2024 college baseball/softball thread

Carolina might win this time. Oregon State isn't there to eliminate them (2006, 2007, 2018).

 

Tying run came in when Virginia botched a sky-high foul ball in nearly the same spot where Arkansas lost itself a CWS.

 

Or as they call it here, "The foul ball that changed it all."

Fans here still yell "Arkansas" every time there's a high foul popup down the first-base line that several opponents are converging upon.

 

Eleven runs through 2.5 innings. Vols and Noles don’t know they aren’t supposed to run out of pitching until next week.

 

Tenth different pitcher of the game coming in as Tennessee has tied it at 11 in the bottom of the ninth with the winning run at second.

 

I hate it when a base ump ends a game with a strike call on a half-swing. That didn't happen tonight. YAY!! The guy didn't do it. Vols benefit and come back to win. Two key plays in the bottom of the ninth: The Seminoles center fielder (just put in the game for defensive purposes) takes a bad route and doesn't make the catch on the leadoff hitter (triple). Then the base ump keeps the Vols alive when a "swing" call would have ended the game. All the hits after that were rockets.

 

I'm glad he didn't and I think it was the right call. The FSU bench certainly thought it wasn't right, and the ESPN guy said he thought he went watching it live but then thought it was correct watching the replay, but I didn't think he went watching it originally. I totally thought the ump was going to ring him up, though. Kind of an ump thing to do.

On the center fielder thing, it is funny I covered this event eons ago and after a diving catch got a bunch of oohs and aahs, a fellow reporter totally went on a rant -- all these players keep getting praised for these great plays where if they read them right it would have been a routine catch. He wasn't wrong, but I thought kind of picky. This is the highest level of college baseball, but some of the play tonight wasn't that far off from any weekend youth major tournament! Especially in the outfield. What was with all the bobbles? Fast play, bouncy fence?

 

I love social media on stuff like the check swing. Someone posted the college rule and all these people are running with it that it was a totally blown call. Like there are four criteria and they basically all have to happen for it to be a strike. One is the bat goes in front of the hips or something. I think another was it goes in front of the plate. I don't know. They are still subjective. The plate can't matter based on where the batter is in the box. I think that's what most people are running with (there is one picture going around with the bat in front of the plate and a line drawn). I think he stopped. It was close, but he stopped.

The other argument I saw was that it was a strike anyway. That may be the case, but it definitely wasn't called! This is one of those tough moments where I get that one pitch could have ended the game, but you had four opportunities with two outs to get out of it as well. And the opening triple. Maybe don't walk the pinch hitter either.

 

Karma.
Funny how that works
Trump University of the Big Bend (CWS) and Trump University of the Upstate (super regionals) are going to claim that their seasons were ended by injustice, that their victories were stolen.
So much performance art. So little performance.
Fuck 'em.

 

The fuck does anything you just said have to do with baseball?

 

Seven of the eight CWS teams are from "Trumpist" states, and the one that isn't is one loss from going home. Whatever the fuck that means.