2023 college baseball/softball thread

I guess someone can call it fascinating, but four-plus hour pingfests still don't fascinate me. Campbell and East Carolina got into a 14-13 slugfest. Camels, uh, got over the hump in four-plus hours.

 

Made 'em walk the plank!

 

This was my alma mater's baseball field my freshman and sophomore years. Yes, that is a cinder track running through the outfield. I took this photo sitting on the hill in RF, the site of the manual scoreboard I operated for $5 a game.

And it's not an optical illusion, there was no backstop.

 

When the Angels got to Baltimore this week, there were two former Campbell players on the field -- O's center fielder Cedric Mullins and Angels shortstop Zach Neto.

 

No backstop at all!?! How many spectators were killed by foul balls? And runs scored on passed balls that rolled forever?

 

This is Bowers Park in south Tuscaloosa, early home of Alabama softball. My fiancé was on an intramural team playing on an adjacent field. And that was actually an upgrade over Sokol Park where the program started the previous year.



Things have changed slightly over the years.

 

As someone used to following and watching SEC baseball, it's odd to check in on some of the small-school games on ESPN+ during the weekend. Going from the backdrop of Double-A (or even Triple-A) quality ballparks and crowds of 8,000 or 10,000, it's a jarring visual to see a game between two Northeast Conference schools that don't give even half a shit about the sport playing on a low-end high school field with a crowd numbering in double digits.

 

Wait, wut?
Are congratulations from the board in order or did I miss something?

 

Until about 3 years ago, BC played on a glorified high school field. It had the same chain link backstop and had less than 200 yards of grandstands along the left field line. Lockers must have been 200 yards away and everyone, players included, had to use two port-a-potties. And it was playing in the ACC.

 

Just a trip back to 1997. A lot of … life happened since then.

 

I think there was a one-base limit, local ground rules. And yes, no permanent backstop, unless they rolled a temporary one in there, I can't remember it's been so long ago. That's a law dorm in the background, though, so anybody who got hit by a foul ball didn't have to go far for representation.

The photo isn't very good, but not bad for a Kodak Instamatic from more than 300 feet away.

 

Plenty of good baseball players come out of Buies Creek, so that's not entirely shocking.

Speaking of shocking, wait until East Carolina gets bypassed for hosting a regional. Frankly, it should happen since Campbell has beaten the Pirates in all three meetings this season. The whining out of Greenville will be so loud that amplification will not be necessary.