Bulldogs4

I will say that this year’s Tennessee’s team has had less arrogance than last year’s team. Possibly because they struggled some during the year. Vitello for his part seems to have scaled back some of his infantile behavior. But the damage is done and they have established (in fact they embraced it over the last couple of years) themselves as the team that nobody likes and that won’t change anytime soon. And 83 you are right that they are going to be a tough out in Omaha.

The CWS is going back to the older format where the games start Friday. And the championship series will begin the following Saturday. Really puts a premium on pitching depth. Starts one day earlier and ends two days earlier if the championship series goes three games. Obviously, staying in the winners is important but for the teams starting on Saturday, you could play games Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday if you fall into the losers bracket. That could make it very difficult to come back and win the bracket.

A couple of batters prior, Stanford hitter jacked a ball to left, thought it was going to be HR. Ball it hit the base of the wall and he almost got thrown out at 2B. Congratulations to USM on a very good season. They beat UT for one and half games but then UT woke up and just dominated the next one and half games. That play by the 3B yesterday seemed to turn the whole momentum of the game. USM was up 4-0 with no outs and that one outstanding defensive play changed the whole game and series. Well I was wrong. I thought that USM would find a way but UT was the better team. 3 SEC teams are in Omaha and all three are capable of winning it all. Though, I think FL or LSU ends up the champion this year.

Shades of 2017 when State and USM finished a game about 130A in the morning. Hope that is not the case tonight.

USM has got to play clean defense today. Errors were critical yesterday. You just can’t give a team extra runs in a SR game. TN has the advantage with momentum and deeper pitching but for some reason I think USM guts out a win tonight after giving everyone several heart attacks. Everything points to a UT win but I think USM finds a way to win.

Very impressive, especially after how they lost game 1 in the ninth inning. That kind of loss can deflate a team but they returned the favor to Oregon in the second game. At the very least there is some new blood in Omaha with OR and WF.

Regardless of what happens at Oregon the rest of the evening, I think it’s safe to say that Oral Roberts is legit. And if they hang on for the win, it will be good to see a little guy in Omaha. Although, they have had some good baseball teams historically.

Old momentum has jumped on Tennessee now. USM is a veteran team so they are capable of coming back plus if they lose , there will be a third game. But Tanner Hall did not have his best stuff plus the Eagles defense has let them down.

That could be the pitching matchup of the weekend. Runs will be at a premium.

I saw a comment a while ago that was interesting. As bad as State was this year, we were 6-10 against the remaining 16 teams in the Supers. Not necessarily great but not too bad either. And yes this weekend the average fan will be in USM’s corner along with every SEC fan outside Knoxville.

Kind of agree on Southern that Tennessee’s pitching is capable of shutting them down. But emotion can carry a team in a short series. I think Tennessee wins but I will not surprised if USM finds a win to win two games unconventionally this weekend. Superior talent does not always win. Plus Tennessee, before the Regional last week, had struggled on the road. Will still be pulling for the Eagles to win regardless.

Nobody is talking about Alabama but I will not be surprised if they go into Wake Forest and win the series there. In fact I am picking Bama. I am pulling for USM but beating Tennessee (who nobody likes) is going to be a daunting task. Possible though. The atmosphere is going to be off the charts. LSU over KY. Stanford over TX since they are at home. Florida over SCAR Virginia Slims wins over the Duke TCU routs Indy State Oral Roberts (religion) over Oregon (secular) in a David beats Goliath upset.

USM wins Auburn regional. They should host Tennessee. Higher ranked team with a bigger stadium. Probably gonna be like last year playing against Ole Miss. Tennessee’s pitching is capable of shutting them down. Hall is a great pitcher but USM has to win that game to have a chance. IMO. Yes they lost his game this weekend but UT is on a different level from Samford or Penn.

USM beat Samford 9-4. Now have to beat Penn. Hopefully they can score some runs because with pitching now into its 4th game, they are going to give up some runs. I said that singular because the next game is the only one that matters.

TCU is up on Arkansas 14-1 in third inning and now in a rain delay.

Auburn was not that good. A terrible State team should have beaten them two out of three. Initially I thought Auburn was the worse draw versus Alabama. But I was wrong. Long way to go but they are capable of winning three more games to win it.

Often times the 4 seeds have had to win their conference tournament under a great deal of stress. Nobody expects them to beat a one seed but they can and do (not often but certainly several times of each year it happens). Typically, depth will catch up with them later in the weekend. Once you get deeper in to their pitching, they will tend to struggle some. But Penn beating Auburn was not a surprise.

Yep. USM had the bases loaded in the ninth inning and again in the tenth inning and managed only one run. Hard to win like that. Three keys winning Regionals. Pitching, Defense and most importantly TIMELY HITTING. The first two will keep you in the game but third one is the only way you can win the game.

LSU might out slugged everyone after Skenes but that path has many pitfalls. They could easily pull a State where they lose a game 14-13. When your pitching is that suspect, that spells danger galore. We may see some football scores in that regional.

Westmont beat William Carey 7-3 so they will have to fight their way through the losers bracket now. Play Lewis-Clark this afternoon. WC’s coach is Bobby Halford who had a great high school career at Meridian High back in the 1970’s and then followed that up with a stellar career at William Carey. He won his 1300th game the other night which is just tremendous.

Well State was picked seventh and finished sixth. So the prognosticators were correct there. They were definitely wrong on Ole Miss. And we all thought State would surely be better but alas we were just as bad this year as we were last year. Ole Miss going 6-24 in the league was not expected at all. I thought they would be at least a middle of the league team.

I would have rather seen USM go to Bama but the opportunity is there. Auburn has a good club but they are beatable. Sometimes being the home team can work against you because now the pressure is on you and you are expected to win. The other teams play loose with nothing to lose. Plus USM is battle tested. I hope they can win it though I still like Butch Thompson and if they win it that will be fine as well. I don’t mean to be pessimistic but I think several SEC host teams are going to get bounced in their own regional. While there are a lot of good SEC teams IMO all of them have some weaknesses and some of those are going get exposed this weekend.

It is a new record. 7 was the record previously. Tournament seems to be wide open this year and any number of teams could make it to Omaha and win it all. Conversely, I think there are a lot of highly ranked teams that could lose in the regionals. Just that kind of year.

USM to Tuscaloosa would be advantageous to them. I think Bama will flame out in the Regional. Usually a team like them rides some emotional wave will be fall flat in the postseason. I would not like their chances at Auburn because Auburn is a gritty battle tested team that has been there in the recent years. Not impossible for them win that regional but a tougher mountain to climb IMO.

I don’t think A&M will host if they win but they may move up to a 2 seed. Entering the series with State, they were on the bubble and the consensus was if State swept them, they would be out of the Tournament (unless won the SECT or had a good showing there). That Friday night game was the catalyst for them. We had a 4-3 lead in the top of the ninth but could not hold it and since then A&M has been on a roll. If USM beats ULL, they may get into the conversation of hosting. Their midweek losses to State, Ole Miss, Bama, UNO are biting them right now. If they had been 2-2 in those games they would 42-15 right now and a shoe in to host. Midweek games are crucial and they can be the difference in hosting and not. But many people dismiss them because it is midweek pitching. But your midweek pitching is what wins you a Regional. It shows how much depth you have.