About Eric Sorenson
After growing up in Omaha, Nebraska and skinning his knees on the concrete walkways of Rosenblatt Stadium, Eric has had college baseball in his veins for as long as he can remember. When the College World Series was going on each June, his parents would drop him and his friends off at the stadium in the morning and pick them up after the last game that night. Poor parenting? Sure. But it also fueled his fever for the sport that much more.
Eschewing the normal journalistic road to sports writing, Eric has been an advertising copywriter for years. He admits that creative background has added to his unconventional approach to sports writing and is a main contributor to his unique style.
Eric’s “addiction” to college baseball writing began back in the late 90s, when he became one of the original national writers for the sport. In the years that followed, he has covered college baseball for such media outlets as USA Today, CSTV, CBS Sportsline, CBS College Sports, College Baseball Insider and his current gig with College Baseball Today.
Living in Southern California with his wife Mandy, Eric sits in one of the hotbeds of college baseball. When he’s not covering a game or writing about the sport, he enjoys surfing, snow skiing, playing hockey and rough-housing with his black lab “T.O.” Eric was also 7th runner-up in “The Most Interesting Man In the World” competition held by Dos Equis in 2009.
A few night-before things you should know
Twas the night before Christmas…
Inhale deeply ladies and gents. That sweet smell in the air ain’t jasmine. It’s the odiferous delight known as the return of pitching and defense to college baseball’s grand stage. And it’s a welcomed site if you ask me. Less ping… more zing!
Welcome to the 2010 College World Series, the last of which will be held in the “Dump on the Hump” known as Rosenblatt Stadium. And if stats tell us anything, this should be a great pitching-and-defense series.
Recent Comments:
June 19, 2010 at 6:05 pmAl- D says:
Stitch, There are 12 runner up finishes because Florida was runner up in 2005
June 19, 2010 at 11:46 amBulldog says:
Ok Stitch...it's 6:43 am and Mrs. Bulldog and I our about to begin our Journey t
Frogs, Fullerton, Florida, Florida State – What an F’in day this was.
If your team’s name started with “F”, you had a great F’in day in this first day of Super Regionals. In the first four games of the Supers, Florida shut down formerly-hot Miami (7-2), the Horned Frogs went to Austin and won (3-1), Florida State out-scored Vanderbilt (9-8) and Cal State Fullerton went on the road to take a skin-tight 4-3 win at UCLA by the hair on their chinny-chin-chin.
The pride of East L.A.: Noe Ramirez K'd 13 Bruins on the way to his 12th win of the season.
Some wicked-good pitching took center stage as Alex Panteliodis of Florida, Matt Purke of TCU and Noe Ramirez of Cal State Fullerton all were totally bad-ass individuals for their respective winning teams.
Call it an interesting day of Super Regional play to say the least. And it’s only just begun people. Strap in and hang on. The fight for Omaha has just begun.
Much more important than baseball.
Rest in Peace John Wooden.
Rest in Peace Dennis Hopper
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
First off, a big R.I.P. to two of the greatest humans in history. John Wooden, who passed away today, and Dennis Hopper, who passed on earlier this week. Both were renaissance men in their profession and left us with richer lives.
My first day of high school football, our coach gave every one of our players a run-off copy of John Wooden’s “Pyramid of Success.” It is an inspiring piece of work to say the least, coming from the greatest mind in college sports. Sure, it didn’t exactly help our team, as we went 2-8 that season. Then again, our coach wasn’t exactly John Wooden.
Dennis Hopper burst on the acting scene alongside the legendary James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause.” But probably his most influential contribution to film was when he acted in and directed “Easy Rider” in 1969. That seminal film introduced the extensive use of a soundtrack and musical interludes as woven into the telling of the story. Without Hopper, there may be no CSI with Pete Townsend’s screaming guitar in the opening montage.
An Open Letter To The NCAA Selection Committee
Dear NCAA Baseball Selection Committee.
We’re concerned about your well-being.
Sincerely,
College Baseball fans.
Tim Tebow U. Makes A Strong Point.
“To the fans and everybody in Gator Nation, I’m sorry… I promise you one thing, a lot of good will come out of this. You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. You will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season. You will never see a team play harder than we well the rest of the season. God Bless.” - Tim Tebow.
.
LADIES AND GENTS, YOUR 2010 SEC CHAMPIONS.
The Gators start to celebrate their first SEC title since 2005 today at South Carolina.
This Friday the 14th Is Downright Scary.
Things are getting pretty scary out there people. Is it a full moon? Is it the end of the Mayan calendar? Is this a bunch of scantily clad co-eds who’s cell phones are out of service while they’re camping out at Crystal Lake? I don’t know, but scary it was, indeed, today on diamonds all over the country.
Some teams in the rankings put out some pretty frightening performances today leaving us to wonder, “What the hell were we thinking?” In fact, we should ALL be re-thinking who we rank and what criteria we use after what we saw today.
But two teams that looked downright scary, in a good way, would be Georgia Tech and their whitewashing of Miami and South Carolina, who out-pitched Arkansas in Baum Stadium. Freakin’ impressive, huh? Sheesh, not even Jason Voorhees wins there.
The pitchers, fans and scoreboard lights are waving a white flag.
LSU players mob Micah Gibbs after his game-winning RBI double beats Vanderbilt, mercifully ending a nearly five-hour donnybrook.
There’s a reason why five of the eight teams in Omaha last year had ERAs in the top 10 in the country. Pitching still matters.
.
But don’t tell that to Vanderbilt and LSU tonight. Someone left the batting tee on home plate as these two put on a beautifully-hideous display of offensive might – depending on your view of these kind of things. LSU out-splattered the Commodores in the horse-hide hunt by a 16-15 count in a marathon game at Alex Box Stadium tonight.
.
Damn! With the endless amounts of pitching in this lidlifter I’m gonna start warming up to pitch at some point in this series.
Devils Blast Bruin Bullpen, Leaving the Blue-and-Gold Black-and-Blue.
Veni. Vidi. Vici! The Sun Devils tip their hats to their fans after the 5-1 win at UCLA.
In college baseball’s marquee matchup of the day, both teams waited out the wicked wieldings of the first wingers and ASU basically bedeviled the Bruin bullpen bashing out three base hits and bruising the Blue & Gold for four runs in the belly of the 8th inning to bottom-out UCLA in a beauty of a big-time ballyhoo.
Believe me. It was a bueno ballgame in Westwood tonight. The difference was… the Bruins blinked first. But that begets the question, are better big games between these beasts still lying before us? You better bet on it, Bubsy.
The Argument For Domed Stadiums.
Today was a perfect example for why domed stadiums should be built nationwide. Oh sure, I’d rather sit in an outdoor stadium with sunny skies and 70-degree temperatures any day of the week. But given today’s unfortunate body count of games lost to weather – and in conjunction with my experience at the South Dakota State-Southern Utah game that was played in low-40s temperatures with occasional snowfall – I think a moratorium on open-air stadiums should be levied by the NCAA.
Because of the temps in the low-40s, everyone had to stay bundled up.
Okay, I’m only partially kidding. In reality, I think indoor stadiums would’ve helped today. Particularly for the marquee game, where LSU was playing at Ole Miss, which was supposed to be broadcast by ESPNU. But of course, Mother Nature would have her say and ruined that game which was supposed to be a great showcase for our sport. Dammit!
I’m Impressed
I’m impressed by Virginia’s tenacity.
I’m impressed by Virginia Tech’s Justin Wright.
I’m impressed by Virginia’s home stadium.
I’m impressed by Virginia Tech period.
I’m impressed by Virginia’s experienced, no-freakout patience at the plate.
I’m impressed by Virginia Tech’s Austin Wates.
I’m impressed by the high-quality of play between these two teams.
I’m impressed by this game I saw at Davenport Field tonight.
Hell, I’m just impressed by everything tonight.
Am I drinking the Kool-Aid of the Old Dominion state? You damned right I am.
Tech's Austin Wates and Sean Ryan look on in the 9th inning, knowing they lost a hard-fought donnybrook.
Hal Incandenza says:
Eric, I humbly submit that Trevor Bauer be adopted as the official player of Col