2014 College Baseball thread

[cartman]

It is still a few weeks until MLB starts spring training, but colleges will have their first competitive games in about a week and a half. Baseball America has just released their preseason Top 25.

Virginia Tops College Preseason Top 25 - BaseballAmerica.com

[cartman]

The season kicked off in full this past weekend. Quite a few games were cancelled due to the winter weather. Texas split their four game series with Cal out in Berkeley.

[LloydLungs]

New Orleans started their season 1-2, with two competitive losses to LSU and a dominant victory over Southern. Living legend Ron Maestri returned to UNO this year after a *29* (!!!!!) year absence. Before this weekend, the last time Maes coached, John Ritter was still Jack Tripper.

Maestri took UNO to the 1984 College World Series, the first Louisiana program to go before LSU made it a million times.

[cartman]

Augie Garrido notched his 1,894th win yesterday, giving him the most wins of any college coach at any level.

Longhorns Roundup: Garrido earns top spot in all-time wins | www.statesman.com

[larrymcg421]

The Miami Hurricanes have won 26 of their last 28 games, including a 16th inning comeback victory over UNC tonight.

[cartman]

This is the last weekend of conference play for most teams. The conference tourneys start next week.

[cartman]

Dola,

College of Charleston played William and Mary yesterday for 23 innings, the second longest game in college baseball history. CofC won 3-2. It was supposed to be a doubleheader, so they were ready to play a lot of baseball. Now today they play the doubleheader.

[JonInMiddleGA]

From the play-in game to the ACC title, a remarkable week for Georgia Tech baseball.

Of course I now expect them to lay an enormous egg in the NCAA tournament but it was still a heck of an unlikely title, lowest seeded team to ever win the ACC tourney.

[terpkristin]

Maryland kind of came out of nowhere (I've never heard anything about them being "good") this season, too. Good final match vs. GaTech.

/tk

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Maryland kind of came out of nowhere (I've never heard anything about them being "good") this season, too. Good final match vs. GaTech.

Yeah, the final ended up being the 6th seed Terps vs the 9th seed Jackets. While the ACC was a bit of a clustered pack this year, I'm pretty sure few people expected this as the matchup today.

Maryland's first appearance in the conference title game since 1976, and their final appearance in any sport as a member of the ACC.

[cartman]

Here's the Road to Omaha schedule:

2014 NCAA baseball tournament schedule and results - ESPN

[MrBug708]

TCU was gifted that game

[StLee]

I like how hot LSU has been in recent weeks. Definitely what they needed heading into the postseason after a lackluster mid-season. If they continue to play as well as they have, LSU could take it this year. It's wide open with a few of the top teams in trouble or already out (#2 Florida, #5 Florida State).

[JonInMiddleGA]

5 of the top 8 seeds are gone.

#1 Oregon, #2 Florida, #4 Indiana, #5 FSU, #8 LSU all eliminated in regional play.

[Butter]

Let's go Kennesaw State!

[cartman]

There were some great games yesterday, probably the most exciting was Stanford's walk-off win over Indiana (sorry, Kodos).

Here's the matchups for this weekend's Super Regionals. A best of 3 series with the winners going to Omaha.

UC Irvine at Oklahoma State
Houston at Texas
Kennesaw State at Louisville
Stanford at Vanderbilt
College of Charleston at Texas Tech
Pepperdine at TCU
Ole Miss at Louisiana-Lafayette
Maryland at Virginia

[JonInMiddleGA]

All the talk about upsets & what not made me curious (and I couldn't have come close to answering this without looking ... so I looked)

Last Baseball America Top 25 prior to the tournament ...
Still alive are #1, #8 #9, #10, #12, #13, #15, #20, #21, and #23.

So 10 of the remaining 16 were relatively well regarded coming into this point. An 11th (Texas Tech) had just fallen out of the T25 the previous week.

Of the other 5, three (Kenn St, UC-Irvine, CofC) are from non-power conferences while Maryland & Stanford come from power conferences.

Might not mean anything, just thought it was interesting to look at.

[cartman]

There hasn't been much separating the teams. The record for number of one-run games in an entire tournament is 35. Just this year's regionals produced 32. The record for number of extra innings games for an entire tournament is 13, and there have already been 12.

[cartman]

Super Regionals started today. Texas beat Houston and Vanderbilt beat Stanford in their respective Game Ones. Kennesaw State is up over Louisville in the 6th, and UC Irvine plays Oklahoma State later tonight.

Mark Payton of the Longhorns hit a pretty impressive milestone. With his home run in the first inning, that marked the 100th straight game where he's reached base. It was right around the time he found out that he had just been drafted by the Yankees in the 7th round.

[StLee]

Originally Posted by StLee

I like how hot LSU has been in recent weeks. Definitely what they needed heading into the postseason after a lackluster mid-season. If they continue to play as well as they have, LSU could take it this year. It's wide open with a few of the top teams in trouble or already out (#2 Florida, #5 Florida State).

Damn me and my big mouth. The hottest team in the country went cold for 11 innings, and that is that.

Hope Texas and Ole Miss fall more than any other team. For Texas, they are up there in total championships, so I don't want them around LSU's number. For Ole Miss, well, I just hate those bastards.

[Lathum]

What do you guys know about Michael Conforto?

[CraigSca]

Go Terps!

(not sure that's ever been posted in a college baseball thread on any board...ever)

[MrBug708]

Is the ACC still acting like the most overrated conference?

[cartman]

Texas punches the first ticket to Omaha with a 4-0 win over Houston.

[cartman]

Louisville is the 2nd team to secure a place in Omaha, after beating Kennesaw State 7-4.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Cal-Irvine punches their ticket to Omaha with a 1-0 win at Oklahoma State. That had to be tense, UCI scored in the first and then held on.

[cartman]

Texas Tech and Vanderbilt are joining the fun in Omaha. Tech beat College of Charleston 1-0 for the 2nd day in a row, and Vandy took down Stanford 12-5.

[cartman]

Three win or go home games today:

Maryland v. Virginia
TCU v. Pepperdine
Louisiana-Lafayette v. Mississippi

[cartman]

The TCU-Pepperdine game has been awesome. They are tied at 4 in the 7th inning. If Pepperdine ends up winning, it will be one of the bigger upsets in recent CWS history. TCU had won 30 of 34 games coming into this series.

[cartman]

Pepperdine took the lead in the bottom of the 8th, but TCU got two in the top of the 9th, with the go ahead run coming on a suicide squeeze. Pepperdine is now up in the bottom of the 9th.

[cartman]

TCU holds on for the win. Men at the corners for Pepperdine, but a strikeout ends the game.

[digamma]

I hated the sac bunt by Pepperdine in the 9th, down by one. I understand you want to get a guy in scoring position, but you only have three outs--make them work for them.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by digamma

I hated the sac bunt by Pepperdine in the 9th, down by one. I understand you want to get a guy in scoring position, but you only have three outs--make them work for them.

I don't think it was that bad. It was the #9 batter that put down the sacrifice, so it put a guy in scoring position with the top of the lineup coming up, and took a double play off of the board. Since they were the home team, one run sends the game to extra innings.

[cartman]

UC-Irvine scores late and beats Texas in the opening game 3-1

[cartman]

Texas lives to fight on, and sends Louisville home in the first elimination game 4-1.

[cartman]

Texas Tech joins Louisville on the rail after a walk-off 2-1 loss to Ole Miss.

[cartman]

Texas survives another elimination game, avenging their Game 1 loss to UC-Irvine, 1-0. The one run was scored on the first home run this year at Omaha. The Horns had a triple wiped out in the 6th on an appeal to first base. Don't see that get called very often.

[cartman]

Ole Miss beats TCU 6-4 in an elimination game, and now we have the final four.

Texas plays Vanderbilt, and Ole Miss plays Virginia. Texas and Ole Miss have to win twice to advance to the championship series, Vandy and Virginia just need one win.

[digamma]

Virginia can end one of the more bizarre streaks in college sports. The ACC hasn't won a college baseball title since 1955 despite having a pretty tough conference and four runner-up finishes in the last 20 years.

[cartman]

The Longhorns force a winner take all game with Vanderbilt, after getting a 4-0 win. The Virginia-Ole Miss game was postponed after the 2nd inning due to lightning, and will be resumed tomorrow.

[cartman]

Virginia beat Ole Miss in the game continued from yesterday to earn a berth in the championship series. Texas and Vanderbilt played a gem tonight. Game went into extra innings. In the bottom of the 10th, Texas got two quick outs, but Vandy loaded the bases. They got a walk-off win on an infield single when the batter barely beat the throw to first.

[StLee]

I'm content that neither Texas nor Ole Miss can win the championship. It doesn't matter to me who wins the last series. I just didn't want it to be Texas or Ole Miss.

[cartman]

Vanderbilt won game 1, Virginia won game 2. The new CWS champ will be determined with game 3 tomorrow night.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by cartman

Vanderbilt won game 1, Virginia won game 2. The new CWS champ will be determined with game 3 tomorrow night.

What a game it's been!!!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Congrats to Vandy, two good teams right down the wire.

[cartman]

Yep! Vanderbilt gets the 3-2 win over Virginia. Vandy took the lead with a homer (only the 3rd of the entire CWS) in the top of the 8th. Virginia loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the 8th, but were unable to score. That was their best shot, as they went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 9th.

[digamma]

Great game. Commode Odors abound tonight.

Next year ACC.

[CU Tiger]

Its interesting that Vandy and Virginia are both coached by former Clemson Tigers while Clemson still languishes with the has been running the program into th ground and challenging fans to fight him in the parking lot.

[digamma]

Oh you can't replace Jack.

[CU Tiger]

Next season is his last...he should be gone now.