College Baseball thread

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Arkansas is the next #1 seed to be ousted, beaten by #4 SEMO.

Oklahoma faces elimination vs Duke, but the weather has prevented that one from starting for the past two hours. ECU staved off elimination earlier, UCSB needs to hold onto a slim lead for another 3 innings to do the same.

Yeah very surprised Arkansas is out. duke/oklahoma has started now, Duke out ahead early. Looks like another Sun Belt team Louisiana is poised to take out Texas, ahead by 5 runs in the 8th.

[Atocep]

WVU is in the Tucson region final. The loser's bracket game is DBU and GCU, which is 10-10 in the 8th.

If WVU can avoid losing 2 straight to whoever comes out of this it would be the first super regional in school history in coach Randy Mazey's last year.

[Thomkal]

Sadly the Coach Gilmore era at Coastal ends as he heads into retirement after Coastal never led against clemson. It's unlikely anyone will be able to bring Coastal to this level again:


x.com

[JonInMiddleGA]

GT far far exceeds my expectations by winning a couple games, before bowing to UGA by blowing a 5-2 lead over the final two innings and losing in extras.

Tennessee on the other hand made surprisingly short work of their regional, closing it out on Sunday.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Question that hit me yesterday was, if they win, what happens to the trophy?

Good question. Unfortunately we will never know. I guess it is not the cruelest ending if only because it is not in the title game but damn this is pretty cruel.

Birmingham-Southern's run ends in D-III WS after school's closing - ESPN

[Atocep]

UNC/LSU was a great game that was, unfortunately, decided by a dropped flyball in the top of the 10th.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Atocep

UNC/LSU was a great game that was, unfortunately, decided by a dropped flyball in the top of the 10th.

I was surprised over the weekend by how many games - especially in extra innings - seemed to be influenced by HBPs, especially leadoff ones.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Good question. Unfortunately we will never know. I guess it is not the cruelest ending if only because it is not in the title game but damn this is pretty cruel.

Birmingham-Southern's run ends in D-III WS after school's closing - ESPN

I'm guessing if they had won it all, someone would have filed a lawsuit challenging their right to hold the title since the school they represented became defunct and being a college-affiliated team is the only reason they were allowed into the tournament to begin with. That would be the American way, right?

[JonInMiddleGA]

I didn't realize that one of Birm-Southern's pitchers was the grandson of Dave LaRoche/son of Adam LaRoche

LaRoche family reflects on the game as it is soaking in D-III College World Series – News-Herald

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, Adam famously retired about a decade ago because the White Sox wouldn't allow his son in the clubhouse, as I recall. Now that son was a pitcher on the B-S team.

[Swaggs]

Here is a retrospective article about it from a few years ago. I hadn't heard about it at the time, but remember reading this. LaRoche retired and surrendered $13M contract and Adam Eaton said "We have lost a leader in Drake."

‘It was kind of nuts’: 5 years later, former White Sox reflect on the Adam LaRoche saga - The Athletic

I thought it was a NY Times article, but it is behind the Athletic paywall.

Some gems:

Drake was a little version of his father minus the beard, Saladino recalled, and players soon discovered that he was just as relaxed as his dad. If it hadn’t been for his 5-foot-3, 110-pound frame, you may not have noticed he was there. He took care of the pitchers during batting practice by running down fly balls, which allowed them to conserve energy. He assisted coaches when they were performing infield and outfield drills by catching return throws. And after games, he helped the clubhouse staff by gathering players’ cleats to be shined. If time permitted, he occasionally cleaned cleats.

“He was a really mature kid for his age,” Ventura said. “He was a good kid. I enjoyed having him around.”

Just as he’d been with the Nationals, Drake was a hit with the White Sox. He was even given his own locker stall in the clubhouse, right next to his dad’s, and wore a matching No. 25 jersey.

“The whole previous year, Drake was around, never a problem,” Duke said. “He helped out. Picked up shoes, balls, you name it. It was never an issue.”

Williams explained his position later that same day during the team’s game against the Brewers. He insisted that the intention wasn’t to put Drake LaRoche in the middle of the issue, that nobody had considered him a distraction.

“I asked Adam, ‘Listen, our focus, our interest, our desire this year is to make sure we give ourselves every opportunity to focus on a daily basis on getting better,’” Williams said. “’All I’m asking you to do with regard to bringing your kid to the ballpark is dial it back.’ I don’t think he should be here 100 percent of the time. …

“We all think his kid is a great young man. I just felt it should not be every day, that’s all. You tell me, where in this country can you bring your child to work every day? …

“I want to be very clear on something. It’s not because the young man was a distraction, not because he wasn’t well-received or well-liked by players, management and everyone else.

“He’s a quality, quality young kid that one day might be a heck of a player one day.”

“Here’s the deal,” LaRoche said. “There is next to zero jobs in this country where you can bring your kids to work. I mean, absolutely. It’s totally unrealistic. Unfortunately, I was just spoiled with the job I was in, that it was OK and he was kind of another employee. I can’t stress enough, zero hard feelings for them changing policy. Whether it was done right or not, who cares? That was my boss and you follow what the boss … It’s not my team.

“They have every right to change policy and do what they think they need to do to win and what fits their kind of mission. So, man, I totally get that. But, as an employee, I have the decision whether to stay and do that or not. I’m not going to stay there and just blatantly disobey the boss’ order, but I can walk away.

“If baseball was everything I had, if that was my identity, it would have been really, really difficult. It probably never would have happened, but I’m probably going to choose that over anything. So again, I’m very fortunate that as much as I love the game, it was pretty easy to walk away.”

[miami_fan]

OU softball ain't ready to leave Oklahoma City just yet.

I'm still not used to taking a quick glance at the TV, seeing the pitcher is on 130+ pitches and not wondering when the manager is going to go to the pen.

[Ksyrup]

The final 3 teams for me is like trying to decide who to root for in CFB between Ohio State, Alabama, and Florida. There are no winners.

Sydney Berzon of LSU threw 14 innings and 208 pitches in the SEC tournament.

[Ksyrup]

Oklahoma winning yet again was inevitable. Kinda sucks, TBH.

The craziest thing about it, though, is they beat their biggest rival with a #1 pitcher who transferred from their in-state rival. That's be like FSU beating Miami to win the CFB championship with Tim Tebow at QB. I can't imagine a better set-up to winning a championship and shoving it in your rivals' noses.

[Vegas Vic]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Oklahoma winning yet again was inevitable. Kinda sucks, TBH.

The SEC currently has 13 schools who have women's softball teams. All 13 made the NCAA tournament. Next year, Texas and Oklahoma join the SEC.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Vegas Vic

The SEC currently has 13 schools who have women's softball teams. All 13 made the NCAA tournament. Next year, Texas and Oklahoma join the SEC.

Yeah, and that's unwarranted too. A couple of the SEC teams didn't deserve it. UK was one.

Just means more (to ESPN)!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Yeah, and that's unwarranted too. A couple of the SEC teams didn't deserve it. UK was one.

Just means more (to ESPN)!

You mean the Kentucky that the coaches poll had as #28 in their ranking going into the post-season?

A poll that has one voting member from each of 32 conference, I guess they've been bought off too or something.

Or maybe the computer was bought off, the RPI had them at #34 in the end.

I don't give much fucks about softball frankly, but this sort of whining just makes people look silly.

[Ksyrup]

It's all horseshit. They weren't a good team. The RPI game rewards teams for conference strength by boosting them just for playing their conference schedule. You highly rate all teams and your RPI stays high because of it. Meanwhile, you lose nearly all of those games. Hmm. At some point, it should be clear that the 12th/13th best teams in any conference do not deserve to play in the post-season.

It isn't whining. I don't have a team I wanted to get it. I actually support UK, have for years. But this year's team was mediocre and not deserving of a spot. I don't really care what the circle jerk effects of RPI or coach's polls suggested. Even a school like USC which got into the tournament knows they sucked - they just fired Bev Smith.

It'll be interesting to see how far down they go next year with bids with 2 auto-bids entering the conference.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

It's all horseshit. They weren't a good team. The RPI game rewards teams for conference strength by boosting them just for playing their conference schedule. You highly rate all teams and your RPI stays high because of it. Meanwhile, you lose nearly all of those games. Hmm. At some point, it should be clear that the 12th/13th best teams in any conference do not deserve to play in the post-season.

It isn't whining. I don't have a team I wanted to get it. I actually support UK, have for years. But this year's team was mediocre and not deserving of a spot. I don't really care what the circle jerk effects of RPI or coach's polls suggested. Even a school like USC which got into the tournament knows they sucked - they just fired Bev Smith.

It'll be interesting to see how far down they go next year with bids with 2 auto-bids entering the conference.

I had the same feeling about Ole Miss softball (and several others elsewhere tbh) BUT ... if you gotta fill a 64 team bracket, they have to come from somewhere. And given the hot start UK had, the two wins over Stanford most notably, I don't see any issue with them in the field. 2-2 vs ranked outside the conference, 23-8 non-con overall, that's a no-brainer to be in the field given the conference schedule otherwise.

Parity just isn't a thing in that sport at this point (really never has been), before it was SEC-dominant, it was Pac10 dominant. Even 32 viable teams in the tournament is probably pushing it frankly. You don't really need to be very good to make it in.

[Ksyrup]

I don't disagree, but this goes back to my general philosophy of inclusion since we have not yet formally separated the power conferences from the rest. I'd love to make the SEC conference schedule mean something more than just a fight for hosting regionals/super-regionals. For instance, I'd be all for a rule that says unless you win your conference tournament, no team is eligible that finished in the bottom quarter of its regular season conference standings.

I don't doubt you'd knock out some "good" teams (relatively speaking), but it would make the regular season conference play mean something. It's embarrassing frankly that UK, Auburn and USC were 2 seeds with conference records of 8-16 or 9-15. That's why I think RPI is more of a system to be gamed than anything. Just playing conference, they all get a huge boost in RPI. And yes they schedule tough (or should) early on, but at that point winning those games doesn't matter as much as just playing them (unless you're fighting for a hosting slot, and even then the committee can find a reason to bump a team up or down). When a team cancels a late-season game against a #1 seed mid-major because even a win will hurt their RPI, that's not good for the game and shows you it's more about someone running numbers than just playing ball.

And if we're not going to make a power conference-only tournament, there's 300+ teams competing for the same thing. I'd reward more of them at the expense of more talented teams who couldn't beat their equals.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

And if we're not going to make a power conference-only tournament, there's 300+ teams competing for the same thing. I'd reward more of them at the expense of more talented teams who couldn't beat their equals.

Yeah, that's a pretty much a complete philosophical difference between us that we aren't realistically going to bridge.

[Ksyrup]

I get it. But I think gifting more talented teams automatic bids not just to their own tournament but the NCAA tournament is ridiculous. If you want to be one of the big boys and enjoy those benefits, you should suffer if you are one of the worst of the best, as it were.

[Atocep]

Clemson's CF just made as good of a catch as you'll ever see to save their season in the bottom of the 10th.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Clemson's CF just made as good of a catch as you'll ever see to save their season in the bottom of the 10th.

Saw the replay-that was pretty special-and he almost misjudged/over ran it.

[Ksyrup]

UK wins thanks to a pitcher not covering home and goes 2B to home on a wild pitch. There's nothing worse than your season ending on a 10U mistake.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

UK wins thanks to a pitcher not covering home and goes 2B to home on a wild pitch. There's nothing worse than your season ending on a 10U mistake.

He looked like he was just windowshopping in the mall or something. Just lazily strolling toward the plate without a care in the world.

Hella headsup baserunning but that pitcher just made himself a cautionary instructional meme.

[Ksyrup]

He was completely clueless until the guy was 3/4s down the line and he saw him in his periphery.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

He was completely clueless until the guy was 3/4s down the line and he saw him in his periphery.

Your comparison to 10U is more appropriate for me. In my head he only reacts to the runner because a coach's veins are bulging out of his head screaming at him to cover the plate.

Has there been an official explanation for the ejections in the Clemson v Florida game? The announcers said Crighton was ejected for leaving his position but his position at the time was a baserunner and the out on the play ended the inning. He ran towards the skirmish but also the skirmish was in front of Clemson's dugout. Now I am reading that the ejection was for unsportsmanlike conduct which seems harsh to single him out when both teams were being very unsportsmanlike. Then the two Clemson coaches were tossed I guess because their player spiked the bat after hitting a home run?

[Ksyrup]

That game was wild and those ejections ridiculous.The first explanation was Crighton contacted an ump which makes more sense than the revised version, absent some detail like he made a racist or over the line derogatory comment (or specifically directed something at an ump which is the best explanation I can come up with given his reaction when he found out he was ejected).

[Ksyrup]

I saw a social media post from the Omaha police about having thrown out a couple of TX A&M fans during the UF game for heckling the UF bench about the death of their bat boy. Pretty awful. Looked like a father/son duo, not sure?

Anyway, that was bad enough. Then I read the backstory of the bat boy's death. It goes far beyond just him. And I swear, I don't recall hearing about this when it happened, but I feel like it was tragic enough that I would have run across it. In 2021, the bat boy was 14 and his younger brother was 11. Their parents we're going through a divorce or at least separated, and the dad had recently lost his job. The UF head coach was a friend of the family and had gotten the 14 year old to be the bat boy on numerous occasions for the baseball team. Now, "friend of family" appears to have included a relationship with the mom, although I don't know if that's confirmed or not. Either way, Dad killed the wife, 2 sons and himself - likely due to all the circumstances of his quickly crumbling life, if not directly because of this relationship.

So THAT is the backstory. They were heckling the coach about being responsible for the bat boy's death. What POS.

[Flasch186]

Rex and Brody

There’s a baseball tournament in their honor we participated in a few years ago

It was a terrible thing to have happened in the area so the two hecklers really are despicable


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[miami_fan]

I suspect that Tenneessee Head Coach Tony Vitello is looked upon with completely different eyes depending on if he is one of yours or if he is one of theirs and/or if his team is winning or losing.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

I suspect that Tenneessee Head Coach Tony Vitello is looked upon with completely different eyes depending on if he is one of yours or if he is one of theirs and/or if his team is winning or losing.

Eh, last year's team was one of the most unlikable outfits I've ever seen assembled. This year's hasn't been as bad but I'm unable to generate the slightest bit of fandom based on how bad that group was.

But that ain't 100% Vitelo based, I'm sure they reflect him some but a lot of those players would have been unlikable without his influence I have to think.

[cartman]

Texas fires their coach before Game 3, then hires the A&M coach after. Aggie Nation not taking the news well.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by cartman

Texas fires their coach before Game 3, then hires the A&M coach after. Aggie Nation not taking the news well.

Probably wouldn't have the terrible optics to everyone else if he hadn't had a hissy fit when a reported asked him about that very possibility in the post-game.

As it is, he seems like a serious asshole.

[Edward64]

... wait. The SEC is a baseball powerhouse?

[cartman]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Probably wouldn't have the terrible optics to everyone else if he hadn't had a hissy fit when a reported asked him about that very possibility in the post-game.

As it is, he seems like a serious asshole.

He tipped his hand in that response, referring to the A&M job in the past tense.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

I suspect that Tenneessee Head Coach Tony Vitello is looked upon with completely different eyes depending on if he is one of yours or if he is one of theirs and/or if his team is winning or losing.

Vitello is a prick. Ask me how I know.

[miami_fan]

I’ll bite

Why Vitello a prick?

[MJ4H]

You probably know he was an assistant at Arkansas for a number of years. My wife works in the doctor's office that most of the athletic department uses. He's a total douchebag.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Probably wouldn't have the terrible optics to everyone else if he hadn't had a hissy fit when a reported asked him about that very possibility in the post-game.

As it is, he seems like a serious asshole.

Yes, this is the real story, not the fact that he took the job (although I completely get that in TX, leaving for your arch-rival the day after a WS appearance and a few days before they join your conference is a big deal, but for most of us ... meh).

He not only chastized the guy, other reporters said he then made a point to seek the guy out after the press conference to go after him again. It's baseball so not as many people care, but I feel like if this was a football or basketball coach, he'd have taken Saban off the hook for his asshole behavior when he was the Dolphins coach.

I simply don't understand how you can react in that over the top way when you know you're leaving in less than 24 hours.

And apparently at least one player claims he was recruiting players to join him before the championship series was over.

[cartman]

He made a similar exit when he left TCU to go to A&M