2023 college baseball/softball thread

They might both get sent on the road for the sake of geographic balance. There are seven teams from the Carolinas safely inside the Top 25 right now. No way the NCAA lets them all host, if only because a single thunderstorm system could banjax almost half the bracket.

 

I had never thought of that, but it's a great point. If you do bunch hosts, you need to solicit an alternate host just in case.

 

Usually the biggest problem for the NCAA spreading out the field is finding someone worthy of hosting in the Northeast, but West Virginia seems like a cinch and at least one of UConn or BC. The Midwest might get Indiana State but otherwise will have to settle for Kentucky. And Dallas Baptist may be the only hope for Texas and the Great Plains. Stanford and Oregon State seem pretty safe as west coast choices.

 

WVU baseball and Iowa State softball adopt each other.

 

For the second consecutive season, the defending national champion finished in last place in the SEC. In fact, neither Ole Miss or Mississippi State qualified for Hoover this year.

 

So they'll both still host regionals, right? Along with 10 other SEC teams?

 

Before they bailed, I might have said, "Wow, that's bad for the Pac-12." Now, "great, screw 'em."

The administrators say the usual blah-blah nonsense, but I think it's hard to underestimate the real animosity the rest of the conference's fanbase feels toward USC and UCLA right now, especially toward USC, which was already widely reviled. It will only get worse next year, as their final departure date nears.

The rest of the Pac-12 dominated yesterday.

 

Florida State softball gets a perfect game in a winner-take-all scenario to beat South Carolina 1-0 and advance to supers.

 

To quickly summarize Ms. Clark’s day:

• Had what would have been a last-at-bat tying home run wiped out when it was called foul and replay was inconclusive. LSU loses game 1.
  
• Tigers fall behind 6-0 early before beginning a rally with Clark’s solo homer in the deciding game. She chirps the second base ump on her way around the bases.
  
• LSU gets screwed out of a passed ball when the ump at home rules it was a foul tip bunt. Never hit Clark’s bat.
  
• Clark is eventually retired, mouths off to the plate umpire and gets tossed. Woman doing color commentary complains that she was tossed too quickly and “you don’t see that happen to guys.”

 

And now the Cajuns retake the lead 9-8 in the top of the seventh. Even by local standards this game is drunk.