Road to Omaha thread

Jake, that's just it. The hockey rivalries trump all for the bigger schools. My kids are BU grads, and they wouldn't root for BC football (or anything else) if the team made it to the national championship game.

 

Maine was an Eastern power for years back in the 70s and 80s and was a semi-regular in Omaha when the regionals were truly "regional".

Of course they were later found to be cheating their asses off.

 

Our local JUCO has a pretty good baseball program, and for a few years they hosted a six- or eight-team tournament over spring break. One of the regulars was a team from Illinois that couldn't get on its home field until mid-April. So, they traveled down south and played teams in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana for the first month of the season. After the local JUCO's tournament, they spent a few more days traversing the state and playing two or three doubleheaders to get their money's worth. They probably played a dozen games in 10 days.

 

Turned on the ESPN Bases Loaded channel to see some of the whip-around regional coverage, and I have a feeling already that it's going to be a long weekend.
A guy for Southeastern Louisiana hit a solo home run in the top of the first inning against LSU. The host immediately started wondering aloud how much second-guessing there would be if LSU lost because they threw a freshman (Jared Poche, who's 9-3 with a 2.21 ERA) instead of the ace Aaron Nola.
IN THE TOP OF THE FIRST INNING!
Ay caramba.

There's also the glut of college baseball uniforms inspired by the 1970s Astros, but that's another issue. Why does nearly every team have these things now?

 

Also comforting to see Clemson getting its ass kicked in a regional. Down 14-1 to Oregon in the sixth inning.
Memorial Day and ACC teams shitting the bed in the postseason -- two sure signs that summer has arrived.

 

Oxford regional games rained out today. They'll play the first-round games tomorrow, then three on Sunday and the championship game Monday afternoon. That, of course, assumes that the rain will move out, and the forecast is not promising.

 

Long live HBCUs.

Jackson State beats Louisiana, 1-0.

BCU and Miami scoreless in the 8th.

 

And speaking of #goACC ... FSU gets curbstomped at home by Georgia Southern.

 

Terps won and they are officially an ACC team until July 1.

 

Watching Liberty hang in with Arkansas, down 3-2 in the 7th.

Sid Bream still holds the top three single-season batting averages at LU: .443, .436 and .430.

Playing us his freshman year at LU (with Falwell sitting on the team bench cheering like a girl), he hit a liner that our first baseman nearly caught, then the right fielder nearly caught, and it was still rising 430 feet away.

 

All the questionable Big West teams won easily today: Fullerton over Nebraska, Irvine over UNLV and Long Beach over North Carolina.

 

Anybody who doesn't think the Big West can play with the big boys, including the almighty SEC, doesn't know much about college baseball.

Fullerton came down here to play a weekend series at Southern Miss in 2009, the year USM went to the CWS, and it was like watching the Atlanta Braves play the Mississippi Braves, men against boys.