Texas Forces Deciding Game 3 At CWS

The Texas Longhorns beat LSU 5-1 Tuesday night to force a third and deciding game in the College World Series Championship Series. Collegebaseball360.com's Sean Stires has some notes from Omaha...

• The last two teams to force game three in a CWS Championship Series have gone on to win the National Title. Fresno State did it last year, while Oregon State pulled it off in 2006.

• The winner of bracket two at the CWS has won every championship since 2000. Texas is the bracket two representative this year.

• Wednesday's probable starting pitchers are Anthony Ranaudo for LSU and Cole Green for Texas.

• Russell Moldenhauer hit his fourth CWS home run Tuesday to tie the College World Series record.

• Nine of the last 15 runs Texas has scored have come via solo home runs.
  

• Coming into the College World Series, the Longhorns had 39 home runs and 96 sac bunts this season. In their five Omaha games they have 11 long balls and just eight sac bunts.

• Texas has commited more errors than any other team at the CWS with eleven in five games (3 Tuesday). LSU committed its first two errors in Omaha Tuesday night.

• Texas position players and pitchers have a ritual before they take the field each inning. The eight players gather in foul territory by either first or third base (depending on which dugout they're in) and then they wait for their catcher, Cameron Rupp, to get to home plate to scatter out to their positions on the diamond.

• Speaking of Rupp, he's put together. The Plano, TX native is 6'2-235 lbs and chiseled. Think "Bull" from the '80s sitcom "Night Court".

LSU Takes Game One Of CWS Championship Series

Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires notes LSU's 7-6 comeback win over Texas to start the CWS Championship Series...

• Mikie Mahtook drove-in DJ LeMahieu with two outs and two strikes in the top of the 11th inning to give LSU the win. Mahtook started the game 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and a 4-6-3 doubleplay.

• Texas hit five solo home runs in the game, all of them came off LSU starter Louis Coleman.
  

• The Longhorns have scored ten runs in their last two games (LSU & ASU), and eight of the runs have scored via solo homers.

• Russell Moldenhauer has three home runs this season, and all of them have come in the Longhorn's four CWS games. He hit just one home run last year after belting six as a freshman.

• Three of the Texas home runs came in the 4th inning. It's the first 3-homer inning at the CWS since LSU did it vs. Mississippi State on June 1, 1998.

• Texas hit 39 home runs with 96 sacrifice bunts in 61 games coming into the CWS, but the Longhorns now have ten home runs in their four games in Omaha.

• Coming into the CWS Texas scored roughly 18% of its runs due to home runs, but they've scored about 48% of their runs in Omaha courtesy of the long ball.

• Texas starter Chance Ruffin had 10 strikeouts tonight, and he's rung-up 114 this season. He writes a "K" for each one on the bottom of the bill of his cap.

• Since the College World Series switched to a best 2 of 3 format for the National Championship the game one winner has won four of six titles. Georgia won game one last year, but Fresno State went on to win the last two games to claim the crown.

• How did Mike Patrick, Orel Hersheiser and Robin Ventura all end-up wearing some form of purple during tonight's telecast? Will the ESPN crew all wear orange tomorrow night?

• Mainieri's dad, Demi "Doc" Mainieri was in the press box tonight. He's a juco baseball Hall of Fame coach who won a national championship in 1964.

• It was Africa hot in Omaha tonight. It was sunny and 94 degrees at game time with a heat index of 107. Fans exiting the stadium after the game looked like they had either just stepped out of a sauna or just finished swimming in the Missouri River. It's supposed to be hotter Tuesday.

• My drive to Omaha from Indiana today took a bit over eight hours. When I called home after my arrival my daughter didn't even realize I was gone.

• Speaking of my trip across Illinois and Iowa...the Bob Feller Museum is in Van Meter Iowa (exit 113 on I-80).
  

• "Radar's home town rocks! Ottumwa, IA, the home of the ficticious "MASH" character has a booming classic rock station, 101.5 FM, that booms up to Des Moines.

• For the most part, Iowa drivers get out of the left hand lane to let you pass them on the interstate (unlike most drivers in Indiana and Illinois).

• The John Wayne birthplace and the covered bridges of Madison County are at exit 110 on I-80.

• Ever feel like you could be about to jump into a Bruce Willis explosion scene when you pull into a gas station behind a guy who's hanging a cigarette out the window?

More from Omaha coming-up tomorrow!

Another Day, Another CWS Blog!

Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires with some thoughts on Friday's LSU-Arkansas and Texas-Arizona State games...

• So much for Cinderella this year. LSU beats Arkansas 14-5 while Texas edges Arizona State 4-3 to each advance to this year's CWS Chamionship Series. That means teams with five and six national championships, respectively, will play for the title.

• LSU's thumping of the Razorbacks not only keeps it as the only team not to lose during the NCAA Tournament (8-0), but the Tigers have also outscored opponents 72-31 in those games. They've won their three CWS games by a combined 32-11 margin.
  

• Back to the jungle...the days of "Gorilla Ball" aren't done for LSU. Seven different Tigers have hit nine home runs in their three College World Series games in the last week.

• The Road to Omaha less traveled...Arkansas pitcher T.J. Forrest actually started his college career at LSU, but transferred to Bossier Parish Community College. He's now a junior and pitched for the Razorbacks against LSU Friday. There's no mention of his time at LSU in his bio on the Arkanas web site.

• Good career choice...LSU pitching coach Dave "Red" Grewe left his head coaching position at Michigan State after last season to rejoin Paul Mainieri's staff. Grewe led the Spartans for three seasons after working for Mainieri for three years at Notre Dame from 2003-2005.

• LSU pitchers did not allow a run in their first 15 innings vs. Arkansas in two College World Series games prior to Brett Eibner's seventh inning home run Friday.

• Mainieri has a handful of former players and assistants who are now head coaches, including UCF skipper, Terry Rooney, who was his pitching coach last year in Omaha. Don't be surprised if LSU assistant Javi Sanchez leads a team to Omaha himself one day. Sanchez is a natural leader who takes leadership seriously, but at the same time he has an easy way about him that draws players to him. He also knows the game and teaches it well.

• Ever heard the saying "he's talking about how the sausage is made"? Orel Hersheiser did a bit of that during the LSU-Arkansas game when he bored viewers with the "difficulty" of his job, because of all the producers and directors talking into his earpiece during a game. Some of it was tongue and cheek, but Orel should stick to the game, because when he talks it he shows he talks it well.

• A tip of the hat to the Hogs...Arkansas had 17 comeback wins this season, including Wednesday's dramtice elimination game victory over Virgininia. The Razorback's magic ran out though with Friday's loss to LSU. You gotta give it though for a team that brought a .272 team batting average and 4.50 ERA to Omaha. Like Virginia, Arkansas had to first win a Regional on the road against a top eight national seed and then go on the road again to win a Super Regional just to get to Omaha.

• Murph's Milestone...I forgot to mention this in yesterday's blog. Arizona State head coach Pat Murphy picked-up his 1,000th career win when the Sun Devils beat North Carolina in Thursday's elimination game. North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams was there to see it.

• Great to hear Sean McDonough has his voice back. The ESPN play-by-play man labored earlier this week when his normally dulcet tones were strained by what he said were allergies, but he had the cords back for Friday's ASU-Texas game. McDonough kind of gets lost in the shuffle in the myriad of TV sportscasters these days, but I've heard he's one of the nicest guys in the business. I'll always remember him for his "Bream to the plate" call as Sid Bream chugged home when Altanta beat Pittsburgh in game seven of the 1992 NLCS. My college roomate, Randy Rosetta, and I were watching that game together in a Lawrence, KS sports bar. Last week Randy and I sat together covering the College World Series (he covers LSU for the Baton Rouge Advocate) while McDonough sat about 60 feet away in the Rosenblatt press box calling the action for viewers on ESPN.

• Arizona State pitcher Mike Leake gave-up two home runs in 132 IP during the regular season, but the Pac 10 Pitcher of the Year surrendered two long balls in two starts vs. Texas this week in Omaha.

• Rudy, really...Have you heard!?! Arizona State freshman Johnny Ruettiger is the nephew of Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger. Oh, of course you have, because ESPN only mentioned the connection every time he stepped to the plate in Omaha. So, here are a few things they could have mentioned, but didn't so they could mention "Rudy" one more time, during any of his 17 trips to the plate during his first CWS: Johnny was Joliet Catholic Acadamey's starting quarterback on the team's 2007 Illinois State Championship team, he was the captain of both his baseball and football teams during his junior and senior seasons, as a senior in high school Johnny hit .450 and went 11-2 on the mound, he was picked by the Texas Rangers in the 35th round of last year's MLB draft and his father, John, was a pretty good athlete himself-he wrestled at Nebraska in 1977-'78.
  

• I've got a feeling those Jaguars are going to beat Visigoth State sometime soon!
  

Friday CWS Thoughts And Notes

Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires shares some thoughts from another day at the College World Series...

• Does Arizona State's Kole Calhoun remind anyone else of the character 'Ham" Porter from the movie Sandlot? Calhoun (pictured right) and his teammate, Carlos Ramirez, are built more like beer league softball players than college baseball players, but they play the part well. Neither strikes out a lot for power guys, and they both know how to work a count. Calhoun's OPS is .981, while Ramirez's is 1.126. After Thursday's win over North Carolina, Calhoun now has 3 home runs and 10 RBIs in Omaha, including a grand slam vs. the Tar Heels. Meanwhile, Ramirez has caught all 64 of the Sun Devils' games this season. Like Oakland's Billy Beane has said "We're not selling blue jeans".
  

• Speaking of movie characters...ASU's Pat Murphy reminds me of Mickey Rourke's "Marv" in Sin City. Murph was born in New York, and he brings that east coast toughness to the desert & the Pac 10. The confidence his players exhude often borders on, if not crosses into, cockiness, but given the results (3 CWS in the last five years) that's not a bad thing.

• The ebb and the flow...Arizona State jumped-out to a 6-0 lead in Tuesday's game vs. Texas, only to see the Longhorns score the last ten runs of the game. North Carolina opened Thursday's game with the first four runs of the game, to bring ASU's total to 14 straight combined unanswered runs. The Sun Devils then used an 8-run seventh inning en-route to 12 unanswered runs of their own before UNC finally got a run in the 9th in ASU's 12-5 win.

• North Carolina's Garrett Gore played in the 21st and final College World Series game of his career Thursday night. He's played in more CWS games than anyone in the history of the event.

• Gore's teammate, Dustin Ackley, collected a ninth inning double Thursday to extend his record NCAA Tournament hitting streak to 21 games. It was his 28th career CWS base hit, a CWS record.

• Robin Ventura is just a dude who knows baseball. When he talks baseball during a game as an ESPN analyst he makes me listen intently to what he has to say. Ventura speaks and explains the mechanics of the game, both pitching and hitting, in a manner that's easily understood. His breakdown of Ackley's swing during Thursday night was eye opening.

• Is it just a coincidence? Since 2000 the winner of bracket 2 has gone on to win the College World Series. Texas and Arizona State are the remaining teams from bracket 2 this year, while LSU and Arkansas reside in bracket 1.
  

Thursday Thoughts & Notes On The CWS

Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires with his thoughts from Wednesday's CWS action...

• Arkansas' Mr. Clutch is at it again...Andrew Darr's 12th inning RBI double ended-up being the game-winner in the Razorbacks' 4-3 win over Virginia in Wednesday's CWS elimination game. Darr entered the game in the 9th inning as a defensive replacement after Virginia loaded the bases. Darr's walk-off double vs. Florida State ended the Super Regional nearly two weeks ago & sent Arkansas to the College World Series. (Podcast with Darr is available by clicking HERE.)
  

• Brett Eibner more than atoned for his short start on the mound vs. LSU Monday when his 2-out 9th inning home run tied the game 3-3 to send it to extra innings.

• ESPN's Mike Patrick was half correct when he talked about the importance of Zach Cox's 2-out, 2-strike single that came just before Eibner's HR. However, Patrick said it was important, because if Cox hadn't singled Eibner's HR would have just been a solo shot. It was more important than that though, because if Cox hadn't reached base the game would have been over, and Eibner wouldn't have even come to the plate again until 2010.

• Speaking of TV...wouldn't it be nice to make as much money as ESPN analyst Orel Hersheiser makes to butcher players' names? In his time in Omaha he has incorrectly pronounced: Arkansas pitchers Dallas Keuchel and Brett Eibner, Virginia pitcher/DH Danny Hultzen, Arizona State SS Drew Maggi, and MLB's #1 draft pick Stephen Strasburg. His analysis is usually spot-on, but c'mon Orel is it too hard to just write the names pho-net-i-cal-ly? Is it a wonder Howard Cosell used to opine about the "jockocrasy" in TV sports?
  

• Speaking of TV II...it was pretty touching to see and hear business owners from the Rosenblatt area getting choked-up while trying to talk about the CWS moving to downtown Omaha after next year.

• Speaking of TV III...Pretty cool North Carolina's Garrett Gore got to man one of ESPN's TV cameras for a spell during the game. Gore said afterward "That was it, took control, my show". I'm sure Cosell would have been appalled though!

• Good job by the umpires in the Arkansas-UVA game to make sure they got John Hicks' fifth inning home run call correct. They conferred after it was originally not called a home run, but Hicks got credit for the round-tripper after they correctly decided the ball hit a fan's hat and then another fan's glove and not Arkansas left fielder Chase Leavitt's glove before it caromed back onto the field.

• Great piece of bunting by Virginia's Keith Werman. The pinch-hitter entered the game in a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the 9th with runners at first and second and no outs. Werman bunted the first two pitches of the at-bat foul and then took two balls from fellow lefty Dallas Keuchel before he finally dropped down a two-strike bunt to move the runners to second and third.

• How about Keuchel's relief appearance just two days after starting against Cal State Fullerton? The southpaw tossed four shutout innings, while fanning five and giving-up just three hits to improve to 9-3 this season. It was the junior's first relief outing this season.

• Speaking of pitching...a tip of the hat to starters Drew Smyly of Arkanas and fellow freshman left Danny Hultzen of Virginia. The two combined to pitch 11.0 innings with 14 strikeouts and no walks on 13 hits. Smyly's string of 19 straight shutout innings in the NCAA Tournament ended on the previously mentioned fifth inning HR by Hicks. He was starting for the first time since losing a no-hitter in the ninth inning of the Razorbacks' Regional Championship game vs. Oklahoma. (Podast with Smyly is available by clicking HERE.)
  

• It's been great having Green Day's musice playing into breaks during Super Regional and now College World Series games on ESPN>
  

Wednesday CWS Note And Thoughts

A few notes and thoughts from Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires while waiting for the Virginia-Arkansas game to start...

• Tonight's game between Arkansas and Virginia is the first ever on the baseball diamond between the two schools.

• Last night's game between Texas and Arizona State marked the 44th time those two teams have played. Texas owns a 26-18 series advantage.

• Virginia has broken ten school records this year. They are: wins (49), runs (504), doubles (134), at-bats (2,295), hits (571), runs (504), triples (28), RBIs (465), total bases (1,112), and innings pitched (571.0).

• The Texas-Arizona State game marked the first time that three sons of three former College World Series players were on the field at the same time. The current players are Chance Ruffin (Bruce 1985) and Brandon Loy (Darren 1983-'84) of Texas, and Matt Newman (Randy 1981).
  

• Speaking of that game. Did you see ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews' interview with ASU freshman Johnny Ruettiger's parents during Tuesday's game? Ok, so Johnny is the nephew of Notre Dame's "Rudy", but do his parents really want to answer questions like "Where's Rudy", "When will Rudy be here", and "Johnny talks to Rudy all the time, what are those conversations like"? You know, because they've never heard a question about Rudy since the movie came out 16 years ago. That's what they want to talk about while their son is playing at his first College World Series.

• ASU's loss to Texas last night snapped their 7-game winning streak, and it leaves LSU as the only team without a loss in this year's NCAA Tournament (7-0).

• Arkansas starting pitcher Brett Eibner had a tough time in his last start Monday vs. LSU when he allowed four runs in just 1 1/3 IP. That's nothing compared to what happened to an Omaha motorist at Tuesday's Arkansas practice when Eibner hit a home run during batting practice that smashed the window of a van parked on the street outside the park.

Tuesday CWS Thoughts

Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires shares some College World Series thoughts...

• How important is it to win your first round game in Omaha? Since the CWS began in 1947 just ten teams have lost their first game and gone on to capture the national championship.
  
• Since 1980 just Oregon St. in 2006, USC in 1998 and the 1980 Arizona teams lost their first round game in Omaha and then claimed national titles.
• Could Southern Mississippi head coach Corky Palmer have picked a better time to retire? USM can never match what Palmer's team did with its run to Omaha over the last three weeks, and Palmer would only be chasing a golden carrott if he weren't retiring. Just like George Costanza...Corky's leaving on a high note.
• If you don't believe how tough it is for a Cinderella to return to Omaha see: Fresno State which went 0-2 in the Irvine Regional this year after winning last year's title. There are others: Louisville-2007, Arizona-2004, Southwest Mo. State-2003, Notre Dame-2002, San Jose St.-2000. Getting to Omaha raises the expectation level of a program, but those expections are seldom met in most cases.
• Speaking of Southern Mississippi, great shot by ESPN of USM players scooping dirt from behind home plate to take home some Omaha dirt in paper cups and Gatorade bottles after Tuesday's 11-4 loss (and elimination) to North Carolina.
• When the new CWS stadium is built downtown in two years will Zesto's bring its ice cream along?
• Also, when the stadium's downtown will outfield tickets still be sold as general admission seating? If so, where will fans stand in line to get in? Fans currently stand in lone serpentine lines that go down the hill beyond the Rosenblatt outfield area. The new stadium will have just a small parking lot and a sidewalk in those same locations. Will they close off the street beyond right field?
• LSU scored eight of its nine runs in Monday's win over Arkansas with two outs. Coming into the CWS, the Tigers had just ten 2-out RBIs in five previous NCAA Tournament games.
  
• After Monday's win over Arkansas, LSU is now 35-3 this season when a right-hand pitcher starts.
  
• With its 2-0 start, LSU now waits until Friday afternoonto play either Virginia or LSU. I know the steaks in Omaha are good, and the pitching will be rested, but three days in between games at the most important time of the year is just too much.