Bulldogs4

A couple of observations from me. 1. Will sweet NIL deals influence more HS draftees to go to college instead of straight to the Bigs (Minor Leagues)? 2. I thought O’Connor’s comment recently was poignant. To paraphrase, he said it will take up to 3 years to get the program to where he wants it. He alluded that while the transfer portal is important, the bread and butter of your ball club is still developing your own talent in-house. All that said, I don’t think we will be a top ten program next year. This year we were around 30-35. Next year I think we will be a top twenty-five program. The following year a top fifteen program and then after that, look out. We will be a force to be reckoned with. O’Connor is an excellent coach but we are not going to jump to the top ten overnight. There is still a process and it is going to take a year or two to get where we all want to be.

Actually the home plate umpire should never umpire a college baseball game again. Period.

But ultimately it has not mattered as LSU is much the better team. Period.

Coastal’s HC and 1B coach ejected in the 1st inning. Umpires were too over the top. It is a championship game. You don’t throw a coach out in the first inning. That is ridiculous.

What a pitcher’s duel. My favorite kind of baseball game. Thought it was odd that the announcers impugned Coastal’s SS over taking the out at first base in the first inning. Completely different from the Arkansas situation. The runner last night was going to be safe at 2B. He had no chance to get an out at 2B. Taking the out at 1B was the only option. The ball was not hit hard enough. He made the only play that could. Continue to give the edge to LSU but I don’t Coastal will go down easily today.

That same year we toured the Ryman (before they restored it). It was beautiful then. Then saw the GOO in the new Opry House which is a nice venue as well. We were very fortunate to see all old stars before they passed away i.e. Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, Hank Snow etc. I am not necessarily a great fan of that genre of music but being there for the Saturday night show was pretty cool and I enjoyed it.

Yep. We saw Bobby Bare in Nashville in 1989 on The Nashville Tonight show with Ralph Emery on TNN. He was excellent. We actually recorded back home and watched it later. It was a great show with Dotty West (RIP), John McEuen (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) among others that were on the night. It was lot of fun being in the studio audience. We had ordered our tickets months in advance and had great seats.

Give the edge to LSU but that dang Coastal team has the perfect balance of confidence, aggressiveness, outstanding pitching and defense and timely hitting that I would not be surprised if they come away with their second CWS title. Arkansas? Just absolute poor defense in the bottom of the ninth inning. 1B let the 2B make the play and you cover the bag. One out and nobody on base. That really started it. Then the SS inexplicably does not go for the DP later in the inning. Which then created the difficult albeit catchable line drive by the LF. So more of Marie Laveau’s voodoo and some kind of hex over Arkansas in Omaha. That was just brutal though.

In what way could they have done things differently? Completely suspended the game immediately when the storm moved in? Or just played the game into the wee hours of the morning when the rain finally stopped? Or something different? What would have been your plan?

What mess are you referring to?

Coastal looking good through the first two games. They are going to be a tough out and Louie-Ville or Oregon State will have to beat them twice. LSU-UCLA should be a really good game tomorrow night. Arkansas had one bad inning last night but at this level that is all it takes to lose a game. AZ proved that today.

Maybe. Maybe not. Obviously he will get a nice raise there. His family may enjoy living there as well. But it would depend on if he wants to move up in the coaching ranks. Right now, hopefully he can just enjoy this wave he is on right now. Makes for a great story, no doubt.

Karma would have Arkansas beating Oregon State in the finals for redemption. Outside Arkansas & LSU, I don’t see any clear cut favorite. Louie-Ville & Murray are longshots IMO. UCLA is sneaky good and AZ reminds of their 2016 team that beat State at the Dude and had a good run in Omaha falling to Coastal in the Championship series. No 2024 team returned this year. Coastal is a very opportunistic team that plays with confidence but not arrogance. I think it will make for a fun week of baseball with hopefully some great games.

Certainly a varied group going to Omaha to this point. Coastal, AZ, Arky, UCLA, LOU are in. TBD Duke-Murray LSU-WV FS-OS Looks to be a wide open field with no clear cut favorite.

Most likely two. Don’t really see WV beating LSU two in a row in Baton Rouge. Coastal could very well win it all. But at this point I am pulling for Arkansas. Van Horn is an excellent coach and it may be their year. At the very least, hopefully they send Tennessee back to Knoxville today or tomorrow. And then you have the two sentimental favorites…Murray & UTSA though I don’t see either of them advancing to Omaha.

Don’t really consider Coastal beating Auburn an upset. Did not really think they were the fourth best team in the country. Coastal was severely under seeded. They were simply the better team.

Watched about half of the Costal-Auburn game. Observations: Costal very opportunistic and Auburn not opportunistic. Looking at the box score: RISP-Auburn 1-11 LOB-8. Costal 2-4 LOB-5. And there in lies the difference in a 7-6 loss for Auburn.

Will be curious to see how many current players remain with the team. There are certainly a number that are very talented that could potentially stay. Will be interesting to see how it develops.

Certainly that is great news!! He made as much lemonade as he could out of Lemonis (pun intended) the last couple of years. With more talented arms on the mound, he should be fine going forward.

Actually not bad and surprising that they did not get a Regional Bid. 32-18 overall 16-11 in the ACC And given how the ACC performed this past weekend, you can easily make a case for them being in over Kentucky, Florida or even State. Not sure what their RPI was but overall while it was a down season for them it was not necessarily a disastrous season either. Especially compared to what kind of seasons State and Ole Miss had over the recent years.

College Baseball Regionals are the most unpredictable event in sports because in a short weekend anything can happen. Records mean absolutely squat as everyone is now 0-0. Then a team gets the momentum going and it can be hard to stop. There are times when being the home team can put extra pressure on a team. Visitors are playing loose and free because there is no pressure on them. A couple of things go wrong for the home team and all of the sudden everyone tightens up. Plus you always throw your best pitcher first because in order to win game two you have to win game one. Obviously there can be exceptions but the idea of saving your ace for game two needs to go the way of the eight track stereo. Give credit where credit is due. To the other teams that won games this weekend. No flukes, just teams earning their way to a SR or knocking out a supposedly better team during the weekend. When in fact the better team won the game.

And down goes USM. Tonight kind of ends the season with a thud. Certainly disappointing for both USM and OM. Especially OM whom I thought could out slug Murray. MIA is a quality team so I knew that game was going to be a dogfight. SEC for all the criticism it has received actually is in line with the number of bids the conference received. 13 out of 64 is just over 20% of the bids and it appears that 4 of the 16 SR Teams will be SEC which is 25%. So not bad overall.

That is tremendous news. Baseball program should be in good hands for years to come. A big thank you to Coach Parker for the job he did over the last month with this team. Competed very well all the way to the end.

Game effort by our guys but FSU was the better team. McPherson with some bad luck with the errant throw to second and then the strike three that was called ball four. We will see what the news brings on a new coach soon enough I suppose.

Ligon & Sullivan are capable starters. Getting a good six innings from Ligon tonight will give us a chance. Certainly we can hit the ball but we wasted so many opportunities earlier today. Powell should have tagged on gone home on the line drive to CF in the eighth inning. Inexcusable there. If he gets thrown out at home, then fine. But you have to make them make a play there. FSU is good but not completely unbeatable. But I am like you 83, just don’t see us winning two straight against them.