2023 college baseball/softball thread

And I thought I’d seen it all abandoning ship at 15-3.

 

That's pretty much what LSU did. Nobody who pitched after the fourth inning was going to pitch on Monday. In fact, I think only one of the last four pitchers they used had even pitched in Omaha.
The next question is, how much can they get out of Skenes on three days' rest and how do you maximize it? If you think you can only get five innings out of him, do you start him off or bring him in later to get to the end?

 

I think games like that are easier to shake off than if they'd lost 5-4. You can write this one off as "That's baseball, shit happens and it wasn't our day," instead of agonizing over every little missed opportunity.

 

College baseball is weird. Today's LSU starting pitcher was making his third start of the year. And it was the right call. Maybe the only call.

 

His second was earlier in the CWS against Tennessee, and he was lights out. Guess they were hoping he could keep it rolling, but it didn't work out.

If you believe in omens, maybe this is one: This was LSU's worst lost since 1997, when they lost 28-2 to Alabama in the next-to-last game of the regular season. A month later they won the national championship — by beating Alabama.
Gotta find those little nuggets of hope after a debacle like that.

 

LSU fans love Paul Skenes almost as much as they love alcohol.

 

Is that Patton Oswalt? He grew his hair out ...

 

Florida just scored again....

 

In going through the NCAA's CWS records book, I have found a favorite program in the history of the event.
Northern Colorado made 10 appearances in the event. All of them, apparently, came in an era when every geographical region of the country was guaranteed a slot in some stage of the NCAA tournament. The program's last Omaha appearance came in 1974.
They went 3-20 and were outscored by ≥ 10 runs seven times. Outscored on average 9 to 2.6 runs per game.

 

whats the appropriate number to expect on three days rest after 120 pitches? 50? 60?

 

Depends on the pitcher. Maybe 70 or 80, five or six innings you would hope.
Throwing 123 and 120 pitches in his last two starts is definitely a ton. But I think it also shows he's in good shape and can handle it. Pitchers don't sit around doing nothing between starts, either. If he wasn't pitching a game tomorrow he'd probably be throwing a bullpen or something. A lot of coaches look at it like that when bringing guys back on short rest during the tournament — he's going to be throwing today anyway, so it might as well be in a game instead of the bullpen.
If they can get 3/4 of what he normally throws, 75 pitches or so, that would be good.