Irish baseball is headed in the right direction. I hope we are able to hold on to our coach, Link Jarrett.
Scott, I see your intent and applaud your humor. Terry, I agree. All we can say is congratulations to Coach Jarrett and the Irish. It was one of the greatest seasons in Irish baseball history. I watched the game and was proud of how they didn't roll over. They kept fighting to the end. I loved how Niko left his imprint on the Bulldog fans with that moon shot, a fitting ending to an outstanding season.
You're welcome that my Cornhuskers wore out the Omahogs for ya there WolfPack... "Put your makeup on and your hair up pretty, and meet me tonight in Bugaha city..."
Aggies hire one of the nation's top baseball recruiters in Nolan Cain. He is a former LSU player and has been on retiring coach, Paul Maineri's staff in the same role.
Tenn vs Texas in the elimination game on Tues. Texas was the #2 seed and Tenn the #3 seed. Nobody expected them to be in the losers bracket right out of the gate. Reports from Omaha say that the biggest fanbases are Tenn and NC State.
NC State continues to roll on in its Cinderella role in the CWS. Beat Vandy last night in another pitchers duel 1-0. They are the classic playoff team that gets healthy and hot at the right time. I listen a lot to ESPNU and their ACC baseball guy said midseason that while their record didn't show it they were the best team in the ACC. He later predicted that they had a chance at going into Fayetteville and giving Arkansas a run for it's money. FWIW, Notre Dame's coach, Link Jarrett, has a son who plays 2B for the Wolfpack.
So... let's say NC State wins it all. Does that mean they aren't the best team? Imagine if there were only 4 teams allowed in...
It's classic playoffs, gives teams who had issues during regular season but some how qualify for the playoff when it's a whole new ballgame. Happens in the Final Four, happens in the NFL where 10 wildcard teams have made the Super Bowl and 6 have won including that NY Giant Team that beat the greatest Patriot team of all time and ended their hope for an unbeaten season and Super Bowl Championship. Last year a woeful Astros team who didn't finish the regular season over .500 but made the playoffs and came damn close to going to the World Series, took the Ray's to the 7th game before losing. We'll see that at some point with a 12 team playoff in football. I don't think anybody doubts that Alabama wasn't the best team last year. But it will happen that eventual National Champion will be a team who was in the top 12 but got healthy and hot late and runs through the playoffs.
NC State and Miss State are in the drivers seat waiting for teams to emerge from the losers bracket. Stanford plays Vanderbilt in an elimination game today Texas plays UVA in an elimination game Thursday.
Vanderbilt wins on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 9th and advances. Stanford goes home. Texas and UVA up today in another elimination game. UVA had Miss State on the ropes late before State pulled it out.
LSU coaching search is reportedly down to 3 guys. Unfortunately, one of those 3 guys is Irish coach Link Jarrett. Jarrett said after the Super Regionals that he planned to return to ND, said a lot of good things about building the program, his relationship with the kids, etc. But I do imagine that the LSU job will probably double his salary and LSU baseball attracts more highly rated players than he's likely to have access to at Notre Dame. "The LSU baseball coach search is down to three finalists – Arizona coach Jay Johnson, East Carolina coach Cliff Godwin and a previously unnamed candidate, Notre Dame coach Link Jarrett – multiple sources have told the Lafayette Daily Advertiser," Guilbeau wrote. "Johnson, 44, interviewed with LSU athletics director Scott Woodward on Tuesday, and Jarrett, 49, also interviewed in recent days, the sources said.