From Six-Feet Under to One of Eight Teams Left

When I walked into Cal coach Dave Esquer’s office back in October to interview him about the impending demise of his program, he was all dressed out in his usual game-day uniform and immediately talked about never giving up.
His team and his program were staring down at the final season of their existence and worrying [...]

ESPN Super Regional Wrap – Day 3

Okay, a couple things here guys and dolls. First off, sorry for no postings until now. The Cal-DBU game was a late one and I finished my ESPN column, sent it in to the fine folks in Bristol and immediately started feeling my eyelids start to sink like a anchor. So I have a whole bunch of pics and a write up from last night’s game I went to that I’ll be posting here soon.

In the meantime, here’s the link to my wrap-up of Day 3 of the Supers on ESPN.com.

I’ll be back with more in just a bit. Promise. Trust me. Really. No B.S.

Regionals – Day Three

Nine locked up. Seven still to go. My daily Regional wrap-up should should be posted here soon on the ESPN college baseball blog.

The “If Necessary” Day of the 2011 Regionals will get its half-full use this year as five Regionals push to a seventh game and two Regionals extend a day due to rotten weather. Sunday was pretty uneventful in the title rounds as most of the teams won Regional titles with little drama.

UC Irvine's bench explodes after the unlikely come-from-behind rally is complete.

Ummm, that is, until I went out to Westwood tonight and got this wild scene.

This Should Be Most Interesting

In a matter of hours, our boy Kyle Peterson and some other ESPN anchor-lackey-of-the-day will get together and announce the field of 64 for this year’s NCAA tournament. Ya’ nervous? Didn’t sleep a wink last night? Bout to pee your pants?

Well put on a Depends and settle in. This year’s field announcement should be really interesting. In fact, I’m all ready for the bile level to rise inside of me and be spouting venom about it soon. But before we get to that, I thought I’d give my usual rundown of things to look for when the brackets are revealed.

Are You Ready For Dogpile Season?

This is one of my favorite off-the-beaten-path days of the college baseball season. Most of the big conferences were observing a day off, in anticipation of their tournaments kicking up this Tuesday and Wednesday. So once again I decided to go check out an NCAA Regional championship game… at the D2 level.

Let the dogpiles begin. Sonoma State makes the human stack-em-up after pulling off a big win over Cal Poly Pomona in the D2 West Regional championship game.

I went down to UC San Diego, where Cal Poly Pomona and Sonoma State were in a winner-take-all showdown for a berth in the D2 College World Series in Cary, North Carolina.

Turns out it was upset-minded Sonoma State that got just enough breaks and good pitching to subdue Cal Poly Pomona and advance to Cary.

“There, there, let me help you heal that Ouch List”

I’ve had my fun. I’ve had my memory revived. I’ve had my one phone call from the holding cell. I’m back from New Orleans and I have to admit, my head really hurts too. So how appropriate that we get back into the swing of things by addressing our Ouch List for college baseball once again.

We’ll go with a dirty dozen this time around, but I’m pretty sure I could’ve included about 10-or-12 more to this painful monument to our sport. Yep, the pool for this weekend’s list was pretty full.

But let’s dive in anyway.

“Tell me, where does it hurt?” The Ouch List Debut.

Here’s where the kindly nurse is putting on the rubber gloves and ready to start the healing. Sure, it hurts now, but it will only get better, right? It’s now the month of May, ’bout time I dusted off the venerable “Ouch List” and let you know who is feeling the pain after a weekend full of hurt.

Sunday’s Winners and Losers – Starting with you.

Too bad, I’m too lazy to do anything real tonight, writing-wise. So you’ll just have to deal with my Sunday entry taking the easy way out and being a list of winners and losers after perusing the college baseball landscape.

Vanderbilt, whose Sunday uniforms looked more like Virginia's, goes out to congratulate Navery Moore (No. 10) after closing down the LSU game.

So yes, in a way, since I’m too lazy for a real entry, you guys are the losers from having to read my corner-cutting copy today. None-the-less, enjoy it Holmes…

Going Where No Other National Writer Would Go. Again.

Yep, I got me some Big 10 baseball in my wheelhouse at the Indiana-Iowa doubleheader in brisk-but-refreshing Iowa City today.

It's black vs. red here, but not Vandy & Carolina. Iowa's Mike McQuillan slips and slides past Indiana's Wes Wilson.

Oh sure, I hear ya’. I should’ve stayed at the Kubat basement in Omaha with the Vandy-South Carolina game on ESPN2 and sipped a bottle of Jack all day since it was THE marquee game of the day on the Worldwide Leader in Sports.

But look, a couple of points here. First off, I’ll be able to see Vanderbilt and South Carolina a couple more times this year, no doubt. Second, I’m TiVo’ing the game at home, so I’ll see it eventually. Third, the thought of sitting in a dark basement all day and hoarding a bottle of hooch just didn’t have the same pull as going to a stadium I’ve never been to and actually seeing real baseball live and in person. And finally, who else is gonna give some pub to Iowa and Indiana? Brian Decaussin’s not around anymore.

A Lazy Sunday

Lucky you. You’re so lucky. Just consider yourself lucky.

So here’s how it goes Stitch-Heads, I’m too lazy to do a full write up of the game I went to today and a complete “Three Up, Three Down”  with Honorable and Dishonorable Mentions for you guys. So the good news is you don’t have to read 5,000+ words of my drivel tonight.

I’m going to keep it short and sweet so I can get some sleep tonight. I’m lame, I know.

Stanford is one of those unpredictable teams filled with youthful talent and wild fluctuations.