Dawg83

Stanford has no pitching depth so they didn’t have much choice. Had they beaten Vandy I think NC State would have smoked them on Friday. You’re at the stage now where if you have a depleted bullpen it’s all hands on deck. Even starters. You’re more likely to see someone like MacLeod out of the pen in a do or die game for State rather than someone like KC Hunt.

Honestly I think it’s about the same level of difficulty. Going to be pretty much a toss up either way. And for me it will depend more on who State would have available pitching-wise. If State wins on Friday I think they have at worst a 50-50 shot of winning it all. However, if they get to the championship but don’t have Bednar available for at least the first two games and perhaps not the entire series, I would put their chances at lower than 50%. I do think they have what it takes to get one more win Friday or Saturday, I just don’t know which day I think it will be. And they could feasibly lose both. But I like the position they are in for now.

State obviously has one more game to win before we can really dive into a potential championship series. But…. If you wanted to project this thing out for State, might not be the worst thing in the world for Vandy to win with Rocker on Friday. And then whatever happens on Saturday with Leiter vs. NC State’s ace just happens. Either way you would face a team without their total arsenal at full rest. Granted, that advantage is somewhat negated if State has to play on Saturday too. No question that your absolute best chance to win the whole thing is to finish off Virginia/Texas on Friday and save Bednar for Game 1 of the finals. Could be wrong but I am expecting a Texas win tomorrow night. Pete Hansen has been terrific for them and I expect him to be effective, and I feel like Virginia may have a hard time bouncing back from a brutal loss like they suffered against State. Certainly anything could happen in Omaha, though.

That’s an all time classic game for State. Up there with the ‘99 Auburn football game and the ‘04 Alabama basketball game in terms of totally shocking comebacks in games with major stakes. The two home runs were obviously massive and will get all the publicity, but State’s bullpen had their game of the season tonight. And it wasn’t just one or two guys, it was a bunch of them, including some that hadn’t pitched in forever. Also thought Josh Hatcher’s infield hit was massive to keep the rally going after the bases had been cleared on the first homer. Talking about a guy that has had a brutal year and he came up with a very clutch at-bat in the most important game of the year.

This McGarry guy was terrible the entire regular season and has suddenly become Roger Clemens in the postseason. Crazy. State has not hit well in Omaha, period. Obviously facing some great pitching but midway thru this game they’ve been scoreless in 12 of 13 innings they’ve played this week. Bad night for pitching so far but doesn’t matter if you provide zero run support.

Texas sends the Vols home. Great season for Tennessee, now I guess we will see if they hang on to their coach. Texas will get the State/Virginia loser on Thursday.

NC State is dang good. They may be the favorite to win it all at this point. Rolling through LA Tech, Arkansas, Stanford, and Vandy like they have is an incredible run. State-Virginia tomorrow, just a massive game all around. I think it’s one State has to win to have any realistic chance of winning a title. Both teams are starting guys that are excellent when they are on their game but both have had pretty big consistency issues. I do like State’s chances and think they are the better team, but UVA is one of those streaky teams that can make you wonder how the heck you lost to them if you aren’t careful.

Heck of a game. All time clutch pitching performance by Will Bednar. And breaking news from Oxford, Bianco is getting an extension and staying put. So there’s that.

Back to actual baseball talk, I’m really impressed by what NC State has done this postseason. They’re way better than their seed, if not for a really bad start to the season they probably would’ve hosted easily. They will have a massive challenge with Leiter tomorrow night but they figured out a way to beat Kevin Kopps so you can’t rule anything out. Arizona-Stanford is an incredibly strong loser’s bracket game. Both of those teams can slug it and both have some pitching depth issues so that may be a game where both teams score double digits. State-Texas is a really good matchup tonight. I think State has a great chance to win but obviously a Texas win is entirely possible too. In some ways I’m almost more intrigued by the early game. Not sure what to make of Virginia, or how Tennessee will look on the big stage.

Unfortunately it will be the same crew tomorrow that called the game tonight. The “B” team that calls the day games is far better than the “A” team that calls the night games, in my opinion, I don’t just love Tom Hart but he’s fine, and McDonald and Burke are usually very good.

Peterson is very good. It’s Ravech and Perez that I have an issue with. They are MLB guys that don’t cover college baseball all season and then they bring them in at the end for the biggest games of the year. And it’s very obvious every year that they know very little about the teams that are playing.

Can’t believe I just sat through 12 innings of The Whistler and Eduardo Perez. That was one of the better CWS games of recent memory and it was pretty much ruined by a commentary team that doesn’t know jack about college baseball (KP excluded) and the total sideshow that is the whistler. It’s an embarrassment that a great program like Vandy has that jerk affiliated with them.

His development of Chad Girodo is one of the craziest things I've ever seen. Took a guy that was throwing batting practice the first three years of his career and had him pitching as good as anybody in the country by the end of 2013.

I think the world of Butch as a person and as a coach. If Bianco leaves I would definitely take a serious look at Butch, especially if you can’t get your first two choices for whatever reason. Auburn this year may have been the most snakebit team I’ve ever seen. Unbelievable how many one run games they lost. Still think Butch is a very good coach though. Is he an upgrade from Bianco? Would be hard to say that right now. But you could do a whole lot worse with a potential replacement hire. Obviously all a moot point if Bianco stays put.

If Lemonis weren’t at State then maybe McDonnell would be more of a realistic option. Just don’t see it with the close relationship those two have. They’ve been pretty adamant about not liking to recruit against one another or schedule each other. Them suddenly becoming in-state rivals would be a bit of a shock.

McDonnell and Godwin would be the two names everybody mentions. Have a hard time envisioning McDonnell taking the OM job at this point. Godwin is a sure possibility but far from a given that he would take it. If you can’t get one of those two, I would look hard at Lane Burroughs. He played a huge role in building the 2013 State team that made it to the CWS Finals and has done a really great job at LA Tech.

Heck of a Super Regional. Notre Dame is a great team, probably deserved a better postseason draw than they got. Could have easily gotten to Omaha and gone a long way. What can you say about this State program right now? At this point you pretty much have to call this the best stretch in program history. Three straight Omaha trips is an incredible accomplishment. Omaha should be a lot of fun, really strong field this year, even with a team like Arkansas not in it. It’s a rare year where I can be convinced that any of the 8 teams are capable of making a deep, deep run.

Don’t think we can trust someone like Cerantola or Fristoe who’s had command issues. There are a list of 5 or 6 pitchers I think you could see at some point today and neither of those two are on it for me. Ultimately you’re right, State has to hit. They probably aren’t winning a low scoring game tonight. But if you can get Harding, Sims, and one other pitcher to have good showings tonight, I feel like you have a good chance.

I would start Stone Simmons, but can be convinced that Harding is the answer. Do not love the idea of starting Sims that has been floated around. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Would make sense. There does seem to be more chatter linking him to LSU than I expected. Would be fascinated to see if that is actually in play.

Arkansas not getting there is one of the bigger shocks in college baseball in recent years. Florida laying a colossal egg like they did was also a huge surprise, thought they had Omaha potential for sure. Not really shocked that OM and SC fell short, I always thought both had some pretty evident flaws. We’ll see what happens with State tomorrow, you’re talking about a team with a real Jekyll and Hyde complex sometimes. Vandy and Tennessee are very much national title contenders in Omaha. Perhaps the two favorites with Arkansas out of the mix. If you made me pick the title series today, I think I would go Stanford vs. Tennessee regardless of what happens in the two Supers tomorrow.

OM’s lack of pitching depth seems to have come full circle. I’m sure the Hoglund injury will always be a big “what-if” but there were issues even before that happened. I’m sure Bianco’s continued postseason woes will be mentioned lots over the next few days. I think this Arizona team was simply just a bad matchup for OM. These guys can absolutely destroy the baseball.

Omaha is never ever ever a sure thing. If it wasn’t obvious before, it is now. If Arkansas was going to lose eventually, this is exactly how I envisioned it playing out. Way too dependent on Kopps late in the year and their bats cooled off at the worst possible time. Called State/ND going to three games from the jump. ND is an impressive team, State will have to play really well to win tomorrow.

Right. You’re basically expecting him to throw a complete game or else close with someone who hasn’t really done it all year. Maybe they win in a rout and it doesn’t matter, I don’t know that I would have done this. Tennessee blowing out LSU with a ton of homers, LSU is officially out of pitching. Appears to be the end of the road here for Mainieri. Don’t think the Vols can count on this many homers in Omaha but they definitely look like one of the the best teams in the country right now.

Arkansas starting Kopps tonight, DVH is just saying screw it at this point.