2023 college baseball/softball thread

Holy crap. I did play-by-play for WRUF in Tallahassee against that 1978 team. That's how long this streak lasted. (And almost got Coach Jay Bergman killed before the game when I was supposed to be shagging balls during batting practice and completely whiffed on a line drive. He was hitting fungoes to the outfield and the ball missed his head by inches.)

 

From the article:
Nonetheless, the school concluded that Velardi — who Batchelor said had told her that the devices were used in practice but not games — had violated league rules.

Honestly more than the cheating I hate is the lying. "We used them in practice. Not in games." FFS

 

At least, for once, Florida State fans won't have to watch their team lose in a home regional.

 

And not one national championship.

 

Longtime Southern Miss coach Scott Berry announces he's retiring at the end of the season. He's been at Southern Miss since 2001, and the head coach the last 14 seasons, and has averaged 37 wins per season. Definitely one of the best mid-major baseball coaches in the country.

 

Dang, just seems like yesterday Corky Palmer was running the show.

 

Absolutely freakin' awesome the p-by-p guy out there during bp! Once won a free beer by stroking a shot up the middle off a head coach during bp. Morehead, Kentucky

 

IIRC, Southern Miss' College World Series run in 2009 was Palmer's last season and then Berry took over from there. Those are two of the four coaches the program has had since 1959.
If I had to guess, No. 5 will be pitching coach Christian Ostrander. He's well-regarded as an assistant, has been on the staff for six years, and is probably due to branch out to his own head coaching gig sooner or later.

 

Most college stadiums then, including UF, were barely more than a few bleachers and an open-air plywood enclosure with a wooden table on which to set the broadcast equipment. I've honestly seen nicer Little League fields than what passed for places the Gators played in the late '70s. The "press box" in DeLand (which was an old Florida State League field at one time) was perched directly above the home plate netting and balls would get up there in a hurry. I do remember wearing the glove on my left hand and keeping score with my right.

Up into my early 40s, I'd take BP and fielding practice once a year with the local American Legion team in Rocky Mount and my street clothes. It'd give the kids a chance to razz me and perhaps understand I wasn't just an old sports editor who didn't "play the game."

 

Alabama has to be in the NCAA tournament, right? Although 13-14 in the SEC, they're 11th in the RPI. (It's relatively easy to be under .500 in the ACC and SEC and still be highly regarded. Or so it appears.)
Iowa, which apparently cleared the players it briefly suspended amid sports gambling accusations, is 33-12 overall, 13-7 in the Big Ten and 29th in the RPI. Interesting.

 

I would think so. The SEC usually gets at least eight teams in and often 10, so they should be safe unless they completely shit the bed these next two weeks. A series loss against a struggling Ole Miss team and a one-and-done at the SEC Tournament would not help their cause. They're 5-2 with two series wins since the Bohannon thing broke, though, so they're playing well enough that a couple more wins ought to cement them.

 

With a strong enough finishing kick, Bama could host the first weekend.