It turns out that LeBron James does have something on David Price: a chance to play for a championship. There were upsets galore in the NCAA Regionals this weekend, none bigger than top seeded Vanderbilt – #1 team in the country for 9 consecutive weeks, and the home of the nation’s best pitcher (Price), best hitter (the Bronx’s Pedro Alvarez) and best closer (Casey Weathers) - getting bounced from the postseason by an upstart Michigan team in extra innings last night. Vandy threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Wolverines, bringing in Price, #2 starter Brett Jacobsen and sometimes #3 starter Mike Minor out of the pen. Price was hung with the L after giving up a homer to pinch hitter Alan Oaks in the 10th. Here’s the box score.
My pick to win the CWS – #4 ranked Texas – lost to UCÂ Irvine to end their season. I’m shocked just like many other poeple, but I give Irvine their props – they’ve been a good team all year and just flat out-pitched the ‘Horns. Here’s that box.
Louisville is this year’s cinderella team, advancing to a Super Regional matchup with Oklahaoma State after beating Miami and Kent State twice in the Columbia regional. Beating Miami twice is quite a feat, they’ve been to Omaha 10 times in the last 14 years by anything but accident.
Only 3 of the top 8 nation seeds are still alive, with #2 Rice, #3 UNC and #5 Arizona State winning their Regional matchups. You can view the updated brackets here. If you care to mock me, you can check out my pathetically wrong picks here – only 6 of my Super Regional teams are still alive, although that could still end up 7 with a Virginia win over defending national champs Oregon State in today’s Regional finale (weather pushed a couple games back).
There’s really not a clear cut “this is the team to beat” school still out there in my eyes; Rice has some pitching questions, UNC had trouble getting past Western freakin’ Carolina, and Arizona State is a team that has to bludgeoning their opponents offensively to win. If Oregon Stae wins today, they could make run because they’ve been there before, but they really backpeddled into the tourney, so they’re far from a lock for Omaha. My de facto pick is Clemson because of their pitching staff, but they really need to get their lineup going to have a chance – their best hitter, Brad Chalk, has 12 XBH this season. That’s not a typo.
For more college baseball info than you could possibly get your head around, check out the The College Baseball Blog.
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