Other than Texas no other team in the CWS has won a championship. So we are likely to have a first time winner. At Texas Augie Garrido is bound to be getting close to the end of his career. I think he's 75, a lot of Texas fans were hoping that he'd retire or get fired at the end of the season. They feel he's underachieved for a few years now. But with this appearance I think he'll be able to coach another year if he wants. I certainly hope that our AD make a runner at Brian O'Connor the UVA coach when Augie steps down. Six-time champion Texas has by far the most trips to the CWS among the 2014 field and is the only school to have won the title: Team Appearances Texas 35 Mississippi 5 Louisville 3 Virginia 3 TCU 2 UC Irvine 2 Vanderbilt 2 Texas Tech 1
No Northern Teams. Irish baseball is in a funk since we lost our coach to LSU. Neb had an excellent program and I don't know what has happened to those guys.
Nebraska fought Indiana tooth and nail in the Big10 championship game. The tournament was held in Omaha, so the stadium was packed with Nebraska fans. Following the game and based on their season record, Nebraska earned an invitation to the NCAA tournament. I don't know what happened to them, but I'm certain the program will continue to be highly competitive under Darin Erstad.
Sid, the Gators won the SEC regular season and the tournament. Then we hosted a playoff series and lost the fist two games. Go figure. It is actually a good thing to see new blood in the Series.
Bill, the same thing happened to regional host Indiana, except that they won two games, then lost two. This year's CWS has been marked by stunning upsets to favorites like Florida, FSU, IU, LSU, and the #1 overall seed, Oregon State. Parity reigns.
In tournament play, it's always better to be the hot team, rather than the best team. In the CWS, all the teams are good to have gotten that far, so the hottest team will win out. UC Irvine has been hot all through the playoffs, beating #1 Oregon State along the way. They have a great coach in 74 year-old Mike Gillespie, who won the College WS when he was the head coach at USC...
Thanks Jim, A little extra background always helps. I do not have access to ESPN live, but like to follow college baseball. Don
Corey, JO'Co...what do you think of the bats the NCAA is using these days. Supposedly closer to wood. But have we gone 180 degrees from Gorrilla Ball to small ball all the time?
:idea: Terry, Not having coached in several years, I can't have an opinion on these bats. They're fussy at the CWS aren't they? http://www.clarionledger.com/story/olemisssports/2014/06/14/ole-miss-bats-taken-day-two/10537589/
They are stretching a bit to say they are like wood, but they are a whole lot more dead than the bats used in the mid to late 90s. Those things were boom sticks. You can pitch inside now, but you still give up singles on jam pitches that would normally give you firewood using a wood bat. As long as everyone is using the same thing, I don't really care one way or the other. I am glad they got away from those bats in the 90s.. those things were dangerous.
V Battle is set up. Vanderbilt vs Virginia. Two highly rated academic institutions. Texas almost made it to the party, but still even though they lost last night to Vanderbilt the season was a pretty big success in the end even though there was a lot of howling for Augie's scalp during the season.
I'm not a fan of Texas, but I'm a big fan of Augie Garrido (sp?). If the boo-birds want him gone, I would hope ND would hire him to a long-term contract. I don't care how old he is. It won't happen, but the TX boo-birds should be careful what they wish for. He's a masterful coach.
Congrats to Vanderbilt on their CWS win. Back in 2002 when we made the CWS I thought we'd be a regular at the CWS and maybe win one. But according to what I've read that win by Vandy gives us the Capital One Cup for the Men. Whooopee!!
I watched the game and was cheering for our ACC brother, Virginia. Late in the game, they announced that ND was in the lead for the Men's Capital One Cup but that if Virginia won, they would overtake ND and win the Cup. From that moment on, I had mixed emotions. In the end, I'm happy that we won the Cup. It's a testament to the overall excellence of our athletic programs.
Winning the Capital One Cup is no easy feat and a testament to Jack Swarbrick and our coaches. The men's soccer team won the championship and the lacrosse team was national runnerup. Very impressive showing considering the dead weight of our men's BB team.
I don't mean to downgrade winning the Capital Cup, I guess it used to be the Sears Cup? I was thinking that the old Sears Cup was a combined Mens/Women deal. So it's always nice to see ND do well in these things. But I'd trade 10 Capital Cups for 1 Football National Championship!!