The Road to Omaha: NCAA Baseball Tournament Thread

What a money-maker it'd be if Ole Miss hosted Southern Miss (or vice-versa) in a Super Regional.
But we all know the bracket's set.
Still, what a tough ticket it'd be.

 

Virginia has given up 1 run in 21 regional innings. Beat San Diego St. 5-1, UC Irvine, 5-0. As of now, no hits for UC Irvine after 3 innings. 0-0 top of fourth.

 

Holy shit, ESPN is playing the MNF halftime highlight music for SportsCenter's recap of the Fla. State-Ohio State game, interspersed with clips of Bowden and Tressel.

Awe. Some.

Fuck the fuckeyes.

 

Virginia sweeps the Irvine regional, beating Anteaters, 4-1, in clinching game. Cavaliers gave up 2 runs in 3 games. Pretty impressive.

 

Virginia was really damn impressive. Their last four games ---- they've beaten Florida State, Strasburg and UC Irvine twice. Impressive.

 

Keith Law feels both managers should be fired after overusing pitchers in the BC-Texas game.

Considering Austin Wood and Mike Belfiore are each major league draft prospects -- and combined for an insane 298 pitches Saturday night/Sunday morning -- he's got a point.

(Unfortunately, it's an ESPN Insider article ... here's the link if you happen to have access)

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4220157&name=mlb_draft

 

I covered the Austin Regional today (BC vs. Army) and talked with Mike Belfiore (the BC guy who pitched 9 2/3 innings) after the game for a sidebar. He said the longest he pitched since high school was five innings and is usually limited to 20-25 pitches. Belfiore told me his arm felt great throughout the game and after icing it down pretty well, felt good when he woke up this morning.

Tony Sanchez, on the other hand, the BC catcher who caught every inning in the marathon game, was feeling it today. He said beside his arm feeling like mush, his body felt ok, but couldn't get the turn on his swings like usual.

 

Yeah, I got to believe Law was overstating the significance quite a bit. One outing is not going to ruin these kids' careers.
But can you imagine what would happen if this kind of thinking bled into other collegiate sports.
All running backs must be held to 15 carries or less per game, so they have legs left when they get NFL and do not turn up lame at the age of 29.
And Blake Griffin and Tyler Hansbrough - stop drawing fouls. In fact, you're only going to play one half of each game so we can limit the abuse you take and your future earning potential.

 

Yeah, how dare that college coach shirk his duty to prepare his players for the big leagues? He's got some nerve! Doesn't he understand what his real role is? He's not supposed to think about things like winning the game and protecting his bullpen! He's nothing more than a glorified farm-team manager for our business associates in Major League Baseball! Duh-nuh-nuh, duh-nuh-nuh!

 

I know it is being reported and there were people who witnessed it -- but 37-6 was the actual score of a game over the weekend?

What the fuck is up with that? Aren't these regionals at least supposed to have good teams -- and thus scores like that shouldn't happen?

 

Even good teams run out of pitching. That's what happened to Ohio State.

 

The pitch count police need to get the blue flu. Oh how I hate them.