Official 2012 College Baseball thread

[cartman]

A few days late with the thread. Most teams started play last weekend, with South Carolina looking for their 3rd straight CWS title.

Florida Atlantic has been the early season surprise, getting a sweep over Alabama.

[MJ4H]

Arkansas has opened 6-0. Ranked as high as #4 in the country preseason and after opening weekend. Widely believed to be one of if not the best Dave Van Horn team at Arkansas. Pitching is the real strength, but enough bats to put some runs up. Defense looks pretty strong, as well.

Hoping for good things.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Ga Tech will probably have another typical season, decent to good regular season followed by post-season collapse.

Apparently they like it that way, five year extension for coach Danny "it's the fans fault" Hall announced yesterday.

SMFH.

[cartman]

Texas heads home to regroup after a trip to Palo Alto ends up in a sweep for the Cardinal. Stanford looks really strong early on this season, with a sweep of Vanderbilt on their resume as well. Luckily the next team up for the Horns is Houston Baptist.

[cartman]

Starting to hit the home stretch of the season. Baseball America has started their CWS "bracketology".

Baseball America | Blog | Baseball America College Blog | Stock Report: Week Nine

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by cartman

Starting to hit the home stretch of the season. Baseball America has started their CWS "bracketology".

Baseball America | Blog | Baseball America College Blog | Stock Report: Week Nine

Really? They completely left out the Mountain West.

[cartman]

They addressed it in the earlier part of the article:

At-large Bids

There are 30 automatic bids awarded to conference champions, and these 14 are safe bets to be one-bid leagues:

America East, Atlantic 10, Colonial Athletic Association, Horizon, Ivy, Metro-Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Mountain West, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Summit, Southwestern.

Out of all those conferences, only Texas Christian has a strong enough RPI (No. 43) to have a realistic shot at earning an at-large bid if it fails to win its automatic bid. If TCU does win the MWC tournament, that will be a one-bid league, which is what we will consider it for this exercise.

[cartman]

The Florida-Georgia game last night had one of the strangest endings I've ever heard of. The game was in the bottom of the 16th inning when the game should have been over after a Florida player struck out. But the catcher couldn't dig the pitch out of the dirt, so the batter ran to first. The catcher lobbed the ball to first, but threw it over the 1st baseman's head, and the guy from 3rd scored to end the game. A walk-off strikeout win.

[cartman]

Crazy game in the opener of the Mountain West tournament last night. TCU was beating San Diego State 14-4, when San Diego State scored 11 runs in the top of the 9th to take a one run lead. On the first pitch of the bottom of the 9th, TCU hit a home run to tie the game, then got a single, a double, then an intentional walk to load the bases. A bloop single over the infield gave TCU the 16-15 win.

[Logan]

Just noticed this thread for the first time. Not sure if it's a very big story in other conferences (and I know the Big East isn't the top of the sport), but former Rutgers football player Patrick Kivlehan went out for the baseball team this year after finishing his football career. He hadn't played since high school, and ended up making the team.

All he did from there was win the first Triple Crown in conference history and earn Big East Player of the Year honors.

[cartman]

Texas is going to be sweating the selection process. They did finish 3rd in the Big 12, but were swept in the conference tourney. Their pitching staff has been decimated by injuries this season. It got so bad they had to move their closer to a starting spot.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Ga Tech will probably have another typical season, decent to good regular season followed by post-season collapse.

Could this be the opposite of recent years? A decidedly average regular season put GT squarely on the NCAA bubble.

They were the #8 seed going into the ACC tournament this week. Wednesday they beat #1 FSU, and today they are beating Virginia 13-5 in the 7th inning. If that holds and FSU beats Clemson in the afternoon game, GT would be in the ACC final for the first time since they've gone to the pool play system.

[digamma]

Three run shot makes it 17-5 and a Mercy Rule game. Leggo Noles.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Logan

Just noticed this thread for the first time. Not sure if it's a very big story in other conferences (and I know the Big East isn't the top of the sport), but former Rutgers football player Patrick Kivlehan went out for the baseball team this year after finishing his football career. He hadn't played since high school, and ended up making the team.

All he did from there was win the first Triple Crown in conference history and earn Big East Player of the Year honors.

Wonder where he might get drafted.

[gstelmack]

Division II championships here in Cary this weekend at the Team USA training complex. We may have to take the kids out, dollar hot dogs on Monday...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by digamma

Could this be the opposite of recent years?

Or not. Clemson beat FSU, the Tigers & UVA are 1-1, GT is 2-0, #1 seeded 'Noles are 0-2 & finished.. If I understand the tiebreakers correctly/they haven't changed, then :

If GT beats Clemson, they go to the title game. Period.
If Clemson beats GT, then they go if FSU beats UVA
If Clemson beats GT andUVA wins, then the Cavs go as the highest seeded team in a 3-way tie.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Another border battle for a spot in the B12 Championship. Mizzou vs. KU.

[INDalltheway]

Purdue won their first B1G championship in 103 years this year and advanced to the conference championship game tomorrow night. They are looking for a lock to "host" a regional as the best team in the north. I put host in quotations because they will more than likely be hosting at the Steelyard in Gary, IN because the renovations on their new complex haven't been completed. It is funny because when I was recruited to play there a big selling point was the new stadium which would be done by my junior or senior year (which would have been 2009 or 2010).

[JonInMiddleGA]

Senior Jake Davies continued his ACC Championship masterpiece by launching a two-run home run in the first inning, and firing a two-hit gem over a career-long six innings as Georgia Tech secured a berth in the title game with a 5-1 win over Clemson on Saturday

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Good to see Mizzou lay one last beatdown to KU. MU wins the Border War points battle for the sixth straight year and moves on to face OU in the finals tomorrow.

[MrBug708]

The PAC-12 is in a three way tie going into the last day of games. UCLA looks the sweep USC while Arizona is fighting it out with ASU and OSU and Oregon are playing well

[Thomkal]

Coastal Carolina won its sixth straight Big South championship and 11th trip to the NCAA's in the past 12 years. Made it through without losing a game this year but were very lucky to do so in the first couple games.

Really thought they were going to struggle this season-their very good starting pitching staff had mostly moved on, and the offense wasn't as strong. But it was the bullpen, Coastal's usual weakness, that came through big time.

Led by two slow-throwing submarine style pitchers, one of which shared the Big South Pitcher of the year award, and both named Big South Tournament MVP's, they came through time and time again with a shaky starting pitching rotation that got even shakier when they lost their #1 guy to an injury that led to Tommy John surgery 3 weeks ago.

I really can't see them getting past the first round in the NCAA's this year-its their weakest team on paper in quite a while, but to have this level of success was quite the accomplishment given how they started the
season.

[JonInMiddleGA]

GT wins the ACC title by beating Miami 8-5, becoming the first #8 seed to do so.

[MrBug708]

UCLA shares the PAC-12 title with Arizona as Oregon was swept and finished one game back.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Good win to finish out the season. Mizzou beats OU and wins the B12 Championship.

[I. J. Reilly]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

UCLA shares the PAC-12 title with Arizona as Oregon was swept and finished one game back.

You're welcome. And man, there is nothing better then sweeping your rival in the last series of the season. How'd that taste, slug eaters?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Division I tournament field announced - NCAA.com

Florida (42-18) is the #1 overall seed, followed by UCLA (42-14), Florida State (43-15), Baylor (44-14), Oregon (42-17), North Carolina (44-14), LSU (43-16) and South Carolina (40-17).

Not much respect for GT's ACC win ... they're a second seed in the regional: in Gainesville against Florida (along with Charleston and Bethune-Cookman)

[INDalltheway]

I forgot to post this video of the ending of the B1G championship game. We'll see if the Boilers have any suspensions looming from this incident. I would like to hear some of your guys opinions on the play.

[MrBug708]

Looks like the Indiana player was the first guy and then his own guy ran into him which set off everything into the brawl

[rowech]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Looks like the Indiana player was the first guy and then his own guy ran into him which set off everything into the brawl

Frustration on Indian's part and I thought the whole thing was IU's fault. Kid did nothing wrong at all and the IU player got pissed over the whole play and tried to take it out on Purdue kid.

Don't think I would suspend a single Purdue player.

[Thomkal]

Figured Coastal would end up in one of NC State's, North Carolina, or South Carolina's regionals. Was hoping for NC State, but ended up with South Carolina in a nearly all-South Carolina death match with Clemson as the #2 seed.

Coastal beat Clemson in their one game this season, and of course did not play South Carolina because South Carolina hates Coastal. If they each win in the first round it would be a rematch of the 2010 super regional here at Myrtle Beach where South Carolina won both games by one run and went on to win the first of two consecutive NCAA titles.

[JonInMiddleGA]

That IU 3B ought to be sitting for a while,looked like he decided to have a hissy fit after the error & took it out on the baserunner. Can't say what might have happened in the scrum that followed, maybe somebody from Purdue did something actionable but that's for the replay guys to figure out after watching it 20 times or so.

Just from what I saw here, the Boilers (should) walk away clean here.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

LOL.....from the College Baseball Selection Special.

"Texas should look no further than Mizzou as to why they aren't in the tournament."

.....grabs another salt shaker.....

[britrock88]

Yeah, the IU 3B looks like the only guy I'd go after.

[Thomkal]

The Battle for South Carolina bracket is about to start on ESPNU-Coastal Carolina and Clemson play with a likely chance to play South Carolina on the line.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

LOL.....from the College Baseball Selection Special.

"Texas should look no further than Mizzou as to why they aren't in the tournament."

.....grabs another salt shaker.....

Not surprising at all. Happens all the time in baseball and basketball where a sub-par team gets hot and wins their conference tournament, and bursts the bubble of a team on the edge. I posted as much before the selections happened.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

The Battle for South Carolina bracket is about to start on ESPNU-Coastal Carolina and Clemson play with a likely chance to play South Carolina on the line.

Not looking good for Coastal right now-Clemson leads 7-2 after 4 after scoring all their runs with 2 outs and in the case of 6 of the 7 runs, Coastal blew (no errors) a play that would have gotten them out of the inning with no runs scored. 4 of the runs came from a grand slam. Coastal's starting pitcher didn't make it to the third and one of their stud relievers (1.14 ERA) walked the first guy he faced and he eventually scored the 7th run for Clemson.

[Thomkal]

Ugh and now they are in a lightning delay

[JonInMiddleGA]

GT beats Charleston 8-4 in Gainesville, FL.

Rocky beginning with the #3 starter knocked out in the 4th but the #4 starter comes on in relief & works 5+ giving up only three hits.

[bronconick]

Kent State and Kentucky are in the top of the 18th inning tied at 5.

[MrBug708]

PAC-12 had a big first day going 5-0

[Butter]

Big Clemson-Carolina game today.

Also, the Dayton Flyers went down respectably to A&M in the Flyers' first NCAA baseball Tournament appearance.

[Thomkal]

Coastal Carolina out in front early today against Manhattan. 1-0 after 1.

[Thomkal]

Took awhile for the Coastal bats to get going but get going they did. 1-1 after 5, now 10-1 in the 8th. In another game, Bethune-Cookman, which was no hit yesterday, is being no hit again today through 5 innings. That would be an all-time worse performance in the NCAA's I would guess.

[Thomkal]

Coastal wins 11-1 and very importantly gets a complete game 2-hitter from starter Tyler Herb. Bullpen will be pretty rested for tomorrow's game against the Clemson/S Carolina loser.

[Thomkal]

Bethune Cookman finally broke through for a hit in the sixth inning, then immediately followed with a home run. Still losing though.

[larrymcg421]

Wow, talk about an epic fail by the Canes. They lost to the #4 seed Stony Brook 10-2 and are now down 9-0 in the 2nd inning to #3 seed Missouri State.

[Thomkal]

Well Clemson and South Carolina did Coastal Carolina a favor by going 12 innings before South Carolina prevailed. Clemson should be tired tomorrow having to come back and play Coastal at noon. I think I would have preferred to play South Carolina given how Clemson crushed us yesterday.

St. John's the #3 seed in the North Carolina regional just beat North Carolina 5-4. I thought NC had one of the easiest brackets so will be a big shock if they don't make it out of the regional.

[JonInMiddleGA]

TCU beat Dayton in an elim game 28-12. The score was 9-6 Dayton thru five innings. TCU scored 7 in the 6th, 6 in the 7th then tacked on 9 more runs in the 9th.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

St. John's the #3 seed in the North Carolina regional just beat North Carolina 5-4. I thought NC had one of the easiest brackets so will be a big shock if they don't make it out of the regional.

$#!%. That's what I get for leaving town. Now I'll camp out on campus all day tomorrow (and Monday, I guess).