Since we don't already have a topic... I dont think this CWS isnt going to be quite as a foregone conclusion as the WCWS, but I think there's only a handful of serious contenders (UNC, Vandy, Texas, LSU). I also thinks its funny as hell, and infuriating at the same time, that UVA got snubbed while 4 other ACC teams below them in the standings (Duke, Wake, Miami, Louisville) got in. I guess they had to make room for another $EC team and needed a sacrifice nobody would care about.
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Notable ACC games today:
- Holy Cross @ UNC (12pm)
- Cincy @ Wake (1pm)
- Stetson @ NC State (2pm)
- ETSU @ Louisville (2pm)
- Bethune @ FSU (3pm)
- Miami @ Alabama (3pm)
- WKU @ GT (4pm)
- SCU @ Clemson (6pm)
- OSU @ Duke (6pm)
I'm sorry, did you say ETSU?
Edit: I realize now it's the regional, not the finals in Omaha. Still, good for them, I guess.
May have been the final nail for UVA Coach to head to Miss St. Lot of smoke he is taking that job
If I were UVA's coach, I'd be pissed too. Random UVA teams win natty's all of the time. This years random UVA baseball squad would have been right in that mix in Omaha
UNC wins an uneventful 4-0 game, and Wake getting smoked by Cincy after a very bad top-half of the 2nd (multiple singles, two walks, and a pair of dingers).
also some really poor attendance at the Wake/Cincy game. I guess a storm rolled through Knoxville earlier, but there looks to be less than 1k in the stands.
Wake is playing like 💩
and Wake is already in the losers bracket
I guess somebody needs to wake up Wake. Oh sorry this isn't the dad jokes thread?
Four Regionals hosts lost their first game
Ole Miss, Oregon, Oregon State and Southern Miss all lost game one.
Other "upsets" ECU beat Florida, Miami beat Alabama, USC-W beat TCU, Stetson smoked NC State, Creighton walloped Kansas, Arizona St beat UC Irvine, Miss St beat Northeastern
Wake already in a shootout with Miami (Oh) - 5-4 Wake top 3.
now 7-4... Still not convinced Wake is mentally with it. Just saw a really dumb baserunning mistake you shouldn't see with 10yo kids playing
Can we steal the coaching staff of LSU Shreveport? They just won the NAIA World Series AND finished 59-0 on the season.
Can we steal Coastal Carolina's? Or are their facilities and NIL better than ours?
CCU's field, clubhouse and baseball training facility are among top 15-20 in the country.
Of course they are
They picked their sport to excel in.
Then that is what we should steal from them
Wake flirted with disaster and narrowly escaped the 9th to win 14-13. NC Sate rebounded with a blowout over Central Connecticut. The rest of the ACC is either just starting (Duke, FSU, Clemson) or has the late games (UNC, GT, L'ville, Miami).
L'Ville takes down #1 Vandy to advance to the Nashville clincher. UNC, Duke, FSU, Wake, NC State, Miami all win. GT and Clemson lose. 5 ACC teams are 2-0 and get a breather this afternoon, while 4 others need to win this afternoon to play later today for the regional championship.
Action Today:
Facing elimination starting at noon eastern (all 4 games):
Noteworthy - ACC teams are 5-0 vs SEC
Clemson is Clemonsing - down 10-3 against Kentucky, and its only the bottom of the 4th.
Wake having a much better outing against Cincy this afternoon - up 8-0, Cincy batting in the bottom of the 7th.
Wake advances after a much cleaner game than they played the last two days. Will play Tennessee at 6pm
Ok St STUNS Georgia with two 2-run homers in the bottom of the 9th to win 11-9.
Clemson completes the Clemsoning show, gets blasted by Kentucky 16-4.
#1 overall Vandy is struggling with Wright St, down 5-1 in the 5th.
Vandy makes it interesting in the 9th but eventually falls to Wright St 5-4. First time since '99 since the #1 national seed doesn't make their regional finals.
SEC! SEC!
Louisville, UNC, and Duke took care of business last night and advance to the super regionals. Miami and UNC took the L yesterday but have a chance to clinch this afternoon. Wake took their game against Tennessee and will have to do it again this afternoon to advance.
GT lost their matchup against Ole Miss and their season is over. And NC State ran out of gas after a shootout with Stetson earlier, and they drop to Auburn 11-1.
6 games remain before the Super Regionals, with 10 having already qualified. Those alive, by conference are:
ACC: 3 (3) Louisville, Florida State, Duke (Miami still in Regional vs So Miss, UNC still in Regionals vs Oklahoma, WF still in Regionals vs Tennessee)
SEC: 2 (4) Arkansas, Auburn (Tennessee still in Regionals vs WF, LSU still in Regionals vs Little Rock, Ole Miss still in Regionals vs Murray St, Oklahoma still in Regionals vs UNC)
Big 12: 2 Arizona, West Virginia
BigTen: 1 (1) UCLA (USC still in Regionals vs Oregon St)
American: 1 UTSA
SunBelt: 1 (1) Coastal Carolina (So Miss still in Regionals vs Miami)
Ohio Valley: 0 (1) Little Rock still in Regionals vs LSU
Independent: 0 (1) Oregon St still in Regionals vs USC
Games today are:
UNC v Oklahoma 3pm ESPNU
USC v Ore St 6pm ESPNU
Murray St vs Ole Miss 6pm
WF vs Tenn 6pm ESPN2
LSU vs UALR 9pm ESPN2
Miami vs So Miss 9 pm
Coastal Carolina could do the impossible, unachievable... win TWO team national championships in a decade. Impossible to win one really.
So the mighty SEC, after having a record number of 8 teams hosting regionals, has now only punched two tags with three more being a possibility?
yeah so 80% of them could move on. Is there a point you are making?
It appears to be a pretty poor showing to have 13 teams selected, of those 8 hosting with the top 4 overall seeds and 6 of the top 7, and at this time there are only three guaranteed to move on. Maybe they win all three games today and have a total of 6 out of 13 moving on, which would put them at about 46% best case.
I just think the narrative is biased and enjoy watching them fail, that is my point. Edited because I was going off of numbers above that don't show Oklahoma and helps their case, but my point still stands.
the post above indicated 5 of 8
Nevermind. I'm not a fan of the SEC or the new power dynamics in college sports. That is all.
The implication when the tourney started was that the SEC was going to roll through these and have a vast majority of the super regional teams. The fact that several host teams have been bounced, and the rest are going to game 7 is very telling that the SEC might have been just slightly overhyped. These are still good teams, but a couple broadcasts I watched yesterday had the announcers talking about the struggles that the SEC was having, and conversely how well the ACC as a whole had played this first weekend.
And it's worth repeating - the #1 overall seed hasn't been bounced this early since the current playoff format was implemented in 1999. Vandy had a historical performance for the wrong reason, and it's a big black eye for the SEC.
Or to put an analogy on this - the SEC walked into this tournament looking like the Black Knight, and right now they have both arms chopped off and they are hopping on one leg.
Fair, but how fucking annoying is it going to be when Red ASS classless Tennessee wins anyway?
Quite, but at least they are not in line to host the super regional. With Arkansas winning their regional they get to host whoever comes out a live from the Knoxville regional.
UNC smokes Oklahoma, advances to the supers, and another SEC team is out. UNC will host Arizona this weekend.
Another SEC host goes down as Ole Miss loses to Wright State 11-10. Tennessee beat Wake Forest 11-5 to somehow emerge from their own regional. This means, at most, half of the SEC hosts will not advance through their own regionals, and I'm here for it.
The only other SEC game tonight is happening now with LSU vs Little Rock, with LR racing out to an early 5-1 lead. With a win LSU would host the super regional against WVU, but I have no idea who would host if LR advances.
Miami and So. miss just getting started, with Miami in front 1-0 bottom 3.
Miami won to advance 5-4
LSU came back to win 10-6
LSU rallying at home against something named little rock is one of the more surprising things in sports history.
So out of a record 13 teams to make the original cut, only 4 SEC teams advance. Hate it didn't work out for the central planners.
I light a cigar when its NOT LSU and Tennessee in the final.
One can hope.
and ACC advancing 5 of the 9 teams that were sent, with each of the 5 teams that advanced had an SEC team on the regional.
No ACC/SEC super regional matchups. The earliest chance we have to see that would be in Omaha with UNC facing Auburn, if they advance.
This will be interesting.
Central planning rarely works out well long-term.
Late to posts today - Arizona and UNC are up first in Chapel Hill. UNC already up 5-1 still in the bottom of the 1st.
Up later:
All should be fun to watch. Auburn has been flirting with disaster it feels like for weeks. Would not surprise me one bit if CC is done with them by Saturday night in embarrassing fashion.
8-1, bottom 2nd, Airzona's starting pitcher has been chased.
10-2 UNC at the end of 5
17-2 UNC bottom 8
18-2
Could be UNC's 75th team NCAA title.
if they continue to hit like they did today I can guarantee they win the title.
Still plenty of time for the most annoying things on earth for a VT fan- Oregon State winning one after their conference dies and they are a vagabond. Uber rich/top NIL players doing the literal impossible and winning a team title- Coastal Carolina, UTSA, Murray State. Our friends from Morgantown winning one. Still plenty of time left to be so fucking annoyed.
We could have been in this had we not had a total collapse with our pitchers the 2nd half of the season.
Competitive baseball happening in Corvallis tonight. 2-1 FSU in the 6th.
Louisville beat Miami 8-1
Oregon St beat FSU 5-4 in 10 inning
Brian O'Connor leaving UVA for Miss St for $2.9M reasons. Over 100% raise. This after UVA doubled his salary last year from $685K to $1.4M.
To put that in perspective. As of 2023, there were six MLB managers earning less than $1 million and 15 managers earning $1.75 million or less.
Loyalty in college doesn't mean anything any more. Not saying OConnor was a loyal guy, but with the way contracts and NIL escalate so quickly nobody should ever be surprised with anyone in any position associated with a school AD being one-and-done. Until VT gets a donor that comes up with the next Apple or Nvidia we need to understand we are a feeder school in all the big sports.
LOTS of games up today. Game 2s for Miami @ Louisville, UNC @ AZ, Auburn @ CC, and OSU @ FSU (very late). Miami, AZ, Auburn, and FSU needing wins today to force a game 3 on Sunday.
Game 1s today:
Murray state @ Duke (1pm)
WVU @ LSU (2pm)
UT @ Arkansas (5pm)
UTSA @ UCLA (7pm)
Someone tell me, am I supposed to:
(1) Root for the ACC teams
(2) Root against the SEC teams
(3) Other (please specify ____)
(4) All of the above
4
4. In order I would say 2, 1, 3. I can't stand any of the ACC schools left, but I hate Duke the least. Outside of that I just want the SEC to burn, and I want a lesser school to come out victorious because this might be the last time any school has any player that isn't being officially paid. So, cheer for Murray St and UTSA. Coastal Carolina won the title recently so they don't get a mention.
Miami beats Loserville to force a winner take all
CCU beat Auburn 7-6 last night so can eliminate them today with a win
UNC up 7-6 in game 2 in the 7th
Murray State and Duke tied 2-2 in 4th
WVU up on LSU 1-0 in 2nd
Duke wins Game 1
UNC loses game 2 to force Winner Take All
LSU up 10-5 on WVU
A little surprised to see UNC give up that many runs. I knew the offense out outburst yesterday wasn't likely to happen again, but I figured UNC saved some arms to keep AZ in check. Should be a fun game to watch tomorrow at noon.
Bottom 5, Auburn up 1-0 on CCU
UNC loses to Arizona 10-8, forcing the rubber match
Duke beat Murray St 7-4 to go up 1-0
LSU up 10-5 on WVU
Coastal Carolina has advanced to the CWS, sweeping Auburn, meaning the SEC is down to just 3 teams remaining, 2 of which play each other.
Best news of the week
FSU and Miami evened their respective series last night. Unc, Duke, and Miami/Louisville all play at noon today. FSU and OSU start again at 9pm.
Duke has jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on Murray St. A win and the ACC has their first representative in the CWS
UNC is scoreless with Arizona, as is the Miami/Louisville game.
6-3 Murry St. now, bottom 4.
Murray St. today
19-9 in the top of the 8th
Final. Game 3 tomorrow. No time yet.
Miami strikes first with a 2-out, 2R HR in the top of the 3rd.
2-2, bottom 5.
Miami threatens in the top of the 9th but can't get anyone across, and Louisville wins it 3-2.
Arizona has eliminated the Tar Heels
aww shucks. hate to see it
UCLA punches their ticket with a 7-0 uneventful snoozer against UTSA.
Arkansas is 3 outs away from disposing of Tennessee, leading 11-2 top 9.
Game. Arkansas sweeps the super against UT. Hate to see it.... But more than that -
LSU seems like they are going to close out WVU. Up 6-1
FSU getting blasted. Down 13-3 in 3rd. Loss eliminates them. Gave up 7 in the 1st and 6 more in the 3rd. All 4 walks scored. 4 Homeruns already for Oregon State
LSU an OSU advance. FSU made it respectable but drop 14-10. WVU got the game close and had it 6-4, but LSU unloaded in the 7th with 6 runs to squash any hope the Mountaineers might have still had.
One game today - Murray St. @ Duke, 7pm on ESPN.
How does Murray States stadium, weight room, locker room compare to ours?
Stadium is significantly behind ours.
Still grass/dirt field. Only has seating directly behind home plate. Reminds me of Tech field when I was there. Has the tiered concrete grass seating platforms down both baselines. No idea on rest of facilities.
"Still grass..." made my chuckle. Good for them. I was SHOCKED at how few natural grass fields still existed during the regionals and super regionals. I get the benefits - more consistency, natural bounces, and quicker ability to rebound from a weather delay. But the purist in me absolutely hates anything other than grass. At least make an attempt by putting in dirt for the sliding pits, home plate, and pitcher's mound.
real grass costs more $$$$$$ - which is what it's all about
Yet only 3 of the 16 hosts hailed from non-P4 schools, which I would think would mean way more money for facilities to support a proper grass field. I guess that money is going somewhere other than the field.
Yeah, to football.
I agree but if Hokies didn't have turf, half their season would have been rainouts....might actually have benefited them in ACC play at end of year though
Bottom 7, 1 Out
All Tied Up
Not tied any more. 5-3 top 8, no outs
Bottom of 9th. 1 out runner on 1st 5-4 Murray St. winning.
Last bat grounded out to 1st. Murray St. wins.
Conference Breakdown of the CWS:
SEC: Arkansas, LSU
ACC: Louisville
BigTen: UCLA
Big12: Arizona
MVC: Murray St
SBC: Coastal Carolina
Independent: Oregon St
Have not watched 1 second of games, and little chance I will watch any going forward, but have been following the thread.
Guess I'll be rooting for Oregon State. After getting left out in conference realignment, this would be a great middle finger to major programs result. Then, my hopes would be:
Murray State - non-P4 and never won the CWS
Coastal Carolina - non-P4 but already won a CWS
UCLA - hey, this is Frosty's second favorite team after Baylor (he is from Texas)
Louisville - some ACC support
Arizona - non-P2/not the SEC, and a co-worker who is very good a friendly went there
LSU - SEC, but better colors than Arkansas
Arkansas - SEC and worse colors than LSU
Guess that pretty much guarantees it will be LSU or Arkansas winning it all.
Now you guys know why I rant on this. This is 1 of 100 examples - Oregon State- left for dead without a conference, Murray State, and Coastal Carolina are closer to a team national championship that ANY of our programs have ever been save Women's hoops and Football- once each. It's a VT problem, not an "impossible to win a team championship" problem. If you think for one second that if the ACC dumped VT baseball and we were in the CAA we would get to Omaha? lol. It's absurd at this point.
We're closer than many probably think in both softball and baseball. Recruiting and coaching are where the immediate additional investments need to be made. The problem is that neither of these is a revenue generator.
Softball - yes. Baseball- hard no. 12/13th in the ACC is not "close" to competing for super regionals, etc.
You are forgetting that we were ranked earlier this year. Our issue is depth, specifically in the bullpen. We fix that and we're a super regional team.
Ummm....wouldn't that make UCLA his third favorite team? Or is VT below these two in Frosty's mind?
No, Frosty has his own rooting system. He's not attached to VT. His teams are:
Baylor Bears
Chicago Cubs
UCLA Bruins
Boston Bruins
Chicago Bears ...
You see the pattern.
But being a UCLA Bruins fan, he can't stand the California Golden Bears.
Curious Frosty's opinion on Dave Bliss covering up a murder? Or Art Briles knowing their was a rape ring on the team?
Frosty is a stuffed animal and his adventures formed the basis of many bedtime stories. He does not get involved in those sorts of discussions. Besides, no organization (Penn State is my "favorite" place, a place that had Marcus Vick ...) can claim to be clean and pure.
Round Robins are as follows:
Arizona, Coastal Carolina, Louisville, Oregon St
Murray St, UCLA, LSU, Arkansas
With LSU and Arkansas in the same RR, no conference can guarantee a championship before the finals are played.
Virginia dealt Duke a second blow. Eliminated from their Super Regional, Virginia took the Duke head coach today to replace O'Connor
So UVA baseball invested in a top coach? wow, maybe they will win in that sport consistently.
Helps that they have a single dedicated donor that basically funds the majority of their expenses in John Grisham, in addition to the Harrison family $55M donation to create the Harrison Family Olympic Sports Center.
Why everyone who reads John Grisham needs to switch to my favorite author, Dean Koontz. Much better writer.
Actually, I have nothing against Grisham's writing. But Koontz is still better and doesn't donate to UVA.
TBH, I wouldn't care if we do or don't win consistently in baseball/softball if we had won a CWS. I'll take a championship over the diamond version of "consecutive 10-win seasons".
We can win a team championship. It's not some impossible hurdle. Everyone else has done it. JMU has done it, Rice has done it, Army has done it. Most ACC schools have multiple team championships. We compete against those schools. What it takes is commitment and not settling for good enough- which we have done in 90% of our sports. We have made no commitment to womens golf or lacrosse... if we win in those, it's luck. We could invest in a regional wrestling facility like penn state has and maybe actually compete with them and OSU/Iowa. We could hire additional coach for softball, we could hire a new coach for men's golf. We could support baseball like an ACC school and not rely on luck. We don't have a standard of championships here, we have a standard of don't embarass ourselves.
No team championships in ~150 years is not the definition of not embarrassing. Shitting the bed against Boise State on the national stage or LSU or Bama or more recently Tennessee at Bristol or Kansas in a BCS or UGA in bowl game or Michigan in the sugar or ___________ (insert any game)
Was about to say exactly this. Step 1 in not embarrassing ourselves is to win a team championship asap. Or at least do a better job of looking like we're trying.
"a better job of looking like we're trying."- we aren't trying and that is my issue. There are a million use cases out there for a non blue blood to win a team championship. We aren't interested. With fans as passionate and prideful as ours, that is the only conclusion. We are not the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical college anymore. We are in arguably the best olympic sports conference out there- yet we aren't interested in leveraging that competition to hire championship coaches or recruit better athletes. Proof is 100% in the pudding.
I've lost my pride in the athletics. Still have it for the university, but it's gone for the sports. Until we have a new president that has the drive to do both, and an AD that has a long-term competitive and fundraising vision, AND we have 5 years of ludicrous fundraising and rebuilding, I will not allow myself to get reinvested in athletics. I'm apathetic now, and I don't see myself coming back.
but we do embarrass ourselves when we come out as favorites so many times and shit the bed in big games. So frustrating.
My point
Coastal opens with a win against Arizona
Louisville against Oregon State going on right now, scoreless, Top 2
2-0 OSU in the 5th
Murray St at Arkansas today at 1300 in an elimination game for Bracket 2.
UCLA at LSU at 1800 today in the semifinals of Bracket 2.
No Bracket 1 games today.
Arkansas pitcher has a no hitter, perfect game through 6.
He got the no-no. Highlights below.
Louisville bounced OSU this afternoon, 7-6. They had the game in-hand until the Beavers tied it with 3 runs in the top of the 9th. Cards walked it off with a bases loaded sac fly to end it.
They will face Coastal Carolina in another elimination game tomorrow at 2pm.
UCLA lost earlier today to UCLA 9-5. Plays again tonight against Arkansas, and the loser goes home.
for everyone: UCLA lost to LSU
And then lost to Arkansas so UCLA is out.
Todays Games:
CCU vs Louisville
Arkansas vs LSU
For reference, these are essentially the national semifinals, although double-elimination. Coastal Carolina and LSU are the ones from the winners' brackets, so Louisville and Arkansas have to win today to stay in the mix.
Note: Although coming from the loser's bracket, Arkansas was the highest-seeded team in this year's CWS, and is therefore the highest seed remaining
Edit: Added note and bracket image.
Coastal - most famous for a football coaches rant about cats and dogs and Dustin Johnson are on the cusp of a second impossible to do team national championship.
LSU got some early umpire support to really change the Championship game.
Umpire threw the Coastal Carolina head coach out of the game in the first inning for questioning a strike call and remaining on the top step of the dugout. Later in the 1st they threw out Coastal Carolina's associate head coach/1B coach from the dugout. The announcers were really critical of the umpires for seemingly throwing the head coach out with no warning.
LSU went on to win 5-3
Same umpire who tossed a Clemson kid for who knows what reason in the 13th inning of a tournament game a couple years ago
And he's the same umpire who tossed Matt Treanor of the Royals in 2011 because he thought Treanor was questioning him, but they weren't even talking and Treanor was in his squat facing the pitcher when he was tossed, at which point Campos walked to the front of the plate and tore into Treanor for whatever offense he thought occurred. And its the same umpire who ejected Matt Kemp after instigating an argument with the player who was in the dugout at the time, and then ejected Don Mattingly after it caused a bigger ordeal.
Some guys shouldn't be umpires, and Angel Campos is one of them. This guy has a history of allowing the moment to overwhelm him. There's no way he should be put in charge of meaningful, pivotal games anymore.
Maybe just avoid saying anything or expecting a good game with any umpire named "Angel"
I just don't understand why he was allowed to be the umpire behind the plate. I thought it's been in the rule book since 1994 to keep Angels in the outfield.
🧦🧦🧦🧦
Sorry, as mentioned earlier, it is my fault:
Have not watched 1 second of games, and little chance I will watch any going forward, but have been following the thread.
Guess I'll be rooting for Oregon State. After getting left out in conference realignment, this would be a great middle finger to major programs result. Then, my hopes would be:
Murray State - non-P4 and never won the CWS
Coastal Carolina - non-P4 but already won a CWS
UCLA - hey, this is Frosty's second favorite team after Baylor (he is from Texas)
Louisville - some ACC support
Arizona - non-P2/not the SEC, and a co-worker who is very good a friendly went there
LSU - SEC, but better colors than Arkansas
Arkansas - SEC and worse colors than LSU
Guess that pretty much guarantees it will be LSU or Arkansas winning it all.
You might be about a week behind schedule. The CWS wrapped-up yesterday afternoon with LSU winning it.
He was taking credit/blame due to his earlier post above
-not making a "new prediction"
I haven't had my coffee
I will be honest this morning was the first time I checked this thread and it was partially to see if it was over and who won. It doesn't surprise me that LSU was helped by a ref throwing out both the opponents head coach and assistant head coach over nothing. But isn't a world series supposed to be best of 5 games? Did he throw them out for each game or did they just play a championship game and not series?
CWS is a best of 3. It was in the second game, in the 1st or 2nd inning.
I hate the SEC, but I am very happy random Coastal team (11K students, many online) didn't win a team national championship. VT couldn't buy one, so less frustration with LSU winning. BTW- Our coach makes more than coastal's in terms of base salary. Perhaps we should lure coastal's coach here for more money?
What is this mythical money of which you speak? Do we have any to spend?
Any way, that's a wrap. LSU winning it all shouldn't really be a surprise. Sorry I wasn't able to keep pace with the commentary this past week as I was kinda off the grid trying to keep a bunch of 11-15yo scouts from disappearing at summer camp.
Fingers crossed that we'll figure out how to get the VT squad in better condition for the 2nd half of next season, and maybe, maybe, we took enough lumps this year that the players will learn how to work around the mishaps next season.