The Road to Omaha: 2015 College Baseball Thread

I live a block from the Columbia football and baseball fields and try to catch as many games as possible. Football team has had two straight winless seasons although they have a new coach who's had prior success in the Ivy. They've been pretty hard to watch. But the baseball team's always been fun and has won the Ivy several times past five seasons. Beat East Carolina yesterday and take on Miami today.

 

Aaaaaaand, Ole Miss goes two and out, 3-1 to Maryland and 2-1 to Bakersfield. Thanks for playing Rebs.

 

Ye gods.
The loss to Maryland shouldn't be that surprising. They were facing an f'n stud who seems well on his way to being a first-round draft pick next year. No shame in that.
But losing to Bakersfield? Man, that sucks.
Ole Miss was up and down this year, and really didn't secure its tournament berth until the last two or three weeks of the season. Still, I thought it was better than that.

 

I'm probably about to jinx it for the fighting Big Ciruses, but the Lake Elsinor bracket is opening right up for UVa. Cavs would have to be pretty thrilled with a super regional appearance in a down, injury-plagued season.

 

To be fair, Bakersfield saved their ace for Saturday, so Ole Miss had to face Maryland's No. 1, Mike Shewaryn, who as you said is a stud, on Friday; then Hayden Carter for Bakersfield, who was Pitcher of the Year in the WAC this season. And they got robbed of HRs by over-the-fence catches in BOTH games.

 

Didn't see either game, but man, that's just brutal. Tough weekend, especially when it looks like they got good enough pitching to win. Just couldn't hit the other guys who were really good, and on their game to boot.

 

And Maryland dumps UCLA, 4-1, even after the Terps' starter left in the second inning because of an arm injury.
Sunday, it's UCLA vs. Bakersfield. Winner plays Maryland and has to win and come back Monday and beat the Terps again.

 

Ooh. Just looked at the bracket. UVa is in the same position as MD, 2-0 so far. Looks like they would play each other if they both advance.

 

That is true. The super regionals are setting up for some good, interesting rivalry games -- UVa-Maryland; Florida-Florida State; Arkansas/Oklahoma State-Missouri State (not a rivalry per se, but a regional matchup at least); and LSU vs. the winner of the Greater Houston Metropolitan Tournament.
Interesting thing I heard during the coverage yesterday was that Missouri State didn't put in a bid to host a super regional. So even though it's a national seed, it'll be on the road next weekend if it makes it through. You know Arkansas and Oklahoma State would jump at the chance to host, but I wonder what'd happen if, say, St. John's came back and won that Stillwater regional? You know they didn't bid either, so would it just default to Missouri State? Would they ship that thing off to New York City and play it in front of about 200 fans?

 

There's no way Missouri State could host. They are a tenant of the Double - A team in that stadium, and the minor leaguers are back home next weekend.

There's apparently no way to schedule both, so it would be off to NYC in that scenario, I guess.

 

As much as I would like to see it, SJU ain't beating Arkansas twice. But if SJU did host, they'd have good crowds. They always get sent far away for regionals -- the closest was Virginia a couple years ago but they've been shipped to Cali, Oregon, Fla., Texas, etc. -- and this would be to get to the World Series for the first time since 1980. Even a bad opponent could draw close to a 1,000 if some of the random opponents they played at home this season drew mid 300-near 400.

 

As an SEC fanboi, I find it cute that you consider 1,000 fans a good crowd.