Arena NCAA Baseball/Softball

You're all a bunch of jerks.

 

lol @ DMC

Its kinda a surreal feeling right now... hearing all the fans calling into the radio station talking about how they've followed Gamecock sports for 30, 40, 50 plus years, and finally we have a national title in a major sport (with apologies to women's track and field there, as well as equestrian) I've heard Demetra's call on the radio probably 20 times by now, and its still amazing.

rech: nothing official between South Carolina and Duke... just that Rew and I happen to be fans of both. He's a Duke alum working at USC; I'm a USC alum who's closely followed Duke basketball for over a decade (and was pulling for them before that).

Some notes:

http://twitpic.com/215une : National Championship trophy being presented to the Teal family (Bayler Teal was the 7 year old kid who died last Thursday and was so close to the Gamecock baseball team). Merrifield's first words to Rob Teal after the game: "I felt Bayler's hand on my bat."

This team has really felt like a team of destiny lately. Its a shame they could only give the Most Outstanding Player Award to one guy, because if ever it should have gone to the entire team, this was it. There's a poll being done by Gogamecocks.com about the postseason MVP, and they had to list 10 different names. I'm not arguing that Jackie shouldn't have gotten that award, but while ESPN obviously was focused on him, it was really a true team effort.

Blake Cooper - 3 starts in Omaha, but none bigger than his 8 innings, 3 hits, 1 run performance (that was even better than those numbers suggest) against UCLA in game 1
Sam Dyson - pitched a solid game against Arizona State when facing elimination then came back on 3 days rest and shut down Clemson to send Carolina on to the championship series. Dyson would have started game 3 if it had been necessary, but I'm sure he's quite happy to end the series in two games.
Michael Roth - seriously, not enough can be said about Michael Roth. If you'd told me a month ago, after the SEC tournament, that Michael Roth would throw a complete game 3 hitter against Clemson in Omaha and be the starter again in the national title clinching game, I would have thought you were crazy. Who saw this coming? A situational lefty who usually faced one or two batters a game? He had about 26 IP coming into Omaha... and 15 IP in Omaha. His game against Clemson will live in memory for a long time to come.
Matt Price - Wow. Roth may have had the most impressive pitching performance over a long stretch of innings, but I can't forget how Price did in the Super Regional at Coastal, when he came in with nobody out, the bases loaded, and the Gamecocks clinging to a 1-run lead in the 8th inning. Can't get a tougher situation to come into... but Price struck out the first two batters, then got a grounder right back at him to get out of the jam without anyone scoring. And in Omaha, he was superb yet again. 3 innings against Oklahoma as that game went into extras, keeping them shut down. Then nearly an exact repeat against UCLA, going 2.2 innings in another 1-1 extra inning affair. By far the best closer South Carolina's had in several years.
Whit Merrifield - National Title-winning RBI in the bottom of the 11th. Do I really need to say more than that? Suffice to say that certainly wasn't his only highlight, but it was by far the biggest.
Jackie Bradley, Jr - Struggled last night and had his 21-game hitting streak snapped... but that pales when remembering his homers in the first two games and most especially the game-tying RBI in the bottom of the 12th against Oklahoma, when South Carolina was but a single strike away from elimination. He would then score the winning run on Brady Thomas's single two batters later.
Christian Walker - his Omaha highlights don't quite measure up to his Super Regional highlight, a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 8th (with 2 outs) to give USC a 1-run lead going into the 9th (naturally, preserved by Matt Price). But he was pretty darn good in Omaha, too.
Brady Thomas - gam

 

Heading down to the Championship Celebration shortly!

 

Excellent write-up, RJ! I...really don't have anything to add to that because you said it all so well.

Speaking of championship celebration, I just got back from that same event at Colonial Life Arena earlier tonight! Such an electric atmosphere. Don't let anyone tell you that college baseball isn't a major sport--it is in Columbia! That place was jam-packed, filled with probably more people than show up for most of the basketball games. And it was LOUD too. These fans have waited for more than a century for a major national championship, and now at long last we have one! Ray Tanner took the time to highlight some of the behind-the-scenes folks, and introduced the families of all the coaching staff. And the most touching moment was his tangent on Bayler Teal and how much that little boy meant to the whole team.

Then we got to hear from the players, and all I have to say is, Merrifield and Wingo are very entertaining people!

 

lol... I almost want to make this part of my signature.

 

You're either complimenting me here, mocking me...or some combination of both. And I can't figure out which one.

 

I didn't realize/know that this was the 1st major National Championship for the University of South Carolina. Many, many congrats to Rew, Rogue and all the other South Carolina fans out there. The 1st title....................must be one hell of a feeling.

Back-to-Back!: 2008-2009 & 2009-2010 L.A. Lakers: World Champions

 

That was definitely more people than were at most of the basketball games. Not quite as many as the Kentucky game, but it was still a ton of people. Definitely over 14,000 and probably more like 15,000+. They were going to hold the event at Carolina Stadium, but moved it to the basketball arena (I still refuse to call it Colonial Life Arena... its the Carolina Center to me) because of weather... and it was a darn good thing they did. The baseball stadium can hold slightly over 8,000, but this was nearly double that.

The celebration was very well done, and as you said, it was most definitely an electric atmosphere - I'm still a bit hoarse from screaming so much this afternoon

Oh, and you are completely right about Merrifield and Wingo being very entertaining I liked the "One More Year!" chant the fans gave Merrifield, though I'm pretty sure he's gone. 9th round draft pick... I'm pretty sure he's going to sign. But really, I'm ok with that. He was a huge part of the team that finally brought a major title to Columbia, and he did everything we could have asked of him. So what if he heads for the pros now after winning? Can't begrudge him anything for that. Sure, I'd love it if he decided to come back... but I don't think he will and that's ok.

Plus, we have Bradley, Marzilli, and Adam Matthews (and Robert Beary, for that matter) returning for the outfield, so its a position of depth. But I'd be saying the above even if we didn't have an obviously ready replacement.

 

The radio call I'll never forget

I don't know how Tommy Moody manages to sound as calm as he does for the few things he says in that clip

 

Clemson season review:

In hindsight making the CWS final four was an amazing achievement considering the position we were in during the middle of the year. We started off well, but mid-year hit a pretty bad slump. Strangely when the team was doing the worst was when Kyle Parker was doing the best.

If we meet any other team in the CWS we go to the final. But Leggett has his phobias of Ray Tanner and it always rubs off on the team. This was a team we beat 19-6 early in the year and suddenly could not hit the ball out of the infield.

This was in no way our best team ever and we were much more competitive with USC this year than in 2002. 2002 was a debacle, 2010 was a dissapointment but we were never supposed to be in the CWS to begin with. It was nice to beat Auburn and Alabama on the way.

The Rockies should bench Parker everytime they play their rival, because he might as well be on the bench the way he plays vs rivals.

The one player who I am excited about is Catcher Spencer Kieboom. He was great defensively and has some pop in his bat. The freshman can be good.

 

Clemson certainly has a bright future ahead of them.

Carolina's offense should be pretty good next year (though there are a couple major holes to fill at short and catcher)... but the starting pitching will be pretty much all new. Tyler Webb, Nolan Belcher, and a freshman? Roth? Tough to say.

[image=http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/1017/957921.jpg]

 

Well, two weeks before the season actually gets started, and Carolina just notched its first win of the year - not on the field, but from the NCAA Appeals people. The catcher spot was one of the biggest questions going into the year, with Kyle Enders and Brady Thomas sharing that spot last season but both being seniors... it was pretty much a wide open competition for the spot this year. Thomas, however, had appealed to the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility due to missing so much time to injury back at FSU before he transferred here, and finally word comes back from the NCAA that his appeal was granted and he will be eligible this year. That puts him in the lead for that position, though the missed practice time while waiting on the decision may result in him not starting the season off as the starting catcher but working back into it. Either way, this is a nice boost.

 

Sorry, R...J, I don't think that I'll ever be ready for college baseball to start.

 

Your loss

I'm hoping to be at the season opener in two weeks

 

Cool.

I can get interested in the College World Series, especially the finale, but not so much the regular season.

 

A lot of people say that about March Madness and college basketball.

Obviously, I disagree on both counts

 

That's true, people do say that.


But regular season college basketball is a lot more accessible to your average sports fan than college baseball.

 

True, though ESPN is going to show some more regular season college baseball games this year. I think USC has 4 games that will be on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU, IIRC.

 

None on broadcast TV, though. College BBall at least is on CBS once in a while.

Wow, the baseball season is almost here already?

 

I'm excited as well. Apparently one of the new freshmen this year for Tech is the son of the Braves' GM.

 

It's Opening Day. I was going to go, but I'm sick.

 

I'm still going, and have tickets Looking forward to a new season and seeing some of the new players. Also, starting today is Michael Roth, the guy who made two starts all of last season... both in the CWS - facing elimination against Clemson (complete game 1R win) and the second game against UCLA (no decision, though that would be the game USC clinched).

 

I am looking forward to the season as well. Probably won't be able to follow as closely, because I have a new job for the Clemson men's tennis team. I write scouting reports and blogs. So I cannot miss a mens tennis match. I will try to get to baseball when I can though. Clemson is supposed to be a title contendor this year.

 

The season is underway! Couldn't have asked for better weather at the park today - clear blue sky, upper 70s... beautiful weather for a baseball game.

Michael Roth had a solid start, though Steven Neff had a rough outing in relief. Jackie Bradley Jr went 4-4 with two doubles and a homer, Christian Walker and Scott Wingo also homered, and USC went on to win 12-5. Got a close call when Santa Clara scored three runs in the 8th to pull within 1, 6-5... but South Carolina promptly scored 6 in the bottom half to put it away.

 

Hopefully LSU will kick some butt this year.