2023 college baseball/softball thread

You accurately left the state of Wisconsin off your list because they don't have baseball. I believe they cut the program a long time ago due to Title IX and/or budget concerns.

What's shocking to me is that none of the other B1G schools have cut the sport since then. I can't imagine many people would notice if those 26-23 league games between Iowa and Northwestern weren't played.

 

When I was at the Boston Phoenix in the late '70s, the only time I saw Bill Lee (hung at our bar, friends with George Kimball and to a lesser extent me) act the jock was to get totally offended when a woman Phoenix employee, secretary to the editor and who grew up in Connecticut, did not know what his USC letter jacket was. Hell of a tradition to piss away, but it seems that school is good at that in more than one sport.

 

Iowa is in the tournament this year.

The Big Ten has actually improved its baseball a bit the past decade or so. Indiana has hosted several regionals. Michigan made it to the CWS championship series. Minnesota got to a super regional a few years ago. I want to say a few other teams have hosted regionals as well.
It's not as good as the SEC or Pac-12, but it's got a few spunky teams in any given year.

 

Hoo boy. Looks like there's a tropical system percolating in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Florida panhandle area. It's got a very low chance of forming into a tropical storm or hurricane, but it could bring some heavy rain to the southeast this weekend.

 

I did not realize that.

After Caitlin Clark and company made their NCAA tournament run, I dialed down my Iowa fandom to prepare for another fall of 3-0 Kirk Ferentz specials!

 

Are those parents going to Oregon, Washington and Utah now? Seems like you’d miss a series in the Bay Area and at one of the Arizona schools each year. If your heart is otherwise set on USC or UCLA, do you turn it down for two weekends a year?

(The toll of the travel on the athletes themselves is of course much more worrisome.)

 

To no one’s surprise, wildly over-seeded Alabama getting dump trucked early to start the WCWS.

 

Raises hand about being surprised -- they had played four times already, Bama won one and the losses were by one, two and four runs.

 

Yep. I see tons of visiting-school parents at Microville Tech home games. PDX or Eugene is an easy 2.5-hour flight from SoCal, and even a not-so-bad drive. I would bet the only locale that doesn't get a huge contingent of parents is Wazzu. That's a tough place to get to; everyplace else is easily accessible from LA, in three hours or less.

You won't even be halfway to Nebraska, the closest Big 10 school, in 2.5 hours, not with having to change plans in SLC or Dallas or Denver to get to Omaha or Lincoln. Forget getting to Purdue, IU, Penn State, Iowa, Rutgers, Maryland or the Michigans and Ohio State in less than 4-5 hours, tops, and a more expensive ticket.

If your heart is set on going to SC or UCLA, you still will. But I bet that's about 2-3 kids in every recruiting class. The rest are going where they can get the best deal.

USC will save a ton in travel money UCLA will spent because SC doesn't have softball, men's soccer or gymnastics, all Big Ten sports that UCLA sponsors. That's 10-15 road trips a year.

And yes, the athletes - who had no say in this decision - will pay the biggest price. That's why most Pac-12 fans are mad at the administrators, not the kids.

 

You could see it building for weeks that they would just be happy to limp into OKC (literally, all-universe pitcher Montana Fouts still is far from 100 percent) and call it mission accomplished. If they hadn’t been given a pillow-soft regional and drawn light-hitting Northwestern in the Supers they wouldn’t have even done that. Baring a tremendous portal makeover, they are going to suck hard next year.

 

On the beisbol side, Indiana State the first national seed taking on water. Down 4-1 in the third to Wright State.

 

Probably a hot gun but on pitch 116 Skenes hit 101