OT: NCAA Baseball - one B1G teams remains
The NCAA Baseball tournament is underway - and, though the "Sweet 16" of baseball isn't final yet - it's getting pretty close.
As of Monday morning - June 5th - one B1G team remains. That team is Indiana, which plays Kentucky later today for a spot in the Super Regional.
Maryland and Iowa, the two other B1G teams which played in the 64 team field - did not advance through their regional.
To little surprise - six of the nine teams which have reached the Super Regional are from these two / three conferences - ACC, SEC, and Big 12 (Texas is the lone Big 12 team in that group - not sure how to categorize them - Big 12 or future SEC).
Five #1 seeded regional teams did not advance. Those teams were Vanderbilt, Oklahoma State, Clemson, Auburn and Miami (YTM). All five of those eliminated teams were ranked in the Top 13 nationally.
Do you follow college baseball? I'll follow it as long as Michigan is in the hunt - and, perhaps - will watch a bit of the final series.
Do you have a horse in the race? If so, who do you like?
A bit more detail - for the 8 Super Regionals. If original "Top 16 seeding" is available / appropriate - the seeding / ranking has been added. All the remaining regional games are scheduled to be played today (June 5th). The Super Regionals are scheduled to begin on Friday, June 9th and conclude on (or before) Monday June 12th.
1. Wake Forest (1) vs Alabama (16)
2. Texas vs winner of (Stanford (8) vs Texas A&M)
3. Winner (LSU (5) vs Oregon State) vs winner (Kentucky (12) vs Indiana)
4. Winner (Penn vs Southern Miss) vs Tennessee
5. Winner (Florida (2) vs Texas Tech) vs South Carolina (15)
6. Winner (Coastal Carolina (10) vs Duke) vs Virginia (7)
7. Oregon vs Oral Roberts
8. Indiana State (14) vs winner (Arkansas (3) vs TCU)
Rooting interests: Wake, Stanford, IU (but Or St would be cool), Penn(!?), TT, CC, Oregon, and the Sycamores(!!!)
We are on exactly the same page. My ideal 8 for the CWS right now:
Wake
Stanford
Indiana
Penn
Texas Tech
Coastal Carolina
Oregon
Indiana State
On the other hand if A&M beats Stanford today I will certainly be tuned into the Texas vs Texas A&M super-regional, wherever they end up playing it.
I would be very pleasantly surprised if the "Elite Eight" you suggested - in fact, are the teams that advance to Omaha.
I follow it very hard when M is playing, especially if we make the tourney. Same with softball. But when we are not, i still pay attention - which is similar to how much i follow march madness. Updates are appreciated.
As for a dog in the fight, unlike basketball or football (or hockey and wrestling), i do root for the big ten in the bat and ball games, and failing that any pac12 or mid major team (so basically, not SEC/ACC/B12). So Stanford on the softball side, IU for baseball.
There are two 4-seeds remaining in the tournament (remember, a 4-seed in baseball is the equivalent of a 13 to 16 seed in basketball).
Oral Roberts won the Stillwater Regional with 3 straight wins. They are on a 21-game winning streak, the longest in the nation, and they will play at Oregon next weekend. They became the 8th 4-seed to ever advance to the super regionals.
Pennsylvania is in the final of the Auburn regional against Southern Mississippi this afternoon. If they win they will head to Knoxville as the 9th 4-seed to ever advance to the super regionals
Alton - great points. And, if I may - one other thing about the 4 seed in a regional - in a 64 team draw, their seeding would be in the "49 to 64" range.
Enjoy.
I felt kinda bad for Iowa. They got pretty good starting pitching but couldn't hold leads in the late game innings. Won 1st game without much issue. 2nd game against seeded Indiana State they lost a 4-2 lead in the 8th and lost 7-4. In their 3rd game, an elimination game against North Carolina if I remember correctly, they lost a 5-2 lead in the 9th. They ended up winning in the 13th, but had to use next games probable starter to do it. The losers bracket already taxes your pitching with the extra game, last thing you need is extra innings. They were tied 6-6 in the 6th in the rematch against Indiana State but didn't have the pitching. If only their late game pitching moves hadn't let them down, that might have been a much different regional for them.
The other thing I found interesting was the complete implosions that happened to some of the higher seeds. They didn't just lose, they got destroyed. Oklahoma State lost 18-4 and Arkansas lost 20-5. Auburn and Oklahoma State didn't even win a game.
Generally root for "Northern" teams in baseball. Whether they are B1G, PAC or ACC (Oregon, Stanford, Indiana, ISU etc...). It's just so damn hard to recruit and play in the cold with the inherent advantages that southern teams enjoy in regards to weather, travel and talent concentration. Especially in sports like baseball that don't get full scholarships. It's a whole lot easier to spread the wealth to your 35 kids with 11.7 scholarships when you can get 90% of your roster from your home state and have most kids paying in-state tuition for the remainder.
Mid-Major conferences I also root for so definitely would love to see win some games.
But basically, as it comes down to every year for me, anyone but the SEC.
Glad you asked.
Wake Forest. Radio analyst is former M pitcher and MLB All Star Lary Sorenson.
Check out their team stats.
SEC had 9 teams in the tourney, ACC was second best conference over the regular season.
IIRC 7 SEC teams playing today in the 9 regional finals.
Let's shoot for 0 for 9.
:)
Lary Sorensen ---- had not heard that name in awhile. I liked him when he was on Radio for the Tigers in the mid-late 90s. Good to hear he's doing well, he of course has had his troubles.
I'll now root for WF just for him.
Five SEC teams will play today to advance to the Super Regionals. Those five teams are: Texas A&M, LSU, Kentucky, Florida, and Arkansas.
Three SEC teams have already advanced - Tennessee, South Carolina, and Alabama.
The two SEC teams that did not advance - and have been eliminated - in their respective regionals are Vanderbilt, and Auburn.
So - my view indicates 10 SEC teams were invited to the field of 64.
The four SEC teams that did not make it to the field of 64 were: Georgia, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and Missouri.
Does anyone know who beat Clemson? I didn't see it in the title 🤣
Like many, I follow closely UM baseball and softball. Once they are out I casually follow baseball and then take in as much of the CWS as I can. Went to Omaha once and had a great time - a great atmosphere for the game. If you get opportunity, it's worth the trip even if UM or the Big Ten isn't represented.
I saw the SEC had a .813 winning percentage vs all teams out of conference this season. They have a chance of having 7/16 final teams after today. That conference runs college baseball and frankly, if any Midwest team makes it to Omaha it should be treated as their own championship for making it there.
Craig Ross and Seth always talks on WTKA about the NCAA should extend into summer to even the playing field, unfortunately they are very uninformed about the Cape Cod and Northwoods League summer leagues which have better productions, larger fan attendance (in the NWL Madison draws almost 6,000 per night), and have significantly better collective talent than the Midwest D1 Leagues so it will never happen.
In addition the MLB draft is in early July so a lot of the juniors and seniors in college leave for professional baseball then.
Denarded, A friend of our family's has a son who is a D1 pitcher and spending this summer playing "out east", after playing last summer in the NWL.
It surprises me, in a "good" way - that the Madison Mallards in the NWL, draw as solidly as they do. Great news for baseball - and, families in the area.
It seems like an enjoyable night out - and, a "reasonable" cost for a family of four (or more) to attend a baseball game.
Amazin- that is awesome to hear about your friend's son and have also heard great things about the Mallards games and environment. As a resident in Traverse City, I have the pleasure of going to a lot of Pit Spitter games and can only imagine a college kid getting to spend a full summer playing baseball up here and traveling around the midwest like a minor leaguer every day. That would be pretty hard to beat.
The cool thing about the Cape Cod and NWL is its not just Michigan players you can cheer for, but you get mixed in SEC, ACC, Big 12, Sun Belt, D2 All-Americans, D3 All-Americans, and JUCO kids who most likely move onto D1 next year. The combination of talent is pretty exciting to watch and you're certainly watching a few MLB draft picks every game. Cape Cod has almost every player going pro, but the NWL simulates Minor League baseball with the big crowds, in-game promotions, always traveling on the bus, etc.
Mix in the fact the Northwoods League has nightly games on ESPN+ and some on ESPNU this summer and like previously mentioned, the Big Ten can't compete with what those summer leagues offer.
One of the best experiences I've ever had in sports was getting the opportunity to be an early season fill in for a Northwoods league team. For various reasons, that summer I wasn't going to be playing on my own summer league team but had one of my college coaches was an assistant for one of the NWL teams that summer and asked if I could fill out the roster for a couple weeks.
I played for 2 weeks on that team before a couple of the full time guys that were finishing regionals were able to finally join and it gave me a brand new appreciation of what Minor league players go through. I played on the battle creek based team and at the time we were the only team in Michigan. So we did a lot of bussing and many of which were overnights to get back home or out to the next away game. Something like 70 games in 80 days I think was the schedule back then.
We played opening night at Madison and the atmosphere was incredible. Those guys loved coming out to games and giving the away teams a really hard time. I got to play with guys from LSU, Oregon State, Michigan, Brown, Eastern Michigan and a bunch of other places. 10/10 would definitely do it again.
Sione- that is so cool you got to experience that and shadow the grind of what the MiLB lifestyle is like, especially some of those venues that most college kids don't get to experience when they go back to school. Awesome story!
I don't know how those guys can do it and play at such a high level. Game at 7PM that takes 2.5 hours then showers and grabbing "go" boxes for dinner, conservatively on the road back home at 10:30. Then depending on what part of Wisconsin we were playing in we were looking at 5-7 hour bus ride plus an hour time difference.
Get back to host family house in the early hours of the morning and be back to the field in the early afternoon for training table, weights, extra drills and game the next night at home. It was a grind and I only did it for two weeks.
Not sure why the BT should care more about the Cape Cod League than its own interests, regardless of the current relative merits of the leagues. The argument is simple. Play baseball in the summer not the winter.
FIRE BAKICH. He lost too early!
#6 Clemson lost to Charlotte.
My son’s former college teammate is a pitcher for Maryland (he got the win in the Big Ten Championship) so I’ve been following them. Getting shellacked by #1 Wake Forest probably did them in. They were a great team and had one of the best offenses in college baseball.
Yes, I find that I will tune into just about any NCAA tournament if it's on TV and I have no appointment TV at that time. I really enjoy watching individual and team golf championships. I will watch women's beach volleyball, track & field, softball, baseball. Not so much indoor vball or wrestling or swimming or cornhole I guess.
I have to admit that I rooted against Clemson/Bakich like I would have rooted against an ex-gf when I was younger and less mature. Losing him really fucking pisses me off. With our entire athletic budget, we couldn't have found a way to pay him his fair market price and upgrade the facilities enough to keep him happy? He took us to within one win from a baseball national championship and we'll be lucky to ever make the field of 8 again in my lifetime. Losing the pitching coach was a huge loss as well, but to not be able to keep Bakich while watching teams like Indiana State make the super regional is quite depressing.
Won’t watch since M not playing.Hated that Bakich left they were fun to watch and didn’t use weather as an excuse.Great quote they used “you can’t get hot if you’ve never been cold”.Looking at teams that are still in it Coastal,Penn,ORU.Michigan has way more resources than them.Don’t think WM is worried about baseball, but I’m no expert.
I follow it when we decide our baseball program is worth 3% of our AD surplus. If not you get what you get.
I loosely follow college baseball because living in South Carolina its the sport second only to college football. Since UM and Clemson aren't in it my only real interest is that South Carolina Gamecocks get eliminated, secondly that a non-SEC team wins so that all SEC teams can't claim the win.
Regional play concluded on Monday June 5th. It's official - no B1G team qualified for, or reached, a Super Regional. This updated Super Regional paring reflects reflects the remaining teams..
Super Regional play begins on Friday - June 9th and is scheduled to conclude on Monday, June 12th
To little surprise, warmer weather teams dominate the final sixteen. In terms of Conferences, six SEC teams are still in the hunt, along with three ACC teams, two Big 12 teams, and two Pac-12 teams. Nine of the 16 ranked teams have reached the Super Regionals.
1. Wake Forest (1) vs Alabama (16)
2. Texas vs Stanford (8) (Stanford defeated Texas A&M)
3. LSU (5) vs Kentucky (12) (Kentucky defeated vs Indiana)
4. Southern Miss vs Tennessee
5. Florida (2) vs South Carolina (15) (Florida defeated Texas Tech)
6. Duke vs Virginia (7) (Duke defeated Coastal Carolina)
7. Oregon vs Oral Roberts
8. Indiana State (14) vs TCU (TCU defeated Arkansas)
Enjoy...