Arena NCAA Baseball/Softball

Hmmm... the ones I know were in one of the regular seating sections down the first base line, not far from the grassy area, but definitely in seats. I'll have to ask them when I get a chance...

 

Wow, that was ugly. A 16-8 loss to Wofford that included 7 or 8 hit batsmen by Carolina pitchers (how did none of the pitchers get ejected? I mean, its pretty certain none were intentional, but still, that's a ton). Just ugly. I don't know if I can come up with another word to describe it. Well, painful. That qualifies as well.

Also, annoying: the Wofford fan who did the Seminole warchant (and chop) for the majority of the game. What school are you pulling for again?

 

Not a good start to the SEC season for the Gamecocks, dropping 2 of 3 at MSU. Two seven run losses and a one run win.

 

Clemson took the broom to Wake Forest this weekend.

 

Clemson is currently atop the ACC Atlantic division. After the Boston College series: BC took game 1 13-1 . Clemson swept the doubleheader today 7-6 and 5-2

 

Someone forgot to tell the pitchers there was a baseball game this afternoon, as South Carolina topped Kentucky 20-19 (yes, you read that right) in the first game of a doubleheader. Something like 11 homers combined between the two teams... yeah. Where were the pitchers?

Kentucky won the second game 5-4, though, on a walkoff home run

 

USC beats Clemson 7-6 Tuesday
Clemson beats USC 7-5 Wednesday.

 

I'm going to try (if I get enough work done tonight) to go to the FSU game here tomorrow against Wake. I hope I can at least make one of the three games this weekend, because they'll really be my last chance.

 

CLEMSON 12, South Carolina 2

 

Yeah, ugh.

Anyways, I made it down to Dick Howser Stadium tonight for the Wake Forest game, which was a lot of fun, even though it was still blazing hot when the game started. FSU won 15-6 (typical college score ), with Mike McGee (I still can't see/hear his name without thinking about USC's former AD) leading the way with a homer and 6 RBIs, as well as scoring 5 runs.

I think Wake needs a new catcher, though, because the one out there tonight couldn't play defense. His arm was, well, terrible, allowing 5 stolen bases in 5 attempts (and one to a player running pretty darn slow). Somehow he only got credited with one passed ball (and his eventual replacement with another)... but there's no way that's right. Wake's pitchers were charged with 3 wild pitches, but most of those looked like they should have been ruled passed balls. I seriously expected the official passed ball number to be at least 5, maybe even 6. And that doesn't include the times the ball got past him while nobody was on base. Wow.

Jack Posey struggled at the plate, but did pitch 2 hitless innings in relief - he's got a strong arm, though I'm not sure what he throws beyond a fastball. He actually had to come running in from the 'pen in order to hit, that was kinda amusing

 

Great sweep of Georgia this weekend by the Gamecocks - 7-2 on Thursday, 7-4 yesterday, and 6-2 today. Thursday featured a Sam Dyson complete game with a career high 13 Ks along with 2 homers by Nick Ebert, including a grand slam that gave Carolina the final margin. I went to the game Friday, watching Nolan Belcher strike out 11 over 6.1 IP (15 total Ks by USC pitching yesterday), while Ebert homered again. Today included a great outing by Jay Brown on the mound, and USC led 2-0 most of the game before finally making it 6-1 in the bottom of the eighth. Ebert homered again (making 4 on the weekend), too.

Carolina could well sweep the weekly SEC awards with Dyson as Pitcher of the Week, Ebert as Player of the Week, and Belcher as freshman of the week. Good momentum going into the SEC tournament!

 

Clemson is doing well. Hosting a regional is a good possiblity.

 

almost 10:45 pm and Carolina's first SEC tournament game hasn't even started yet. Lovely.

Tough matchup against Alabama - interestingly, the one and only SEC team Carolina didn't play during the regular season.

EDIT: and after a nearly 4 hour long, 11 inning game, Carolina finally beats Alabama 9-5, at approximately 3 am. That means, in the SEC tournament first day (loose definition of day), we have:

8 Vandy beat 1 LSU
7 Arkansas beat 2 Florida
6 Georgia beat 3 Ole Miss
5 South Carolina beat 4 Alabama



USC vs Vandy tomorrow night (aka tonight) at supposedly about 930 eastern... if today is any judge, it'll be another late late affair. I kinda feel sorry for Alabama, whose next game is scheduled for less than 12 hours from now.

EDIT2: Just realized I had one of those teams above wrong

 

Clmeson begins tonight as the #3 seed vs #6 virginia. We can host a regional if we have a decent tournament.

 

Speaking of the ACC tournament, rech, can you explain how its formatted? It doesn't seem to be on the standard format, which is basically two 4-team regionals with the winners meeting.

FSU did beat BC yesterday in that tourney, though

 

It's int 2 differnet 4 team pools. Play each team in your pool once ( a round robin). The 2 winners play each other for the title.

 

Ah, ok. That makes more sense. I caught only part of what the announcers said during the game yesterday, and that part wasn't making a whole lot of sense.

 

Regionals are out and apparently after reading baseball american, the commitee did a horrednous job. read some beefs here. Virginia got hosed, so did Irvine, Rhode Island and Missouri State. Baylor and OK satet were put in despite poor big 12 records. They really blast the commitee on those articles going as far as saying "embarrasing".

Clemson's regional: 1 Clemson vs 4 Tennessee Tech, 3 Oklahoma State vs Alabama

South Carolina's : 1 East Carolina vs 4 Binghampton, 3 George Mason vs 2 South Carolina
at ECU

If Clemson were to win they would play Arizona State's regional winner in the supers.

 

My initial reaction: I like USC being in the East Carolina regional (since we didn't get a regional ourselves) and I don't like having Georgia in FSU's regional. Beyond that, I haven't really looked at much of it.

 

LSU got screwed as the #3 overall seed and to be paired up with the Rice regional again ... no respect from the committee.

 

The Road to Omaha starts today at Alex Box Stadium.

LSU vs. Southern 1 p.m.
Minnesota vs. Baylor 6 p.m.

 

LSU and South Carolina have pretty easy regionals.

Clemson is a bit tougher. Alabama is a good hitting team and OK State could get hot. Tenn Tech also has one good pitcher.

 

I don't know... I wouldn't expect much out of Ok. State, and while Alabama can score runs in bunches, they can also give runs up pretty quick.

Carolina plays at 3 this afternoon, FSU at 4, Clemson at 7.

 

OK State 10, Alabama 6

Clemson 5, Tenn tech 4

Wow clemson was very close to losing. Bottom of the 9th down 4-3, Jeff Schaus hits a double and 2 runs score for the dramatic win.

 

South Carolina won 11-3 and will play the winner of tomorrow morning's game between ECU and Binghamton tomorrow (game was postponed)... good start, and the postponed game shouldn't hurt Carolina. Could even help a little.

FSU won big 16-4 and will play Georgia, who won 24-8. Big scoring day in Tallahassee