2014 College Baseball discussion thread

[Kingspoint]

Perfect Game... http://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=9339

6754

[reds1869]

UVA could be very, very good this year. I'm looking forward to a new season; baseball can't get here soon enough.

[Boston Red]

UVA could be very, very good this year.

Unfortunately, being a member of the ACC takes them right out of title consideration.

[Kingspoint]

With one weekend left in the regular season, here is the current poll from NCAA baseball...

7193

[Kingspoint]

The SEC has four in the Top-13 RPI rankings.

7194

[Kingspoint]

UVA could be very, very good this year. I'm looking forward to a new season; baseball can't get here soon enough.

They are currently #1 in RPI.

[Kingspoint]

Cal-St. Fullerton went from #2 in the pre-season rankings to not being present in the Top-30 in RPI at the end of the year.

[Boston Red]

Cal-St. Fullerton went from #2 in the pre-season rankings to not being present in the Top-30 in RPI at the end of the year.

I saw them in a three game series at Wichita State this year. They stunk. They lost two of three to the Shockers that weekend, and WSU is pretty awful themselves.

[Boston Red]

Louisville and Indiana will host regionals, and Xavier and Kentucky will be in the tournament as well. So lots of local interest.

Speaking of CSF (from earlier posts), the Titans caught fire late and are likely to sneak into the tournament, too.

[reds1869]

I was driving home from Kentucky today when I heard that Xavier had won the Big East. Pretty exciting start in the new conference.

[Kingspoint]

Louisville and Indiana will host regionals, and Xavier and Kentucky will be in the tournament as well. So lots of local interest.

Speaking of CSF (from earlier posts), the Titans caught fire late and are likely to sneak into the tournament, too.

Kentucky is in Louisville's Regional. That should be interesting.

Oregon State is the #1 overall seed. Go Beavs! http://www.ncaa.com/news/baseball/article/2014-05-26/oregon-state-leads-field-64-2014-division-i-baseball-tournament

Here's a copy of ESPN's schedule for coverage: http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/page/CWSTVSchedule/2014-espn-college-world-series-schedule

The bracket: http://i.turner.ncaa.com/dr/ncaa/ncaa7/release/sites/default/files/external/gametool/brackets/baseball_d1_2013.pdf

National Top Eight Seeds

1. Oregon St. (42-12)
2. Florida (40-21)
3. Virginia (44-13)
4. Indiana (42-13)
5. Florida St. (43-15)
6. La.-Lafayette (53-7)
7. TCU (42-15)
8. LSU (44-14-1)

[Kingspoint]

Tournament begins Friday (tomorrow).

[Boston Red]

Kennesaw State was the first team to score in this year's tournament, with a fifth inning sac fly against Alabama. In the next hour or so, the majority of the regionals will have their first game underway.

Now Kennesaw State is the first team to win, 1-0 over Alabama. I guess that makes them momentary favorites to win the national title. :)

[Kingspoint]

Now Kennesaw State is the first team to win, 1-0 over Alabama. I guess that makes them momentary favorites to win the national title. :)

And, the first upset of the tournament. #3 seed over a #2 seed in this case.

- - - Updated - - -

Scoreboard:

http://www.ncaa.com/scoreboard/baseball/d1/2014/05/30

[Boston Red]

STUD J.D. Davis hit a two-out, eighth inning grand slam to give CSF a 5-1 lead on Nebraska.

[Kingspoint]

STUD J.D. Davis hit a two-out, eighth inning grand slam to give CSF a 5-1 lead on Nebraska.

Oregon whooping Clemson 18-1!

Stanford upset Indiana State 8-1.

LSU in trouble down 4-2 in the 6th, and in danger of being the first #1 seed (#8 overall) to lose a Regional game.

[Boston Red]

Texas pounded A&M 8-1. That may be their only meeting in any sport this year. There's some SERIOUS bad blood in that relationship.

[Boston Red]

Good news all around for Louisville today. Easy 5-0 win over Kent. KU and Kentucky both use up a ton of pitching, and Louisville probably avoids UK's ace with the UK loss to KU. And Georgia Southern and Kennesaw State are playing in the winners' bracket of the region whose winner will play the winner of the Louisville region.

[dabvu2498]

Some great games yesterday. Naturally, I was at the two blowouts in Nashville.

[Boston Red]

FSU is in serious danger of going out. Down 3-0 to Alabama after 5 in Tallahassee. Through 14 innings, they've been outscored 10-0 in their regional.

[Hoosier Red]

Big comeback from Kentucky lets them live another day.

[IslandRed]

FSU went scoreless for 17 innings before finally rallying, but lost 6-5. Two and out, after coming in with a 19-game winning streak in regionals. Baseball's a weird game.

[dabvu2498]

Excellent win for Xavier. They've got a nice team. Probably not the pitching depth of most other teams in the tourney but they're solid.

And on any given day...

Nothing beats tournament baseball.

[Boston Red]

Xavier earned themselves a nice 13-1 beating tomorrow in all likelihood. Granted, the Astle kid who will probably go tomorrow shocked everyone with a complete game three hit shutout against a pretty decent Creighton team in the Big East finals, so I guess one never knows.

[Boston Red]

Siena's having a good night. After rallying from 7-0 down to beat Dallas Baptist, they're sleeping in a hotel while TCU and Sam Houston play into the 16th inning (so far) in Ft. Worth.

Heading to the 21st now in Ft. Worth. Siena is REALLY going to be happy about this when they wake up.

Ha, now an interference call gets TCU out of a bases loaded jam. On to the 22nd...

[SunDeck]

Indiana is playing well. These guys were sub .500 early in the season and then went on a tear that has not yet abated. They have this wonderful new field in Bloomington- at least there is some winning occurring on the north campus- and the town is really jazzed about the games and the team. Last night I drove by Kaufman Field and there was a crowd standing outside the fence on a little hill built for free, lawn viewing. Right now, it certainly seems like they will be headed back to Omaha.

[dabvu2498]

Sad end for X. They battled, though. Googs is an outstanding coach and a great guy. Hopefully they can parlay their success into a bit more financial commitment (facility upgrades, in particular) from the university.

SunDeck... Hopefully tonight goes as I hope and I'm making to trip to Bloomington next weekend. IU may have the best coach in college baseball. And I remind him every chance I get that he got his start as a substitute teacher for us when I was in 7th grade and he was coaching at Miami-Middletown.

[dabvu2498]

Crazy tournament.

[Hoosier Red]

Relief pitchers. Can't live with em, pass the beer nuts.

[Kingspoint]

Some great Game-7's to be played today.

[Boston Red]

I would have loved to see Xavier get another shot at Vandy last night, but overall I cannot complain about where they ended up after coming in fourth in the awful Big East.

Glad to see Louisville in the Supers, and I'm thrilled that Georgia Southern and Alabama provided the Cards with the chance to host. I'd like to see Kennesaw win that region today for two reasons: 1) Louisville probably has a better chance of beating the Crimson Tide; and 2) if Louisville loses, I'd prefer Kennesaw go to Omaha than Alabama.

[Boston Red]

Now Kennesaw State is the first team to win, 1-0 over Alabama. I guess that makes them momentary favorites to win the national title. :)

Well, Kennesaw hasn't done anything to rebut this statement just yet. On to Louisville for them. They've now won 26 of their last 28.

[Kingspoint]

Stanford with the dramatic 2-run Walk-off to advance to the Super Regionals over Indiana.

[Kingspoint]

Nice showing by the 10 SEC teams in the tournament. At least their women are guaranteed of giving the SEC it's second ever Women's Softball Title.

[dabvu2498]

Nice showing by the 10 SEC teams in the tournament. At least their women are guaranteed of giving the SEC it's second ever Women's Softball Title.

Crazy tournament. Only 3 national seeds make it to the supers. 2 national seeds go 0-2. A 4 seed made it out. A 2 seed hosting a super. Loony.

[Boston Red]

No 4s snuck through. Kennesaw and Pepperdine (what happened to this former powerhouse?) were 3 seeds.

[dabvu2498]

No 4s snuck through. Kennesaw and Pepperdine (what happened to this former powerhouse?) were 3 seeds.

Charleston is a 4 seed.

[Boston Red]

Charleston is a 4 seed.

Damn, you're right. I forgot about them. In that Gainesville Regional, up was down and down was up. The only time it held form was when UNC played LBSU.

[Kingspoint]

The Super Regionals began 25 minutes ago with Stanford @ Vanderbilt.

Our 1st Round pick Alex Blandino flied out in his first at-bat. It's on ESPN.

Cal-State Fullerton and another top pick of ours plays at 9:30 EST tonight.

[cumberlandreds]

The Super Regionals began 25 minutes ago with Stanford @ Vanderbilt.

Our 1st Round pick Alex Blandino flied out in his first at-bat. It's on ESPN.

Cal-State Fullerton and another top pick of ours plays at 9:30 EST tonight.

Virginia plays at noon tomorrow. Since Howard is a reliever for them he could be in any game they play.

[Kingspoint]

...

[dabvu2498]

The last few years, I'd been getting a little tired of Vandy being matched up with Louisville in the tournament... Either in the regionals or supers. I will not complain about being matched up with them this year.

[Hoosier Red]

The last few years, I'd been getting a little tired of Vandy being matched up with Louisville in the tournament... Either in the regionals or supers. I will not complain about being matched up with them this year.

Congrats to the Commodores.

[dabvu2498]

Congrats to the Commodores.

It was fun.

Unfortunately, it sounds like your Hoosiers may be losing Coach Smith to AZSt. Would kinda be a bummer. IU would certainly have some nice choices as candidates, however, if he should leave.

[Kingspoint]

7314

[Reds Freak]

Anyone on here ever made the trip to Omaha? I went the last year of Rosenblatt in 2010 and rank it as one of the top sporting experiences in my life.

[Kingspoint]

Anyone on here ever made the trip to Omaha? I went the last year of Rosenblatt in 2010 and rank it as one of the top sporting experiences in my life.

Would love to. But, I'd have to make it a separate vacation from the spouse. Can't see her getting into it.

[dabvu2498]

Anyone on here ever made the trip to Omaha? I went the last year of Rosenblatt in 2010 and rank it as one of the top sporting experiences in my life.

Yes. Been three times. Twice at Rosenblatt and again in 2011, the first year at the new place. I couldn't make it happen this year, but may end up out there next weekend (fingers crossed).

[Boston Red]

Anyone on here ever made the trip to Omaha? I went the last year of Rosenblatt in 2010 and rank it as one of the top sporting experiences in my life.

I went last year for Louisville/Indiana. The game itself was horribly boring, but it was definitely worth doing. The stadium and overall atmosphere was fantastic. I just wish you could buy a beer there. It seems wrong to sit out in the sun in June watching a baseball game without a beer in hand.

[Boston Red]

Back to back disappointing trips to Omaha for the Cards. Beats not making it there, but it's still a bummer.

[joshnky]

Back to back disappointing trips to Omaha for the Cards. Beats not making it there, but it's still a bummer.

Very frustrating but they should be very good next year. I'm excited about the rotation as well as Nick Solak. That kid is going to be special.

[dabvu2498]

2 more

[Boston Red]

2 more

The ACC has one college baseball championship in its entire history, and it was from Wake friggin Forest 60 years ago. So congrats to Vandy on winning the national title!

[dabvu2498]

The ACC has one college baseball championship in its entire history, and it was from Wake friggin Forest 60 years ago. So congrats to Vandy on winning the national title!

UVa's head coach was one of the models for the statue outside the ballpark. I'm not sure if that counteracts the ACC jinx or not.

[Boston Red]

Looking more and more like one game tomorrow for the whole enchilada.

[dabvu2498]

Looking more and more like one game tomorrow for the whole enchilada.

It was inevitable, I think.

Been a hard series to watch, even though our guys have made it this far. Offense and the overall quality of play has been subpar. Vandy hasn't played particularly well. They've taken advantage of mistakes and had some timely hits, but the starting pitching has been poor. Defense saved them several times (up until the late innings last night). Virginia is probably the most well-rounded team and will be favored tonight.

I'm hoping the Vandy-pro mojo carries over to tonight. Price dominated the Pirates today. Taylor Hill got the call-up and made his MLB debut for the Nats today (12th Tim Corbin-coached player to make it to The Show). And Tony Kemp got promoted to AA by the Astros today.

[dabvu2498]

Yes

[cumberlandreds]

Yes

Congrats! Winning a national championship in any sport is a great accomplishment. Doing it in baseball in extra special. The only bad thing about it was that the game winning HR was off the Reds top draft pick.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/vanderbilt-tops-virginia-for-first-national-title?ymd=20140626&content_id=81710604&vkey=news_mlb

[Kingspoint]

The only bad thing about it was that the game winning HR was off the Reds top draft pick.



He won't have to face metal bats anymore.

[Boston Red]

He won't have to face metal bats anymore.

I think the wood bats might be more lively than those BBCOR bats.

[dabvu2498]

My dad, ever the fatalist and optimist at the same time, said "Well, if we are going to have to watch him blow games for the Reds, might as well get an early start. And the kid that hit the bomb went updrafted as a junior. If there are 1200 amateur players better than him, well...

And yes, he won't have to face metal bats anymore. But he won't get to throw a ball with raised seams anymore. And BR is right. Those bats are dead. It took the hardest swing of the week combined with the hardest pitch of the week to get one out of there. Vandy hadn't hit a HR since May 16 and they play in a band box.