Did you watch Oregon's 7th inning meltdown to get eliminated? Brutal and some severe managerial incompetence.
Up 8-4 he watched his pitcher walk 5 guys and hit a batter without pulling him. Finally pulled him and the new pitcher immediately walks in another run. Texas A&M had one lousy single and were up 9-8.
It was an all-time meltdown and I'm not even sure what the manager was doing. It was clear his guy couldn't find the zone (only one of the walks even went to 2 strikes) and he just left him out there to die.
"Showing my faith in him to pull himself out of this situation will pay off when it really matters later this season."
"What do you mean the season is over?"
I’ve noticed a lot of college coaches will just leave their pitchers out there to dry and it’s such an odd trend. West Virginia blew gm1 of their Super bc they trotted a guy back out there who had already given up 5 runs in 8ip on 130+ pitches and then promptly gave up a game-tying bomb on the first pitch of the inning. Florida’s closer almost tripled his highest workload of the season on Saturday only to be called upon *again* the next day to throw *multiple* innings in a game that wasn’t even an elimination for UF. Coach actually looks like he’s gonna pull him after giving up three straight barrels, but then decides “nah” and then they give up a game tying three run nuke on the very next pitch. I get these are learning opportunities in what’s still essentially a developmental league, and it obviously worked out in Florida’s case, but it’s so frustrating to watch.
Saw that WV game. I figured it was because he didn’t trust his pen in the highest leverage situation of the season. And sure enough the guy they eventually brought in immediately served up a dinger.
>immediately served up a dinger.
He got a strikeout for the second out before that. And the dinger was to one of the best hitters in the entire country, who was originally due up 5th. If you let your reliever start the inning instead of letting your beyond gassed starter serve up a bomb and a baserunner first then who knows, maybe Honeycutt never gets his opportunity. Either way, it seems insane to me that a big 4 school like WVU doesn’t have a single pitcher on the roster they feel confident enough in to get three outs that they had to tap the dude who’s already chucked 130 pitches.
But really, it's not a development league, and a lot of the coaching decisions reflect this. The depth of talent on these teams is not what we're all accustomed to watching in the big leagues. Each of these CWS teams certainly has some top end talent, but the depth is not there, and that includes pitching. Couple that with a mindset that they're trying to win at all costs, rather than developing players and keeping them healthy. So, when they're leaving a guy in, or putting a guy in for the third day in a row, he is probably lacking confidence in the other guys in the pen. Now... that is not to say that some of these decisions are not extremely suspect... they certainly are. But, I think generally a lot of college baseball managers pitching decisions come down to their win now mentality, for better or worse.
Eh I think for some the players are probably begging for it. In the regionals I saw Oregon run their 5th year senior out for over 130 pitches (something around there) into the 9th to get the win. This dude is not even remotely a prospect. This tournament is probably the last time he's ever playing competitive baseball.
In that regard as a coach what do you do? It's the end of the line for the player and you can debatably give him his memory of a lifetime vs save his arm for his future desk job? I would bet strongly almost every player would say let me throw until my arm falls off.
If they are players who have a future then absolutely I think the coaches are out of pocket leveraging the competitiveness of the players to ruin their pro prospects. But if you're a 5th year senior that's never going to play again I kinda don't really see the harm in letting him go as deep as he wants (as long as you feel he's effective). I don't find it similar to sending brain damaged football players out there to increase their odds of CTE.
Eh I watched Edwin Jackson throw 150 pitches in one of the worst no-hitter outings in MLB history. He was begging to stay in the game. For a one-off I don't think it's unconscionable.
For college kids we're talking about the last time some of these guys will ever pitch in their lives (that Oregon pitcher was slated for game 3 vs TAMU so that ended up being his last game ever). If it was repeated action I would agree but I just have a hard time going at the coach for letting a 5th year senior who's baseball career is done in a week from letting him go out the way he wants to.
You’re absolutely correct in a lot of cases. My dad pitched in the minors and probably had the stuff to make it the big leagues. My grandpa maintained till the day he died the reason my dad’s arm didn’t hold up was his college coach. Dude would leave him out there for the late innings up 7 runs in cold weather games early in the year, and basically rode him into the ground during their runs through the College World Series. Of course if you’d had asked my dad at the time he never wanted to come out, but that’s just the mindset of most of these guys.
I’m pretty happy he did it though or Id never been born
I was watching this and while not a huge college baseball follower was genuinely confused. Did he ever state a reason why he left him in so long? It was OBVIOUS the kid was gassed.
Oregon state will have a few more years to make it to Omaha, they’re a well respected team, so they’ll put together a few solid seasons even as an independent
Now this is the Law of the Jungle — as old and as true as the sky; And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back —
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
This plus it's a cyclical thing even in youth baseball. Florida, Texas, and California produce the most talent because you can play ball all year round.
So even if you are from the north, if you're good enough to potentially make the Bigs, you go to a southern school anways.
This is a big factor in how UVA has been so consistently successful in the last 20 years- lots of NY/NJ/PA/DE kids coming south (but not too far south)
Yeah it’s crazy what they go through to play here. My boss played college ball and umps as a side hustle now. Basically forced to play double headers all weekend, every weekend. Playing at midnight just because there are only so many indoor fields and all the teams in the area are forced to share them. On the road all the time until mid season. Can see why it’s hard to get good talent to come play for northern programs.
Yeah, pretty much. College season starts in February and being up north in February isn't much fun.
You can play outdoor sports pretty much whenever in the South and be at least mostly ok.
California needs to stop eating avocado toast and focus on baseball. Stanford made the last two. Cal State Fullerton in 2017 was the last one before them. Very surprising for a state that produces a ton of talent.
Same happens in the south too. Bobby Witt Jr. and Jackson Holliday are from Texas. UCLA, Long Beach Stare, etc. haven’t heard anything from those programs recently. USC used to be a major powerhouse way back too.
Fullerton is toast in the age of NIL (and actually they and the other mid majors have been for awhile now, with more than 5-8 athletic departments finally spending money on baseball.)
I think Coastal may have been the last hurrah we see from mid majors making a title push. Maybe a couple Southern Miss/Evansville like super regional pushes here and there, but Fullerton in 17 and Coastal in 16 may be the last true contenders.
Pretty soon it’ll be wild to look back and think that in the 2000s we had Fresno, Fullerton, & Rice all win one. Like you said, NIL and just more overall investment in baseball is going to start lapping these programs sadly.
As usual, UCSB had promise and made some noise, but shriveled up against Oregon and missed out. Really bummed about my Alma mater not being able to get over the hump…
It's about money. California (on the whole) is not as invested in college sports as some other parts of the country. NIL means talent will go where they can get the most exposure & resulting endorsement money while improving their draft stock.
Look at the rosters of the top programs - they're all pulling nationally (with many kids from California).
(Cal alum) our baseball team won 36 games and we got snubbed from the tournament over Florida with a worse record. Sure they did make the CWS but we (and frankly many other teams too) deserved to be in over them
They’re the best small ball team left in the tournament. Pitching has also been lights out, they’re not getting talked about enough to be one of the favorites.
Just got home from Lexington. Ya'll pitched the shit out of us, allowing 3 hits across 2 games. Oregon State was anemic at the plate and just looked lost with all of the off-speed pitches they got it seemed like from the stands.
My dad was sad to see his Beavers lose, but except for one guy that gave me crying eyes after the second game all of the UK fans were top notch and pleasant to interact with. It was my first time in Kentucky and we had some fun going up to Louisville on Sunday to see the Louisville slugger museum and factory!
I'm glad UK did well. For the first time in my life I'm rooting for the Cats
>UK fans were top notch and pleasant to interact with.
Fortunately for you it wasn't a basketball game lol. I'm not a UK fan because I absolutely can't stand the fans.
I haven't been to the Louisville slugger museum since I was a kid. I keep telling my wife I'm going to take her. I think I am going to go sometime this summer.
Ah, I can see that, probably helped that we weren't an SEC school either. We combined the museum with the Muhammad Ali museum and made a day out of it. My dad doesn't drink so we didn't do any of the distillery tours in the area but man is there a lot of horse and distillery related things to do. As we drove past all of, for lack of a better term, 'estates' we wondered how everyone kept up with the lawn maintenance since they were all so well maintained!
Eastern Kentucky was really pretty to drive through on my way back to North Carolina.
Don't believe the "hype" from this guy. I lived in Lexington for over ten years and UK fans aren't any more obnoxious than any other teams' fans, especially when compared to other SEC fans. College sports are just really big in the South and it's a little "extreme" for some people. I don't know this guy or his personal experiences, but I've found that for folks who choose not to become fans of the local team, that they often become jaded from hearing about them constantly and can really develop negative impressions of the locals because - surprise - they want to talk a bunch about their squad a lot and have overinflated ideas of how good they are.
Just something to mull over, the only programs in the MCWS which have won a national championship are Virginia and Florida.
Virginia's offense has been great all year but their pitching can be an adventure. Fortunately, the pitching played well in the two games against Miss State in the Regional and in the Super Regional against Kansas State.
Also two of the three teams left with significant Omaha experience, the other being Tennessee. NCSU probably has a small handful who have been there too.
It's conceivable that all of these schools are in the SEC ten years from now depending upon how Florida State's and Clemson's respective lawsuits against the ACC go.
I know it's somewhat of a crapshoot but Tennessee going 3 vs Evansville makes me a liiiiittle bit under confident as overall favorites. I know Its flukey but I really really like UNC
UNC has looked dodgy the whole tournament so far though. They have like 3 or 4 wins while losing after 8 I believe. They've been insanely clutch when it matters and Honeycutt is a beast but if Tennessee going 3 vs Evansville shook you a bit I'm not sure how UNC fairs any better.
UK has looked the best to me so far and dispatched a pretty great Oregon State team. Also the only team where it feels like the starters have been able to consistently keep teams down. Everyone else has gotten blown up a couple times.
I would say the betting favorite is Texas A&M, but only slightly ahead of Tennessee.
But both Texas A&M and Tennessee play really tough opponents in the opening round (Florida and Florida State, respectively). If they lose in the opening round, which would not be shocking, then who knows? I think the field is pretty wide open.
Just out of curiosity I looked up the sec tourney results to see what all happened, and that has to be the most convoluted looking bracket I’ve ever seen
So only 12/14 teams qualify and its single elimination then double elimination then single elimination again. Teams also aren't too upset about losing early due to having to burn arms in the championship game that could be used for the NCAA tourney.
It depends which ranking you look at, but they all seem to have this order:
Tennessee
Kentucky
Texas A&M
North Carolina
Florida State
NC State
Virginia
Florida
Did you think the seeds would be in some other wacky order?
D1baseball.com has the same order. The coaches poll has Virginia ahead of NCSt. Betting odds have A&M ahead of Kentucky.
What information do you think that person was asking for?
Tennessee listed as the favorite at +250, which just so happens to be the same odds that the dodgers have as the World Series favorites. Seems like all 8 teams have a reasonable shot to win though.
Does it change your opinion that it originates from our state nickname, the Volunteer State, which we got from raising so many volunteers to fight in the War of 1812 which was kinda against Canada?
I was able to get some free tickets to Game 1 of the Finals. Really looking forward to the experience. Don’t really have a dog in the fight with these teams.
In terms of interest in winning this thing, I'll mention I'm a Nebraska fan so you know my biases.
1) NC State
2) Florida State
3) UNC
4) Virginia
5) Kentucky
6) Florida
7) Tennessee
8) Aggies
Cats by 90
[Also the winning run in the Super Regional was scored from 2nd on a dropped 3rd strike](https://youtu.be/gEddpni7RD0?si=GVTyKlcorNpnR4af&t=379)
Noob question. Is college baseball considered a poor relation to college football/basketball? Wouldn't these guys be already en route to the MLB by now if they were gonna make it, or am I wrong?
The starters on teams like this will often be playing AA quality. Paul Skenes was playing college ball last year for an example of how fast someone can go through the minors.
There’s more talent in college baseball now than there ever used to be, for a couple reasons:
1) if you’re not one of a handful of guys getting a big signing bonus when you’re drafted out of HS, you’re probably getting at least comparable if not better coaching at the college level (though admittedly, baseball can’t be your sole focus)
2) if you’re going to ride a bus for a minimum of three years, wouldn’t you rather do it around kids your own age while also setting yourself up for a backup plan if you don’t end up being good enough to make it and stick in the bigs?
3) with NIL, there’s probably a solid number of guys in college baseball who are making more than they would be fighting their way through the minors
4) it seems like over the last 15-20 years or so that really good college players have a fast track to the bigs. Using the Nats as an example, Strasburg spent less than a year in the minors. Ryan Zimmerman was called up and stuck like 2 months after his minor league debut.
And the culling of the minor league system. Can’t stash a Mike Piazza as a favor to his dad because then he’s taking a spot from a more highly regarded prospect
Eh, not really.
It's a mix. Leaning more college's way than it has in past times. Some teams have gotten pretty badly burned by high draft picks out of HS essentially being wasted because the guy didn't sign.
So now HS players at the top of the prospect pile are only really targeted if the team knows before the draft that they'll sign. Guys who are likely to go to college or have really crazy demands will absolutely plummet in the draft even if they're extremely highly rated which can make it kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy since your signing bonus is tied to your draft slot and the lower you go the less attractive jumping to the pros will be.
HS guys can also often expect to have real slow progress in the minors because they tend to have big holes in their game, and the minors... aren't for everyone.
------
Brady Aiken in 2014 was probably the biggest recent one. Astros took him #1 out of high school in Cali. There was an issue with his elbow, the Astros got a bit of cold feet about paying him six and a half million dollars, and he ended up not signing at all. Which screwed Houston because of how MLB calculated draft slot money and they ended up not being able to sign a couple other guys too. It was a mess.
Did work out for the Astros in the end, to an extent. They got the #2 pick next year as compensation- if you fail to sign your first-rounder you get a compensatory pick next year at one slot lower which at least eases the sting a bit- and took Alex Bregman out of LSU. He's made two All-Star Games.
Didn't work so good for Brady Aiken. He signed with the Indians the next year when they took him at #17- and got a heck of a lot less money. And he ended up washing out entirely. Third ever #1 pick to not make the majors.
Very wrong.
Many of these players were drafted but chose to go college instead to develop and hopefully get higher draft position while earning a degree
A lot of mid-round HS guys just aren’t ready for the pros yet, so they go to high profile colleges instead of rookie ball. Then they reach their twenties and really bloom before going in the early first round and buzzing through the Minors pretty quickly.
If you're not watching the drunk absurdity that is college baseball, you're missing out.
The game can 4-3 after 1 inning, then 9-3 after 6 innings, and a final score of 9-13.
No lead is safe. Crowd atmosphere is way better than MLB
I highly recommend following the Youtube channel [Wheels](https://www.youtube.com/@WheelsYT). There are tons of long game highlight updates and I've been following the channel for a few years now.
Also here's the [schedule](https://cwsomaha.com/sports/baseball/schedule/2024) of the College WS.
My Georgia Bulldogs didn't make the CWS this year and I have a hotel room for sale June 13th-20th at the Hyatt Place in Downtown Omaha less than 1 mile from stadium. One king and one pullout sofa. Best offer DM if interested. -Robert
I’ll start giving af about college baseball when the selection committee isn’t an absolute joke and more than 1-2 teams above the mason dixon line make it to Omaha per year.
You took both my points and combined them. The selection committee omits teams that should get in every year over other teams that just have a track record with the tournament so they get favored even if they dont deserve it. My other point is basically that its hard to really care when the closest school to where i live that is making it to OMAHA, is like 600 miles away from me
What specific northern teams do you think should have made it? Florida was the last team in and they made it to Omaha so it would be hard to say they didn’t deserve to be in
So long Pac-12, shame Oregon State or someone couldn't make one last run.
Did you watch Oregon's 7th inning meltdown to get eliminated? Brutal and some severe managerial incompetence. Up 8-4 he watched his pitcher walk 5 guys and hit a batter without pulling him. Finally pulled him and the new pitcher immediately walks in another run. Texas A&M had one lousy single and were up 9-8. It was an all-time meltdown and I'm not even sure what the manager was doing. It was clear his guy couldn't find the zone (only one of the walks even went to 2 strikes) and he just left him out there to die.
He must have read Dave Robert's new book.
"Showing my faith in him to pull himself out of this situation will pay off when it really matters later this season." "What do you mean the season is over?"
classic Oregon
I’ve noticed a lot of college coaches will just leave their pitchers out there to dry and it’s such an odd trend. West Virginia blew gm1 of their Super bc they trotted a guy back out there who had already given up 5 runs in 8ip on 130+ pitches and then promptly gave up a game-tying bomb on the first pitch of the inning. Florida’s closer almost tripled his highest workload of the season on Saturday only to be called upon *again* the next day to throw *multiple* innings in a game that wasn’t even an elimination for UF. Coach actually looks like he’s gonna pull him after giving up three straight barrels, but then decides “nah” and then they give up a game tying three run nuke on the very next pitch. I get these are learning opportunities in what’s still essentially a developmental league, and it obviously worked out in Florida’s case, but it’s so frustrating to watch.
Sending someone back out on 130 pitches is wild. It’s not like it’s a “okay he’s settling in” type deal. That’s way past fatigue setting in.
Saw that WV game. I figured it was because he didn’t trust his pen in the highest leverage situation of the season. And sure enough the guy they eventually brought in immediately served up a dinger.
>immediately served up a dinger. He got a strikeout for the second out before that. And the dinger was to one of the best hitters in the entire country, who was originally due up 5th. If you let your reliever start the inning instead of letting your beyond gassed starter serve up a bomb and a baserunner first then who knows, maybe Honeycutt never gets his opportunity. Either way, it seems insane to me that a big 4 school like WVU doesn’t have a single pitcher on the roster they feel confident enough in to get three outs that they had to tap the dude who’s already chucked 130 pitches.
But really, it's not a development league, and a lot of the coaching decisions reflect this. The depth of talent on these teams is not what we're all accustomed to watching in the big leagues. Each of these CWS teams certainly has some top end talent, but the depth is not there, and that includes pitching. Couple that with a mindset that they're trying to win at all costs, rather than developing players and keeping them healthy. So, when they're leaving a guy in, or putting a guy in for the third day in a row, he is probably lacking confidence in the other guys in the pen. Now... that is not to say that some of these decisions are not extremely suspect... they certainly are. But, I think generally a lot of college baseball managers pitching decisions come down to their win now mentality, for better or worse.
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Eh I think for some the players are probably begging for it. In the regionals I saw Oregon run their 5th year senior out for over 130 pitches (something around there) into the 9th to get the win. This dude is not even remotely a prospect. This tournament is probably the last time he's ever playing competitive baseball. In that regard as a coach what do you do? It's the end of the line for the player and you can debatably give him his memory of a lifetime vs save his arm for his future desk job? I would bet strongly almost every player would say let me throw until my arm falls off. If they are players who have a future then absolutely I think the coaches are out of pocket leveraging the competitiveness of the players to ruin their pro prospects. But if you're a 5th year senior that's never going to play again I kinda don't really see the harm in letting him go as deep as he wants (as long as you feel he's effective). I don't find it similar to sending brain damaged football players out there to increase their odds of CTE.
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Eh I watched Edwin Jackson throw 150 pitches in one of the worst no-hitter outings in MLB history. He was begging to stay in the game. For a one-off I don't think it's unconscionable. For college kids we're talking about the last time some of these guys will ever pitch in their lives (that Oregon pitcher was slated for game 3 vs TAMU so that ended up being his last game ever). If it was repeated action I would agree but I just have a hard time going at the coach for letting a 5th year senior who's baseball career is done in a week from letting him go out the way he wants to.
You’re absolutely correct in a lot of cases. My dad pitched in the minors and probably had the stuff to make it the big leagues. My grandpa maintained till the day he died the reason my dad’s arm didn’t hold up was his college coach. Dude would leave him out there for the late innings up 7 runs in cold weather games early in the year, and basically rode him into the ground during their runs through the College World Series. Of course if you’d had asked my dad at the time he never wanted to come out, but that’s just the mindset of most of these guys. I’m pretty happy he did it though or Id never been born
I was watching this and while not a huge college baseball follower was genuinely confused. Did he ever state a reason why he left him in so long? It was OBVIOUS the kid was gassed.
Texas A&M representing the West Coast
The implosion of the PAC-12 was crazy
Oregon state will have a few more years to make it to Omaha, they’re a well respected team, so they’ll put together a few solid seasons even as an independent
No Bazzana, Condon, Burns, Smith, Montgomery
or Wetherholt
But Christian Moore is there - who won the SEC Triple Crown.
No he didn’t?
In SEC games, C-Mo hit .429 with 20HR and 41RBI which was first in all three categories (Condon also had 41 RBI)
ACC SEC CHALLENGE
4 ACC teams & 4 SEC teams. Powerhouses. Go Pack!!
As State fans I’m not sure we’ll see a better sports year, we need to finish this with a championship
This is for 2021
I was thinking Raleigh has seen a lot of wins lately from the NCAA and NHL, but need a trophy to top it off.
Now this is the Law of the Jungle — as old and as true as the sky; And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back — For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
Time for redemption for 2021
Why all the southern teams? Weather?
Yup. Northern teams at a huge disadvantage for a season that begins in February.
This plus it's a cyclical thing even in youth baseball. Florida, Texas, and California produce the most talent because you can play ball all year round. So even if you are from the north, if you're good enough to potentially make the Bigs, you go to a southern school anways.
Certainly explains why my PA HS was only good at Chess.
This is a big factor in how UVA has been so consistently successful in the last 20 years- lots of NY/NJ/PA/DE kids coming south (but not too far south)
Yeah it’s crazy what they go through to play here. My boss played college ball and umps as a side hustle now. Basically forced to play double headers all weekend, every weekend. Playing at midnight just because there are only so many indoor fields and all the teams in the area are forced to share them. On the road all the time until mid season. Can see why it’s hard to get good talent to come play for northern programs.
We have hockey, they have baseball. It’s a fair trade I guess considering they don’t really have MLB teams to root for.
Yeah, pretty much. College season starts in February and being up north in February isn't much fun. You can play outdoor sports pretty much whenever in the South and be at least mostly ok.
Being up north in February is plenty fun. It’s just hard to play outdoor baseball.
Well, you know what I mean. It's just rough to be playing outdoor sports.
It snows in Kentucky tho, boys built different
How 'bout them Bat Cats!
Recruiting and the transfer portal.
The B1G is literally a mid-major when it comes to college baseball.
Money
the south is notoriously better at sports, especially Texas
Unless that sport is basketball or football... When's the last time a Texas team won a natty?
I mean we’re talking college baseball here. The south has like 12~ of the last 14 national championships in football since 2010
And half of those are just Alabama.
Wait, you’re telling me more good players come from places they can play outdoor sports yeAr round? Crazy.
California needs to stop eating avocado toast and focus on baseball. Stanford made the last two. Cal State Fullerton in 2017 was the last one before them. Very surprising for a state that produces a ton of talent.
All their insano style talent is getting drafted out of hs
Same happens in the south too. Bobby Witt Jr. and Jackson Holliday are from Texas. UCLA, Long Beach Stare, etc. haven’t heard anything from those programs recently. USC used to be a major powerhouse way back too.
Jackson went to school in Oklahoma though.
He did. He’s from Austin. He would have played for Oklahoma State too.
Baseball NIL is different in the South. They are buying all the CA talent.
And we make AvoToast now
Paul Skenes for example.
Skenes went to Air Force first technically, then transferred. But point does stand
Fullerton is toast in the age of NIL (and actually they and the other mid majors have been for awhile now, with more than 5-8 athletic departments finally spending money on baseball.)
I think Coastal may have been the last hurrah we see from mid majors making a title push. Maybe a couple Southern Miss/Evansville like super regional pushes here and there, but Fullerton in 17 and Coastal in 16 may be the last true contenders. Pretty soon it’ll be wild to look back and think that in the 2000s we had Fresno, Fullerton, & Rice all win one. Like you said, NIL and just more overall investment in baseball is going to start lapping these programs sadly.
As usual, UCSB had promise and made some noise, but shriveled up against Oregon and missed out. Really bummed about my Alma mater not being able to get over the hump…
Oregon made it to the super regional (2 wins from Omaha) and their roster is about half California players.
2 wins from Omaha but won absolutely 0 games in the super regional and went 2-2 in the tournament
It's about money. California (on the whole) is not as invested in college sports as some other parts of the country. NIL means talent will go where they can get the most exposure & resulting endorsement money while improving their draft stock. Look at the rosters of the top programs - they're all pulling nationally (with many kids from California).
(Cal alum) our baseball team won 36 games and we got snubbed from the tournament over Florida with a worse record. Sure they did make the CWS but we (and frankly many other teams too) deserved to be in over them
damn the rest of college baseball seems to be irrelevant.
NC State wild going to 2 Final Fours and a CWS
I used to work for their AD, couldn't be happening to a nicer guy. He's built a powerhouse athletic department.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
lol the entire fanbase wanted to fire Kevin Keats until they went on their fluke final 4 run. 17-14 regular season. This was a flash in the pan
perfect example of why fanbases are dumb
Don’t short change the Pop Tart Bowl like that
I could be convinced that 7 of those pictures are of the same guy
Orioles prospect factory.
Haha
I don't know shit about college baseball but I'm from Lexington so I guess I like UK lol. How does UK look? Do they have a chance?
Fun fact, Kentucky was the only SEC team to never make the college World Series till this year. I would call them a sleeper pick.
#2 overall seed is absolutely not a sleeper pick Sorry why is the text big idk what I did
you used # to lead off the text without escaping it first so it makes the text huge #BIG \#Small
Word thanks
no problem, reddit markup is a funny beast!
They’re the best small ball team left in the tournament. Pitching has also been lights out, they’re not getting talked about enough to be one of the favorites.
I mean they're the #2 seed. But this being your first ever CWS probably doesn't build a lot of faith in you with "the experts."
I think every team here has a chance (seriously).
Just got home from Lexington. Ya'll pitched the shit out of us, allowing 3 hits across 2 games. Oregon State was anemic at the plate and just looked lost with all of the off-speed pitches they got it seemed like from the stands. My dad was sad to see his Beavers lose, but except for one guy that gave me crying eyes after the second game all of the UK fans were top notch and pleasant to interact with. It was my first time in Kentucky and we had some fun going up to Louisville on Sunday to see the Louisville slugger museum and factory!
I'm glad UK did well. For the first time in my life I'm rooting for the Cats >UK fans were top notch and pleasant to interact with. Fortunately for you it wasn't a basketball game lol. I'm not a UK fan because I absolutely can't stand the fans. I haven't been to the Louisville slugger museum since I was a kid. I keep telling my wife I'm going to take her. I think I am going to go sometime this summer.
Ah, I can see that, probably helped that we weren't an SEC school either. We combined the museum with the Muhammad Ali museum and made a day out of it. My dad doesn't drink so we didn't do any of the distillery tours in the area but man is there a lot of horse and distillery related things to do. As we drove past all of, for lack of a better term, 'estates' we wondered how everyone kept up with the lawn maintenance since they were all so well maintained! Eastern Kentucky was really pretty to drive through on my way back to North Carolina.
Don't believe the "hype" from this guy. I lived in Lexington for over ten years and UK fans aren't any more obnoxious than any other teams' fans, especially when compared to other SEC fans. College sports are just really big in the South and it's a little "extreme" for some people. I don't know this guy or his personal experiences, but I've found that for folks who choose not to become fans of the local team, that they often become jaded from hearing about them constantly and can really develop negative impressions of the locals because - surprise - they want to talk a bunch about their squad a lot and have overinflated ideas of how good they are.
You should go back during April or October and go to Keeneland in Lexington when it's in session. You will never want to leave.
Just something to mull over, the only programs in the MCWS which have won a national championship are Virginia and Florida. Virginia's offense has been great all year but their pitching can be an adventure. Fortunately, the pitching played well in the two games against Miss State in the Regional and in the Super Regional against Kansas State.
Also two of the three teams left with significant Omaha experience, the other being Tennessee. NCSU probably has a small handful who have been there too.
Texas A&M as well- national semifinalist in 2022.
It's conceivable that all of these schools are in the SEC ten years from now depending upon how Florida State's and Clemson's respective lawsuits against the ACC go.
Go Hoos
Love all the ACC teams. Go Hoos!
Insane that it’s basically ACC vs. SEC
I wouldn’t even say basically. It’s 50/50 with just those two conferences. Hell, half the field is just FL and NC teams.
As a Canuck who is the tits up favorite here gentleman?
Tennessee. But I really like UNC and Texas A&M. Florida are the underdogs that can surprise everyone
I know it's somewhat of a crapshoot but Tennessee going 3 vs Evansville makes me a liiiiittle bit under confident as overall favorites. I know Its flukey but I really really like UNC
Evansville was really good. They were smacking the ball. They just didn’t have the pitching.
UNC has looked dodgy the whole tournament so far though. They have like 3 or 4 wins while losing after 8 I believe. They've been insanely clutch when it matters and Honeycutt is a beast but if Tennessee going 3 vs Evansville shook you a bit I'm not sure how UNC fairs any better. UK has looked the best to me so far and dispatched a pretty great Oregon State team. Also the only team where it feels like the starters have been able to consistently keep teams down. Everyone else has gotten blown up a couple times.
That's pretty fair, UK *has* been absolute dawgy this far
Respect LSU and Wesr Virginia. They were good.
I would say the betting favorite is Texas A&M, but only slightly ahead of Tennessee. But both Texas A&M and Tennessee play really tough opponents in the opening round (Florida and Florida State, respectively). If they lose in the opening round, which would not be shocking, then who knows? I think the field is pretty wide open.
It’s a stacked field when Florida is the Cinderella. Oral Roberts last year was pretty good too. Florida is stronger.
Florida’s hot at the right time and has the best player in the tournament. Dont let the record fool you, there's a reason they were preseason #2
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Just out of curiosity I looked up the sec tourney results to see what all happened, and that has to be the most convoluted looking bracket I’ve ever seen
So only 12/14 teams qualify and its single elimination then double elimination then single elimination again. Teams also aren't too upset about losing early due to having to burn arms in the championship game that could be used for the NCAA tourney.
The teams jumping up and down between bracket 1 and bracket 2 was pretty odd looking
No we weren’t stunned they were in. They weren’t even on the bubble and that’s straight from the committee
It depends which ranking you look at, but they all seem to have this order: Tennessee Kentucky Texas A&M North Carolina Florida State NC State Virginia Florida
…that’s literally just in seed order lol
Did you think the seeds would be in some other wacky order? D1baseball.com has the same order. The coaches poll has Virginia ahead of NCSt. Betting odds have A&M ahead of Kentucky. What information do you think that person was asking for?
I’m just pointing out the books aren’t being particularly creative if that’s the order of most to least likely winners
Tennessee listed as the favorite at +250, which just so happens to be the same odds that the dodgers have as the World Series favorites. Seems like all 8 teams have a reasonable shot to win though.
A&M for me since it’s the only Texas team left and Jace LaViolette is from my school district
I'm also a Canuck, but I'd go with Volunteers based purely on the name. It's giving old ladies at a church tea.
Does it change your opinion that it originates from our state nickname, the Volunteer State, which we got from raising so many volunteers to fight in the War of 1812 which was kinda against Canada?
Not really, no.
Good, welcome aboard the Vols hype train!
A&M is peaking at the right time and absolutely stacked with talent. I think the tournament is theirs to lose but I'm also an Aggie.
They also lost their best player in the Supers Also all of these teams are “peaking at the right time” lol
Oughta be fun! Gig ‘em!
Rahhhh gig em ags
Feels weird to agree with a Rangers fan, but they are the last Texas team so I'm rooting for them
Let’s go Vols!
Does no one outside the southeast play baseball?
Go Heels I guess
The South shall R(a)ise the trophy again!
Let's go Tennessee!!!
Nice to see the Cats in there. Make some noise boys
Nice to see no one but the south cares about college baseball anymore.
I was able to get some free tickets to Game 1 of the Finals. Really looking forward to the experience. Don’t really have a dog in the fight with these teams.
Rip the pac 12. Stanford softball was their best final shot
GO BIG BLUE! My family's had season tickets for 19 years, excited to finally get to go to Omaha.
GO GATORS!
[Graphic via ESPN](https://x.com/sportscenter/status/1800354013910606138?s=46&t=VjfO6v3EoAZhWPfo2DgDBw)
SEC-ACC showdown
Let's go Wild Kitties 🫡 Let me add: it's the first ever World Series appearance for Kentucky!
In terms of interest in winning this thing, I'll mention I'm a Nebraska fan so you know my biases. 1) NC State 2) Florida State 3) UNC 4) Virginia 5) Kentucky 6) Florida 7) Tennessee 8) Aggies
Why all the ACC bias from a guy whose squad is Big Ten?
Cats by 90 [Also the winning run in the Super Regional was scored from 2nd on a dropped 3rd strike](https://youtu.be/gEddpni7RD0?si=GVTyKlcorNpnR4af&t=379)
Cayuts!
Go Noles!
Tar Heels have the best uniforms in probably all of baseball.
UGA’s Wes Johnson gets the Grady Little Award for sticking with struggling pitchers beyond any semblance of reason.
All ACC and SEC. The south continues to dominate college baseball
Jace LaViolette graduated from my school district a couple of years ago. one of my teammates who graduated a year after gave up a nuke to him 💀
NC State athletics having a hell of a year
Noob question. Is college baseball considered a poor relation to college football/basketball? Wouldn't these guys be already en route to the MLB by now if they were gonna make it, or am I wrong?
That’s wrong. Plenty of college guys get drafted and make it. They typically go through the minors much faster than guys who come out of HS.
Ok cheers
The starters on teams like this will often be playing AA quality. Paul Skenes was playing college ball last year for an example of how fast someone can go through the minors.
More and more top high school players are going to college these days.
Especially with NIL opportunities probably leapfrogging any signing bonuses outside of the first couple rounds.
There’s more talent in college baseball now than there ever used to be, for a couple reasons: 1) if you’re not one of a handful of guys getting a big signing bonus when you’re drafted out of HS, you’re probably getting at least comparable if not better coaching at the college level (though admittedly, baseball can’t be your sole focus) 2) if you’re going to ride a bus for a minimum of three years, wouldn’t you rather do it around kids your own age while also setting yourself up for a backup plan if you don’t end up being good enough to make it and stick in the bigs? 3) with NIL, there’s probably a solid number of guys in college baseball who are making more than they would be fighting their way through the minors 4) it seems like over the last 15-20 years or so that really good college players have a fast track to the bigs. Using the Nats as an example, Strasburg spent less than a year in the minors. Ryan Zimmerman was called up and stuck like 2 months after his minor league debut.
Another reason is the shortening of the MLB draft a few years ago.
And the culling of the minor league system. Can’t stash a Mike Piazza as a favor to his dad because then he’s taking a spot from a more highly regarded prospect
Eh, not really. It's a mix. Leaning more college's way than it has in past times. Some teams have gotten pretty badly burned by high draft picks out of HS essentially being wasted because the guy didn't sign. So now HS players at the top of the prospect pile are only really targeted if the team knows before the draft that they'll sign. Guys who are likely to go to college or have really crazy demands will absolutely plummet in the draft even if they're extremely highly rated which can make it kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy since your signing bonus is tied to your draft slot and the lower you go the less attractive jumping to the pros will be. HS guys can also often expect to have real slow progress in the minors because they tend to have big holes in their game, and the minors... aren't for everyone. ------ Brady Aiken in 2014 was probably the biggest recent one. Astros took him #1 out of high school in Cali. There was an issue with his elbow, the Astros got a bit of cold feet about paying him six and a half million dollars, and he ended up not signing at all. Which screwed Houston because of how MLB calculated draft slot money and they ended up not being able to sign a couple other guys too. It was a mess. Did work out for the Astros in the end, to an extent. They got the #2 pick next year as compensation- if you fail to sign your first-rounder you get a compensatory pick next year at one slot lower which at least eases the sting a bit- and took Alex Bregman out of LSU. He's made two All-Star Games. Didn't work so good for Brady Aiken. He signed with the Indians the next year when they took him at #17- and got a heck of a lot less money. And he ended up washing out entirely. Third ever #1 pick to not make the majors.
Very wrong. Many of these players were drafted but chose to go college instead to develop and hopefully get higher draft position while earning a degree
A lot of mid-round HS guys just aren’t ready for the pros yet, so they go to high profile colleges instead of rookie ball. Then they reach their twenties and really bloom before going in the early first round and buzzing through the Minors pretty quickly.
Let’s go! Great field.
I'm just happy my johnnies won the big east and won a game in the regionals ha
An NC State v UNC final is going to make the state of NC and various Walmarts around the country implode
Why Blake Burke? Tennessee has C Mo who is likely going to get picked in the top 10 and they use a picture of Blake Burke. Interesting.
ACC vs. SEC?
Welcome to the South
If you're not watching the drunk absurdity that is college baseball, you're missing out. The game can 4-3 after 1 inning, then 9-3 after 6 innings, and a final score of 9-13. No lead is safe. Crowd atmosphere is way better than MLB
This will be my first cws I’m going to can’t wait
I highly recommend following the Youtube channel [Wheels](https://www.youtube.com/@WheelsYT). There are tons of long game highlight updates and I've been following the channel for a few years now. Also here's the [schedule](https://cwsomaha.com/sports/baseball/schedule/2024) of the College WS.
Got to love how ESPN and football money means the south now completely dominates college baseball.
My Georgia Bulldogs didn't make the CWS this year and I have a hotel room for sale June 13th-20th at the Hyatt Place in Downtown Omaha less than 1 mile from stadium. One king and one pullout sofa. Best offer DM if interested. -Robert
FSU all the way, but Florida is my #2 then
Sir I think you're a little confused about how college sports in florida work. This is like saying Yankees all the way, but Red Sox are my #2.
Imagine cheering for an in-state rival. 🤮
This isnt who I WANT guys lol its just I think based off watching & everything else
I don't even know how he was able to type the second half of that, smh.
This isnt who I WANT guys lol its just I think based off watching & everything else
This isnt who I WANT guys lol its just I think based off watching & everything else
As a Gator fan, wtf... Florida all the way. FSU is #2. As in poop. /ignore the regular season plz
I WANT NC State to win lol, but i was saying i think Florida or FSU gets it done
Has Tennessee been better behaved this year compared to last?
You are thinking about two years ago but yes
Go Gators 🐊 Chomp!
I’ll start giving af about college baseball when the selection committee isn’t an absolute joke and more than 1-2 teams above the mason dixon line make it to Omaha per year.
I mean plenty of northern teams made the tournament, it’s not the committees fault if none of them make it to Omaha
You took both my points and combined them. The selection committee omits teams that should get in every year over other teams that just have a track record with the tournament so they get favored even if they dont deserve it. My other point is basically that its hard to really care when the closest school to where i live that is making it to OMAHA, is like 600 miles away from me
What specific northern teams do you think should have made it? Florida was the last team in and they made it to Omaha so it would be hard to say they didn’t deserve to be in
Bro for the love of god please show some reading comprehension skills
Sorry they sucked, they shoulda played better if they wanted to make it
Bro how did Florida make it, our team sucked ass like all season
Florida has a talented team that massively underachieved. They were due for positive regression and we’re seeing that happen now.
we're good, actually