NCAA Baseball Tournament Thread

[wbatl1]

Carolina rolls through their regional.

[gstelmack]

NC State and UNC both advance with wins today. NC State awaits the winner of Georgia / Georgia Tech tomorrow.

[cartman]

Congrats to Rice, who emerged unscathed from their regional, getting a 7-4 win over Texas.

[Thomkal]

Coastal Carolina wins 24-11 to move on to its first ever Super Regional against North Carolina. Coastal beat them this year, so it may not be such a shocker if they win again.

After scores of 10-2, 16-3, 9-0, 13-10, 16-1, and 24-11, I don't think the NCAA will let Coastal host on their home field again. Good thing we have a minor league stadium here that we've used in the past for regionals.

[SnDvls]

boy FSU sure lit everyone up after the poor game they played in the opener.

Hope they wasted all their runs in regional play.

[LloydLungs]

I believe that's 58 runs for FSU in the last day and a half. After being shut out in game one by some kid from Bucknell with not-terribly-sparkling numbers, which were racked up mostly in the Patriot League.

Baseball is weird.

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by LloydLungs

I believe that's 58 runs for FSU in the last day and a half. After being shut out in game one by some kid from Bucknell with not-terribly-sparkling numbers, which were racked up mostly in the Patriot League.

Baseball is weird.

Momentum in baseball is only as good as the next days starter...

[Butter]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Coastal Carolina wins 24-11 to move on to its first ever Super Regional against North Carolina. Coastal beat them this year, so it may not be such a shocker if they win again.

After scores of 10-2, 16-3, 9-0, 13-10, 16-1, and 24-11, I don't think the NCAA will let Coastal host on their home field again. Good thing we have a minor league stadium here that we've used in the past for regionals.

Congrats! It'd be awesome for Coastal to get to Omaha.

[SnDvls]

ASU moves on crushing Oklahoma 12-0

we will host the winner of Fresno St & San Diego for the Super Regional. Long Beach State was that regional host...not to over look them, but I appears to be a much easier Super Regional without Long Beach there for the Devils

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Congrats! It'd be awesome for Coastal to get to Omaha.

Thanks! Yeah it would be awesome if Coastal made it to Omaha. I'm just worried they are going to come out flat against North Carolina after being so focussed on winning their own regional.

Coastal Carolina has had some really exciting moments in just the past couple years-the football team making the Division IAA playoffs in the third year of their existence, QB Tyler Thigpen, CB Quinton Teal, and now WR Jerome Simpson making it to the NFL, the golf team making it to the NCAA finals and finishing second (I think), with their best ever golfer Dustin Johnson now on the PGA Tour. Female Shot putter likely to be on the Olympics team this year, and the continued success of the baseball team for a few years now with many players moving on to being drafted by MLB teams. Pretty fun to be a fan of theirs right now.

[JonInMiddleGA]

2 hours and 10 minutes into the game in Athens and they've just completed the 4th inning.

Georgia leads GT 10-6, thanks in part to four errors.

[StLee]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

2 hours and 10 minutes into the game in Athens and they've just completed the 4th inning.

Georgia leads GT 10-6, thanks in part to four errors.

I am an LSU fan first and SEC fan second, so of course I am rooting for LSU and UGA to meet in the championship series.

The rest of the SEC was *bleh*, but LSU and UGA are national seeds and are supposed to be in the CWS. UGA has been a bit cold as of late, though, including going 0-2 in the SEC tournament. Hopefully they get hot again.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Georgia now leads 15-6 after 6, five GT errors (and still counting).

[digamma]

brutal

[JonInMiddleGA]

Make it 18-6 with six GT errors through 6 1/2 innings (and 17 hits & counting by UGA).

[Wolfpack]

Oh, well. Guess that means we're going to Athens.

[SnDvls]

I know this is the baseball thread, but the ASU softball team just totally dominated Texas A&M 11-0 to capture the National Championship...way to go Devils!!!

Let's see if the men can make it a clean sweep on the diamond

[Blade6119]

They played a great game, and congratulations to my friends on the team for their amazing accomplishments this year!

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Wolfpack

Oh, well. Guess that means we're going to Athens.

After getting blasted in game 1, State takes game 2 in convincing fashion and burning through a good chunk of Georgia's bullpen in the process. Should be an interesting game 3...

FSU tied up their series with Wichita state with a big win. And UNC took game 1 over Coastal Carolina.

[Blade6119]

Arizona upsetting Miami is huge for the rest of the tourney field! If they can knock miami out, 4-5 other teams can really start thinking title.

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

After getting blasted in game 1, State takes game 2 in convincing fashion and burning through a good chunk of Georgia's bullpen in the process. Should be an interesting game 3...

FSU tied up their series with Wichita state with a big win. And UNC took game 1 over Coastal Carolina.

I certainly hope State can pull out the win in Athens, but I'm not holding my breath by any means. I've been jaded by too many failures in Wolfpack athletics in recent years to get my hopes too high.

That game one in Cary was a pretty much a walk in hell. Tomorrow, if it's possible, is going to be worse. Temps running 100-105 with brutal humidity...this is what I moved back to North Carolina for??

[SnDvls]

UC Irvine with a big upset over LSU to take game 1 and the Devils win game one over Fresno 12-4. Miami ties it up 1 all and forces game 3 while Stanford is the first to punch their ticket to Omaha eliminating Fullerton

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by SnDvls

UC Irvine with a big upset over LSU to take game 1

I'm not so sure just how big an "upset" this really is.

There was some speculation as soon as the pairing was set that UC-Irvine might be a team that could handle the situation as well as anybody, mostly because of their SP's. And sooner or later, streaks usually end.

If Irvine wins the series, I'd count that as a solid upset. But one game? I'm not particularly shocked ... yet.

[SnDvls]

considering LSU was a #7 national seed and playing at home plus a 20+ win streak. UCI is good, but LSU shouldn't lose game one under all of those conditions...game 2 maybe, but not game 1.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Georgia just annihilates NC State, 17-8, to advance. Could have been even worse (and was) with 9 runs in the first and eventually a 17-3 lead.
UNC & FSU have advanced already, Miami is leading Game 3 over Arizona early.

Meanwhile LSU rallied for with two in the 8th & five in the 9th to beat UC-Irvine 9-7 & force a deciding game on Monday.

[Thomkal]

Have to say that was a pretty embarassing performance for my Coastal Carolina. Played badly and had two pitchers thrown out of the first game and suspended for the next four because of it. Just stupid. Congrats to North Carolina though.

Looking pretty bleak for Coastal for next year with most of their better players drafted and some likely to leave early.

[Tigercat]

Originally Posted by SnDvls

considering LSU was a #7 national seed and playing at home plus a 20+ win streak. UCI is good, but LSU shouldn't lose game one under all of those conditions...game 2 maybe, but not game 1.

LSU doesn't have a #1 pitcher. LSU has a few guys that have consisently performed as good #2 pitchers over the last month and a half. The horrible call yesterday also hurt momentum, and UCI plays good enough baseball that they are basically a #1 seed.

That being said, I expect LSU to play hard at the last game ever at the box tomorrow and take the series. Will probably fall short of the championship round in Omaha, the team is just so young.

LSU should be back to a yearly power now, though. The talent is starting to stack back up, and we have a great coach again.

[gstelmack]

Sad to see NC State implode in the first inning.

[SnDvls]

Originally Posted by Tigercat

LSU doesn't have a #1 pitcher. LSU has a few guys that have consisently performed as good #2 pitchers over the last month and a half. The horrible call yesterday also hurt momentum, and UCI plays good enough baseball that they are basically a #1 seed.

That being said, I expect LSU to play hard at the last game ever at the box tomorrow and take the series. Will probably fall short of the championship round in Omaha, the team is just so young.

LSU should be back to a yearly power now, though. The talent is starting to stack back up, and we have a great coach again.

their hitting has overcome all of the pitching questions all year though (except for game 1 and the first 7 innings of game 2). It was a great comeback win today though. I have to say LSU is my 2nd favorite team behind ASU that is for sure.

[JonInMiddleGA]

LSU leads Irvine 16-4 in the 7th.
Fresno trying to upset #3 seed ASU with an 11-5 lead also in the 7th.

[Tigercat]

Fitting that Alex Box will close with LSU scoring 20+ in a game.

I will miss it greatly, it has been the best college baseball venue in the nation(not in Omaha) for the past 15 years.

[LloydLungs]

Kudos to LSU coach Paul Mainieri, a good guy and a hell of a coach. LSU had just about fallen off the college baseball map, and he puts em back in Omaha in two years. I'm biased, of course -- he's a University of New Orleans boy, and I like to see all Privateer alums do well. But the LSU fans that wanted him gone just a short month and a half ago (which was a LOT of them) should not be allowed to celebrate this thing.

[StLee]

Originally Posted by LloydLungs

Kudos to LSU coach Paul Mainieri, a good guy and a hell of a coach. LSU had just about fallen off the college baseball map, and he puts em back in Omaha in two years. I'm biased, of course -- he's a University of New Orleans boy, and I like to see all Privateer alums do well. But the LSU fans that wanted him gone just a short month and a half ago (which was a LOT of them) should not be allowed to celebrate this thing.

How many was that? I'm an LSU fan, but I didn't hear many people wanting Mainieri gone. Of course, most people I know wanted LSU to perform better than they were doing early in the season when they were in 11th place in the SEC in overall standings. Most people I knew about understood that LSU was a young team (they were picked to finish 5th in the West, which would put them around 9th or 10th in the SEC). Then again, I try to keep in touch with informed fans and mature message boards.

Right now, LSU is overachieving (I guess--hell, I am having trouble convincing myself of that the way they've been playing since mid-May) because there are a lot of young guys starting. Moreso, I think LSU will be a lot more dangerous in the next 2-3 years when it will be a veteran team.

My happiness as an LSU fan is that they got to the World Series. It will be a tough battle to even fight past UNC and Rice in their own bracket, so I am not expecting a championship.

[LloydLungs]

Originally Posted by StLee

How many was that? I'm an LSU fan, but I didn't hear many people wanting Mainieri gone.

Perhaps there's only so much that can be gleaned from message boards, but let's just say he was not popular in the LSU online community, at the very least. You're right, the Tigers are extremely young -- they're really a year ahead of schedule. You're seeing Mainieri's third year breakthrough happening at the end of year two.

That said, I don't see LSU being a huge threat in Omaha this year, as hard as it is to bet against a team on a 25-of-26 run. Talk about a powerhouse lineup. Seven monsters of college baseball... and Fresno.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Bad day for the ACC in Omaha.

Stanford scores 11 in the top of the 9th to break open a tie game & beat FSU 16-5.

Then Miami implodes in the top of the 9th, with a dropped third strike setting a rally in motion & they let UGA score four times en route to a 7-4 win. 'Canes absolutely gagged away the win.

[StLee]

How about the Tigers pulling another game out in the 9th?

And is Fresno State currently one of the great Cinderella stories in sports history?

[larrymcg421]

Crazy game between Canes and FSU the other night. FSU rallies in the 9th and it's 7-5 with runners on the corners and Buster Posey up. Honestly, I would've intentionally walked him in this situation. He ends up getting walked anyways, and the Canes get the final out with the bases loded.

[gstelmack]

Tar Heels get screwed by the weather, with 2 runs in, bases loaded, nobody out (?), in the top of the 1st, and rain moves in and they have to delay until today...

[LloydLungs]

The College World Series is officially too long, by the way. I love it, but come on... this is ridiculous. Not only do elimination games get their own day now, but if there is a rainout, they don't compress the schedule at all -- they simply delay *everything* by a day. By the time Georgia starts up against Stanford tomorrow, it will have been four days since they last played.

Suffice it to say that, while you need pitching depth to get to Omaha, a couple of good starters and one shutdown reliever should be more than enough to win the title once you're there.

[sterlingice]

Fresno up 6-1 in the 8th right now, but they were up yesterday, too.

SI

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by LloydLungs

Suffice it to say that, while you need pitching depth to get to Omaha, a couple of good starters and one shutdown reliever should be more than enough to win the title once you're there.

And yet Georgia gets to the title round without having a starter last past the fourth inning in any of their three wins in Omaha.

The starting pitching wasn't all that great on the road to Omaha either.
Super Regional their starters went a great 8.2, a decent 6.2, and a bad 3 IP.

And in the Regional they clinched without the starter getting a single out, before that they got a good 7.0, a so-so 4 IP, and a bad 4.2 IP in the opener.

Now as much as I hate the Dawgs, don't get me wrong. They're in the finals & deserve it as much as anybody. I just cant recall a team getting so little out of their starting pitching and still being in this position. Maybe it's happened but it just doesn't seem that way in my off-hand recollection. As you said, a couple of good starters should do it, but they're doing it without getting much of that, and especially not in Omaha. And FTR, I think they've actually got 2-3 pretty good starters, they just haven't been pitching well.

[kingfc22]

Fresno St. is one inning away from being the lowest seeded team to win an NCAA championship in NCAA history.

[Logan]

Just turned it on for the final inning. Congrats to Fresno.

[sterlingice]

That was fun to watch

SI