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 about where they were going to play baseball the following season, but there Coach was, in his full game togs, talking about his team never quitting all fall long, not on the practice field, not on their hopes and not on each other.

“I’ve not seen a single hint of them quitting or getting discouraged despite everything that’s going on around them,” coach said at the time. “None.”

Fast forward to the first weekend in June. That same never-quit mantra manifested itself in the ultimate payoff every coach wants to see: Omaha.

Late on Sunday night, the Bears took down Dallas Baptist for the second straight time, by a 6-2 score, holding a potent Pats offense which came in hitting .311 to just four hits in all. That defensive/pitching clampdown led to an improbable celebration that no Cal baseball fan could’ve seen coming for this team this season.

“To take this team this far is so gratifying.” Coach Dave Esquer said. “Before our first practice we learned that our program was being discontinued. So we gave our players the option, if they to skip practice and needed a day or two to collect their thoughts and talk to their parents then they could. But to a man, they all said ‘We’re practicing today.’ So they weren’t going to back away one inch from being with their teammates and doing what they do.”

“I remember as a coaching staff we looked at each other and said, ‘We’ve got a different team here.’”

That no-quit attitude has never subsided. Not through months of anguish, hints of reinstatement and promises of vanquishment again. Finally, in early April, the program got a boost when it was permanently brought back from lame-duck status.

Tonight, as if typical of this Bears squad, they never let up against the Patriots. Even when they would chip away with a run here or there, UC answered right away. DBU would score single runs in the 2nd and 3rd innings, only to see the Bears answer with a run in the bottom of the 2nd and two runs in the bottom of the 4th.

A two-run home run by Chadd Krist with just one out in the 1st inning showed that they were going to continue the hale of offensive punches from the night before. A second-inning run off an RBI single (and centerfield error) by Tony Renda would be all the run production necessary to get the win.

An RBI double by 9-hole hitter Derek Campbell and an RBI single from Chadd Krist would supply some insurance runs in the 4th inning. From there, Cal’s ample pitching and solid defense (the error was a questionable call at best) would put the screws on DBU’s own miracle run and send the Bears to Omaha for the first time since 1992.

But for the Cal players, this was a goal for this season regardless of whether they were going to continue onto next year or not.

“Getting dropped really brought us closer together,” Tony Renda said. “But this is what we love to do; play baseball, I’m incredibly proud of everyone on this team for hangin’ tough and helping each other out and getting to this point.”

For Coach Esquer, it’s his first return to the promised land since he his playing days where he was part of two national title squads at Stanford in 1987 and 1988.

At the end of the press conference, he related those teams to his current squad.

“I mentioned to a reporter on the bench after we won the national championship at Stanford something that a 22-year old macho guy wouldn’t normally say to the media,” coach said. “I told the reporter, ‘The guys on this team really love each other.’”

And one of our coaches told me this week that there was a Rice girl who posted on her Facebook, ‘You know, I love this California team because you can just see they love each other.’ So it just goes to show what guys who really love each other can do as a team.”

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WORTH NOTING.
I know the Cal story is great and everything – and again, it is – but I’d like to give a big shout across the rooftops to Dallas Baptist head coach Dan Heefner and his Patriots. Great, great season with a lot of accomplishments. I don’t think many people could’ve predicted that this team from the independent ranks would make their way to the precipice of going to Omaha. Amazing, man.

The didn’t do too well out here in Santa Clara, but I really liked watching these guys play ball. The Pats played with passion and I have to say, as corny and media-like as it sounds, they played with a genuine joy. Sure, they were bummed to be eliminated, but Kenny Hatcher and Chris Haney were great in the post-game press conference. And dare I say, they didn’t seem disappointed at all. They talked about this season being one filled with pride and – true to their Baptist being – a blessing.

All the players were really well-spoken and didn’t use any of the cliches you get from baseball players time and time again.

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QUOTES.
Coach Dan Heefner:
- On what this post-season run means:
“I definitely think this is a turning point for our program. Getting that at-large bid in 2008, we saw how that elevated our program from a support standpoint, from our administration and the type of recruits we could get. But this run takes us to a whole other level. Sometimes you wonder if a team can do it for more than one year and not just be a one-year wonder, so this really adds to the validity to our program.”

- On reaching the Super Regional round:
“We knew we were one of the last teams to get an at-large bid. We were very aware of that. And a lot of time people want to second guess getting that bid. I think this validates that selection and our program. I thought these guys earned that.”

- On coming up just short of Omaha:
“I told our guys after the game that it’s hard watch another team dogpile like that at the end of a game. But it also means that you’ve put yourself in a pretty special position to be here.”

- On playing in the cool conditions here in Santa Clara:
“I think it was 40 degrees colder than when we left. I mean it didn’t make any difference in the outcome of the games, but I would say this is the ideal conditions you want to play in.”

Reliever Chris Haney:
- On if he foresaw this run happening.
“If you had sat with us in the locker room back in December and told us, ‘Hey, we’ll see you guys in June in Santa Clara, California for the Super Regional.’ We all would’ve shaken our heads and said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ But really I would’ve been thinking, ‘Man, we’ve got our work cut out for us.’ We knew if we played hard all season that good things would happen for us and that’s what happened.”

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PICS

A few images from the Cal win over Dallas Baptist

Chadd Krist rounds 3rd on his 1st-inning home run that gave the Bears an early lead they would never lose.

Landon Anderson (2) and Ryan Behmanesh (20) would keep the Pats close with some early runs.

The Bears never let Michael Smith and the rest of the DBU pitchers get too comfortable on the mound.

The man in the white shirt is the now-famous Danny Fry, the student announcer at Cal that made that voice-strained call of the Bears improbable comeback win over Baylor.

The high-energy Chris Haney, who was one of the better relievers of the post-season, didn't get to make a save situation for the Patriots. But he did strike out five of the 11 Bears batters he faced.

No Buster Poseys here. DBU's Duncan McAlpine has pinch runner Dwight Tanaka dead in the water on this relay to home.

As the outs wind down, reality starts to set in on DBU. Here, Kenny Hatcher comes back to the dugout after making the first out of the 9th inning.

After the last out is made, the Bears explode out of the dugout. Behind them, head coach Dave Esquer is pumped to the max.

Reliever Matt Flemer is the brave one going to the ground first. The impending dogpile is about to form.

The human pretzel machine starts to stack up. "No injuries! No injuries!"

... And there they go. Although I do have to question the sanity of Justin Jones (23) joining the dogpile while wearing a sling.

Coach Dan Heefner and the Patriots are stoic in watching the Cal players celebrate the Super Regional title.

Coaches Heefner and Esquer hug it out... as do the Cal players in the background.

Cal assistant coach Brad Sanfilippo gives a young Bear a lift.

Just before he was to go on ESPN and talk about the win, the Bears give coach Esquer a slightly cool shower.

... at least his players were courteous enough to remove the headset he had on before dousing him.

You'll never mistake coach Esquer for the irascible Nick Saban as you see the joy in his face despite the ice dumping. (The poor security guard in the headset was collateral damage of the splashdown)

One of the cooler things I saw in the post-game havoc was Dallas Baptist centerfielder Landon Anderson going up to these young Cal fans and giving them each a pair of batting gloves under the netting. What an awesome thing to do.

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.

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.

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WHAT I SAW AT JACKIE ROBINSON STADIUM TONIGHT

The third-seeded Irvine Anteaters were boxed up most of the game by yet another brilliant Bruin mound masterpiece. But their good defense and cagey pitching was enough to keep the contest close. Then, in the 9th inning, Irvine scrapped together a timely 2-run rally to bring an unlikely and sudden end to Gerrit Cole’s and Trevor Bauer’s college careers in Westwood.

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LINESCORE:

UCLA- 100 110 000 – 3  9  0

U.C.I. – 000 020 002 – 4  9  0

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PITCHING.

WP: Phillip Ferragamo (2-0)

LP: Nick Vander Tuig (3-4)

Save: none

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TOP HITTERS.

UCLA:

- Beau Amaral, 2-for-4

- Jeff Gelalich, 1-for-5, HR, 2RBI

- Cody Keefer, 2-for-5

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UCI:

- Jordan Leyland, 2-for-4, RBI, 2B

- Tommy Reyes, 2-for-4

- Ronnie Shaeffer, 2-for-3, 2RBI

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PICS

The images that tell the game.

All eyes up: Jeff Gelalich gives UCLA the lead two batters into the game with this solo home run that on-deck man Dean Espy, catcher Ronnie Shaeffer and umpire Tony Maners are admiring.

... which gets Gelalich a hero's welcome back at the dugout.

But the Irvine defense stayed stout. D.J. Crumlich applies a face-tag to a Bruin baserunner.

According to umpire Mark Chapman, synchronized dugout routines are no longer allowed in college baseball. Looks like one to me here, but nothing was called.

Coach Savage couldn't say enough good things about his freshman starter Zack Weiss who went 8.0 innings, giving up six hits and striking out six as well. Weiss "figures prominently into our rotation plans for next year." Coach would say afterward.

3rd base ump Jacob Asher was hit with a wicked line drive early in the game. He put his arm up just in time to keep it from hitting him in the head.

Don't you hate it when a million people around you are asking, "Are you okay?" "Are you okay?"... Here Jacob had to repeatedly say, "I'm fine."

But after that half-inning, with his elbow starting to swell, Asher had to be ushered from the field because of the pain. X-rays would later confirm no broken bones, just a huge bruise.

Never fear, replacement ump Joe Cruz is here. And he feels fine.

Soon after that, a typical L.A. "torrential mist" began to fall. For those of you in other parts of the country, this is what we call "rain" here.

Then came the pivotal 9th inning: Down 3-2, UCI began the frame with this blurry shot of Jonathan Hurst tossing his bat behind him after getting a leadoff walk.

After a pitching change for UCLA, Jordan Leyland stepped up and faked like he was bunting...

But Leyland pulls the ole Butcher Boy and pulls the bat back and strokes a ball to the left field corner.

The 'Eaters bench screams for vengeance as they watch the ball hit terra firma and rattle around in the corner.

... that brings pinch runner Dillon Moyer home to plate the tying run.

Even the UCI Super Fan starts to feel it. Like an Angus Young guitar solo, the Eaters are amped.

Two batters later, Ronnie Shaeffer throws his bat out there and pokes an ugly but effective RBI single beyond 1st baseman Dean Espy for the winning run.

A wild pack of Anteaters careen onto the field in a mad rush.

... and come together in a celebratory dogpile. (And I know what you're wondering, but as far as I could tell there were no injuries from it.)

Meanwhile, Trevor Bauer sulks on the bench as his unmatched college career comes to a heart-wrenching end.

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COUPLE OF IMAGES FROM THE LENS OF MATT BROWN.

The co-director of last summer’s impressive “Remembering Rosenblatt” documentary was at Fullerton and sent me a few wicked-good images from the action he shot there today. Illinois upset Cal State Fullerton 7-5 in an elimination game, but then the Illini ran into a buzzsaw in a 14-2 loss to Stanford. The Cardinal won the Fullerton Regional and will head to Chapel Hill to take on North Carolina next weekend.

Illinois shortstop Josh Parr (9) gives fives to Willie Argo

Illinois outfielder Davis Hendrickson should get on that ESPN Top 10 list for this diving stab down the right field line.

Love these shots that Matt gets. Illinois and Fullerton shake hands after the Illini ended the Titans' season today.

Nick Ramirez comes to the realization that he's played his last game as a Titan.

In the nightcap, Stanford's Ben Clowe was the story, bashing a pair of yard calls.

Willie Argo gets a grill full of dirt on this slide back to 1st.

Rain in June for Southern California? That's really rare people. Illinois hurler Luke Joyce fights the drops during a windup.

"Dude, he's like... professional wrestler big." Joyce and catcher Adam Davis watch Stanford's sizable Austin Wilson on a home run trot.

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Okay, last round of updates from the Regionals set for tomorrow. Hope you dig it. And don’t worry, I’ll be sure to mention something about Clemson.

G’night.

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.

A FEW THINGS TO WATCH FOR/WISH FOR/KEEP IN MIND…

1- REMEMBER, BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS THE BRACKETS WILL HAVE LONG BEEN DECIDED.

Kyle Peterson (are you tired of me name-dropping that dude yet?) has told me that the TV studio gets the brackets about three-to-four hours before going to air. So, doing the math here, you have to figure the committee has things done by Sunday and are headed out to hit the nearest strip bar to blow off some steam, lose some length-wise folded singles and get majorly dizzy.

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2- I REALLY THINK THE MID-MAJORS WILL BENEFIT THIS YEAR.

A lot of major conferences didn’t live up to billing this year (Big West, Pac 10, Big 12 beyond A&M and UT), so there could be a healthy dose of mid-majors getting some pull here in the selections. Also, the committee still has six of its 10 members from non-revenue making schools/conferences.

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3- SOMETHING TELLS ME THE RPI WON’T BE AS BIG A FACTOR.

(I’m crossing fingers, toes and eyes here)

I know, I may be shitcan-wrong about this, big time. But if the Regional host selections are any indication, looks like the committee HAS already taken my advice and used common sense. I mean, the Pac 10 is the No. 1 ranked conference by the ISR, so it’s obvious that they deserve to have their champion host at home despite their No. 33 RPI. Let’s see if common sense continues on the rest of the selection process too.

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4- I REALLY DO THINK THE “BUTLER EFFECT” SHOULD HELP.

By seeing the Butler Bulldogs make the title game in basketball once again, the committee HAD to have an epiphany that non-money programs can make consistent runs to the national title. (Although you’d think Fresno’s 2008 title would’ve taught them that already, right?)

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5- IF YOU’RE WORRIED ABOUT YOUR TEAM GETTING IN, LISTEN TO DOUG GOTTLIEB.

The ESPN basketball analyst has a good checklist for figuring if your team deserves to get into the field of 64. Here’s his list:

- Did they TRY to schedule good non-conference games?

(as in, if you scheduled Tulane, Wichita State or Washington State this year, they’re usually tough teams so you should get some amount of credit for trying to play good teams instead of bringing in cupcakes at home.)

- Did they do well in road games?

- How did they finish in their last ten games?

- How did they do in their conference?

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6- I STILL SUBSCRIBE TO DICK VITALE’s CRITERIA FOR LIMITS ON NUMBER OF TEAMS FROM ONE CONFERENCE.

I know the selection committee won’t adhere to this, but I still staunchly believe there should be no more than six teams from one conference. And yes, that means my alma mater shouldn’t make it and that the 2007 OSU team shouldn’t get/have gotten bids. Sorry, there are too many conference champions that should be given the benefit of the doubt and don’t usually get it. Sadly.

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7- HOPE FOR MORE SANE START TIMES.

ESPN has ripped me a new one each of the last few years by having Fullerton’s Regionals televised (which is good) but also scheduling their last game’s start times to be at 8pm each night. That means the game ends at 11pm, the press conference ends at 11:30pm and my drive home gets me home at 12:15pm. C’mon guys, I know you like to televise as much as possible, but keep it a little more fan friendly.

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8- FIVE TEAMS THAT WILL BE THE MOST INTERESTING PLACEMENTS.

- Arkansas

They’ll be pissed off for getting chumped by the the committee with no home regional.

- Illinois.

The Illini have that typical Big 10 pedigree of playing incredibly well at this time of year. They’ve won 16 of last 20 and had a streak of five games where they won in their last at-bat.

- Oklahoma

The Sooners proved last year they are a mentally tough unit. They should be a very dangerous 2-seed, unless they are given a No. 1 slot somewhere.

- Whoever gets sent to TCU Regional as a No. 2.

I’m not promising anything, but the Frogs were a different team in San Diego and that pitching staff is still hurting. A strong-armed No. 2 seed could do well here.

- Whoever gets the No. 1 seed at UCLA.

Best of luck to any team going into Jackie Robinson Statidum to take on the No. 2 seed Bruins. They’ll face an incredibly hot team that has Gerrit Cole in game one and the nearly unbeatable Trever Bauer in game two. As long as the offense stays hot, this is a meat grinder.

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9- FIVE TEAMS THAT WILL PROBABLY GET BIDS, BUT SHOULDN’T.

Hate to be harsh here, and remember I hate all teams on the same level, but there are teams that for one reason or another just shouldn’t be Big Dancing next weekend.

- LSU.

Yep, despite the impressive series win over Fullerton I went to back in March, not making the conference tournament is a big no-no in my book.

- East Tennessee State.

The RPI darlings (Boyd has them at No. 33 right now) still don’t have an impressive weekend to point to. As you guys know, I LOVE the mid-majors, but I can’t justify this one.

- Ole Miss.

Like LSU, no SEC tourney, no Big Dance. Besides, I still don’t think they have the pitching to compete here either.

- Kansas State.

Cats have an RPI of No. 41, but I’m a little biased because the one time I saw them they lost at Nebraska two out of three. Just not an overwhelming team.

- Oregon.

The Ducks have shot up like a bull with gas after sweeping Oregon State this weekend. But you can’t have one great weekend and claim you deserve an at-large.

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10- FIVE TEAMS THAT PROBABLY WON’T GET IN, BUT SHOULD.

I touched on a couple of these last night.

- Hawaii

- Cal State Bakersfield

- Troy

- Stony Brook

- St. John’s

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11 – IF YOU DON’T LIKE YOUR TEAMS’ SEEDING, DON’T FREAK OUT.

One thing that I keep getting asked on radio shows and whatnot is who do I see as the favorite for this year’s NCAA tournament. My answer has been the same since early on in the season, nobody. I still really believe this will be one of those “whoever gets hot” kind of post-seasons because I’ve seen some cracks in every teams’ facade this year. Just like Oregon State in 2006 and 2007 and Fresno in 2008, this year’s champion will come out of anywhere. So as long as your team is in the field of 64, seeding/placement might not be as big of a deal.

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– THREE UP

A couple of good things from today.

1- OREGON

Completed a sweep of No. 6 Oregon State with a 6-0 win.

Alex Keudell went 8.2 innings, giving up just two hits along the way. Frosh Ryon Healy went 3-for-4 with a double. Again, just like I mentioned in last night’s write-up, the Ducks were way down at No. 90 two weeks ago, but before today’s win UO had careened its way up to No. 65. If form holds true, the Ducks will probably be up to within at-large range. Do you think a 33-26 record for a Pac 10 team is good enough?

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2- CAL STATE BAKERSFIELD

Completed a huge sweep of Cal Poly with a 3-1 win today.

Mike McCarthy and Martin Medina combined on a 6-hitter with nine combined strikeouts. The Mustangs put men on 1st and 2nd in the 9th, but Medina came on to get the final two outs to preserve the win. With the sweep, Bakersfield improves to 33-22. Keep in mnd, the Roadrunners were at No. 76 in the RPI three weeks ago. Prior to today’s win, they had shot up to No. 56. Once again, Bakersfield is the only team in the country that can brag to having wins over South Carolina and UCLA, both on the road.

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3- GEORGIA SOUTHERN’s CHRIS BECK.

The Eagles ace topped a fabo week with a complete game, three-hit, 9K performance as Southern beat Samford 1-0 in the Southern Conference title game to earn their way to the NCAAs. For the week, Beck pitched 17.0 innings, striking out a SoCon tourney record 22 batters, giving up just eight hits and one earned run in pulling in MVP honors. At 36-24, GSU heads to the NCAAs for the first time since 2009.

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HONORABLE MENTION.

- San Francisco.

The Dons took down Gonzaga in Spokane to win the series and the WCC regular season title, which gets them a ticket to the Big Dance. With staff ace Matt Lujan and reliever Garrett Luippold both out with injuries, Friday starter Kyle Zimmer came on in the 9th inning to get his first-ever save and preserved the white-knuckle win. This will be the Dons’ first trip to the promised land since 2006.

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– THREE DOWN.

A couple of bad things from today.

1- MISSOURI

Came about as close as you can come to beating Texas A&M for the Big 12 title, but failed by inches.

When Mizzou couldn’t complete a bang-bang double play in the 9th, it gave the Aggies enough life to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th. An inning later, the Ags scored the game-winning run on a solo home run by Andrew Collazo to leave Mizzou at home for June.

When Mizzou missed out on this double play on A&M's Jacob House, the Aggies were able to score their 9th inning run before the 3rd out was recorded.

And yes, bubble teams everywhere breathed a sigh of relief.

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2- ST. JOHN’s

The Red Storm should NOT have lost a 4-2 game to Seton Hall.

The Johnnies out-hit the Pirates 12-5, but had way too many mistakes to overcome SHU. In the decisive 5th inning, SJU issued two walks, committed a balk, tossed a plunking, threw wildly on a routine groundout and gave up one hit. Oh, because of that, the Hall scored two runs to cement the game and earn the NCAA bid.

The Hall will be dancing in the NCAAs after today's win over St. John's.

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3- OREGON STATE.

For the third straight day, the Beavers fell to Civil War rival Oregon, this time 6-zip. With the loss, OSU falls further down the rung and possibly even to No. 2 seed status heading into the NCAA tournament. Also, for the second day in a row, Beaver head coach Pat Casey declined to speak to the media afterward, as if to say that somebody else on this team is going to have to step up and take the bull by the horns.

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Okay, I’m going to try my dead-level best to actually get some sleep tonight.

G’night.

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.

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WHAT I SAW AT TRITON PARK TODAY.

For just the second time in school history the Sonoma State Seawolves will be heading to the Division II College World Series as they won a back-and-forth battle with Cal Poly Pomona 8-5.

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LINESCORE:

Cal Poly Pomona- 020 000 300 – 5  11  2

Sonoma State U. – 100 030 40x – 8  12  3

Kenny Arnerich came up clutch once again, getting his second win of the weekend.

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PITCHING.

WP: Kenny Arnerich, 9-2

LP: Lucas Bosson, 10-5

Save: none

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HITTING.

Poly

- Chris Miller, 1-for-4, HR

- Humberto Tovalin, 1-for-5, HR, 2RBI

- Travis Taijeron, 1-for-1, 2B, four walks.

SSU

- Alex Todd, 3-for-5, double, triple, 3RBI

- Garrett Schwartz, 2-for-2, RBI

- Kyle Jones, 2-for-3

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RECORDS:

Cal Poly Pomona: 36-23

Sonoma State: 36-20

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OVERVIEW.

Early on, both teams showed some big-game nerves as most of the early runs were being decided by errors. Pomona stormed out to a 2-1 lead by scoring two unearned runs in the 2nd inning after Allen Rodarte hit a hot shot toward third that Seawolf 3rd baseman Randy Wells couldn’t handle. Matt Vincent and Humberto Tovalin both touched home on the play in an unearned fashion.

In the 5th inning, the Seawolves plated three unearned runs as a throwing error on Pomona 3rd baseman, Tovalin, threw wildly on a routine groundout, allowing two Sonoma runs to score and put the ‘Wolves ahead. Another unearned run came around to score when Alex Todd doubled in another run, putting the Seawolves back in command at 4-2.

But Pomona would strike back once again as a pair of Bronco home runs from Chris Miller and Humberto Tovalin in the 7th inning put the Bronc boys back in charge at 5-4. But it wouldn’t last.

The pivotal bottom of the 7th saw the Seawolves go:

- single

- single

- RBI single

- single

- RBI sac fly

- RBI single

- RBI single

- fly out

- fly out

That put the Seawolves ahead for good at a seemingly insurmountable 8-5 with six outs remaining for Sonoma to accrue.

Unlike Saturday night’s game that saw the Seawolves and Broncos stand tied at four in the 9th inning, only to have a bases-loaded, no out situation that saw no runs score for SSU, this time the Seawolves would not let things slip through their fingers.

Long Beach State transfer Kenny Arnerich came on to lock things down in the final two innings on the mound for Sonoma. His scoreless work provided the Seawolves with the impetus to advance to their second College World Series, the last one being in 2008.

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THE ONE TEAM THAT WASN’T THERE.

It was strange to come down to the UC San Diego home field today and NOT see the Tritons playing for the Regional title. They had been to the College World Series the last two seasons, including falling in last year’s championship game to Southern Indiana. But the 6th-ranked Tritons went just 1-2 this weekend, opening with that first loss to SSU, which was followed up by a win over Western Oregon and a 6-5 loss to Pomona on Saturday afternoon.

As you can see, No. 6-ranked UC San Diego has some recent pedigree, including appearances in the last two College World Series. But the Tritons were upset this weekend and watched two interlopers play for the title on their home field.

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ARNERICH RICHES.

Today’s 8-5 win was punctuated by Kenny Arnerich’s 2.2 innings of scoreless work. But this was actually his second win of the weekend. Back on Friday, his complete-game seven hitter helped down top-seeded UC San Diego by a 4-0 count. With the two wins on the weekend, Arnerich improved to 9-2 on the season.

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NORTHERN BASEBALL

Keep in mind, this was a pretty good sized upset to see the Seawolves take this four-team regional, including three wins over Pomona and a big upset vs. the home-standing Tritons. They came in as the four-seed with a record of 33-19. Keep in mind that the ‘Wolves hail from Sonoma county, which is located in wine country about an hour and a half north of San Francisco.

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KYLE JONES. HITTING MACHINE.

In the 8th inning, Sonoma senior Kyle Jones notched a single into left field marking his 229th career hit while in a Sonoma State uniform. That gave Jones the school record for hits in a career, surpassing the 228 hit total of alum Derek Bell.

Kyle Jones (#14) is welcomed back to the dugout after getting his career hits record in the 7th inning.

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THE TALENTED MR. TAIJERON

Pomona’s top hitter, Travis Taijeron, was an intimidating force at the dish today. Taijeron only went 1-for-1, blasting his 20th double on the season. Other than that, Taijeron was walked in his four other appearances at the dish, one of which was an intentional walk.

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PICS

Some images from today’s championship game.

Cal Poly Pomona's Humberto Tovalin (#9) is welcomed back after his 7th inning home run put the Broncos back in the lead.

This attractive Sonoma State lass shows some concern as her Seawolves allow Pomona to surge back ahead in the top of the 7th inning.

The final play of the game: Pomona's Jordan Whitman was caught leaning off of 1st base with two out in the top of the 9th inning. That's when 1st baseman O'Koyea Dickson starting to give chase.

Whitman is tagged out at 2nd base, and the celebration is officially on for Sonoma.

Veni, Vidi, Vici! The victory is theirs. That tagout on the pickoff sends the Seawolves making a mad dash from the dugout.

The Sonoma players collide in the middle of the field as euphoria reigns supreme.

After the dogpile (there were luckily no injuries), the Seawolves start to hug it out.

As the hats and gloves are still strewn around the field, the Cal Poly players quietly gather in left field after the loss.

Sonoma players gather with the Regional championship trophy after the game.

The Pomona players were duly bummed out by the outcome of today's game. So close, yet so far.

It was a light day on the national scene back in Division I. Here are a few of the high-and-low-lites of the day. If you want more succinct looks around the country and some more NCAA regional projections, be sure to check out my good bud Mark Etheridge’s stuff at SEbaseball.com.

Also, if you want to check out all the conference tournament schedules and seedings, check out the “conference tournaments and brackets” page that Jeremy Mills has set up at D1baseball.com and also what Sean and Ryan have plotted out at CollegeBaseballInsider.com.

It’s good stuff all the way around.

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– THREE UP.

1- SACRED HEART AND ALCORN STATE.

The two mid-majors won their respective tournaments today and went in for their tux fitting for the Big Dance.

The Pioneers breezed through the NEC tournament field in three straight blowout games, including today’s 9-2 win over Monmouth. They got an other-worldly performance from pitcher Kody Kerski, who threw a complete-game six-hitter with just one walk to get just his second win of the season.

Alcorn meanwhile, took down the favored Southern Jags with a breezy 12-6 win. This marks the first-ever SWAC title for the Braves as Kilby Perdomo and Kenny Rowan both went yard in the title game. The amazing thing is that ASU has reached the NCAAs in just the second year under the direction of head coach Barrett Rey.

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2- USC.

Where has THIS been all year? The Trojans have become an entirely different team the last few weeks, scoring weekend wins over the likes of Top 10ers Arizona State and Oregon State. With today’s stunning 4-3 upset, the Men of Troy won the series in Corvallis. Wow. The USC administration took the interim tag off of Frank Cruz as the head coach and this team has responded big time. Unfortunately the Trojans are now only 22-29 so there is no hope for the post-season after next weekend’s season finale vs. Washington State.

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3- UCLA’s OFFENSE.

Once again, the Bruins show the country that they are perhaps becoming the best team in the country on Saturdays and Sundays. Today, the Bruin offense slapped out 12 hits and four walks to help them win the weekend series over Cal with a 5-2 win. The top four hitters in the lineup went a combined 9-for-17 with three RBI, including knocking out Justin Jones after just 3.0 innings.

Frosh wunderkind Adam Plutko also shined for the Bruins, going 8.0 innings and giving up just three hits

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– THREE DOWN.

1- FRESNO STATE.

First off, let me not forget to give big props to Bakersfield coach Bill Kernan and his crew for a great weekend of play. But just like fellow mid-major Stetson, the Bulldogs blew their chance at hosting a regional with this weekend’s stunning winless result. With today’s 5-2 loss to Bakersfield, the Dogs lost all three games of the weekend Valley Showdown, which will surely force their RPI to plummet. Keep in mind, last week’s series win over New Mexico State raised their ranking 10 spots from 29 to 19. Let’s see where they end up after this weekend’s slump.

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2- THE USC VICTIMS.

Oregon State was the one that suffered this weekend, losing two of three to the suddenly hot Trojans. Last week it was Arizona State who lost two of three. The hangover effect stuck with them as well, as ASU lost today’s weekend finale at Washington. Because of these Ls to each teams’ resume, Mark Etheridge and others have seen fit to drop the two as national seeds. Good thing those projections are always wrong. But Eth and others DO have a point, the selection committee could lean heavily on its horrible RPI formula and surmise that neither team is in national seed range any longer. And that’d be a shame of course.

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3- MIKE ANDERSON, NEBRASKA

The nine-year head coach of the Cornhuskers was fired on Sunday, a day after the Big Red finished the season in 2nd-to-last place in the Big 12 and will be missing the Big 12 Tournament once again. Having just talked with him back at that first game vs. Creighton on the new downtown stadium in Omaha, he seemed genuinely excited and optimistic of his team’s prospects down the stretch. Unfortunately for him, the yearlings didn’t mature enough to build a contending team in Big 12 circles this season.

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Okay, gonna cut this whiz around the country a little bit short. See you in a couple of days with the ESPN preview.

G’night.

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.

- VANDERBILT

Sunday Result: Lost 6-3 to Florida in 12 innings.

Weekend: Lost two of three to the Gators at home.

Why it Hurts:

That three-run home run by Florida catcher Mike Zunino is a dagger. It will live in Gator lore for a while. So if you see the Commodores lookin’ like they’re sick of hearing about it, you can understand. That three-run fence-buster took away VU’s chance of taking sole possession of first place in the SEC East. But don’t worry, it’s not like it knocked them out of a national seed or something, so temper this inclusion in the Ouch List accordingly.

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- UTAH

Sunday Result: Lost at TCU 2-1

Weekend: Dropped two of three to the Frogs

Why it Hurts:

This was it. This was the UU’s shot at pulling out an unlikely regular season crown in the Mountain West. With the rotation of Purke, Winkler and Maxwell all sitting this series out for TCU, the Utes came into the weekend down 1.5 games in the MWC standings, but still lost two of three in very close, nip-and-tuck fashion. Arrrgh! That’s what hurts the most. The Frogs clinched their sixth straight MWC title with Sunday’s win.

Ute reliever Tyler Wagner (34) got the win on Friday, but from that point on, it was a painful weekend as TCU took the last two games. (Thank you for the pic Dr. of College Baseball)

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- GEORGIA

Sunday Result: Won at Kentucky 7-6

Weekend: Went 1-2 vs. the Wildcats.

Why it Hurts:

The Jeckyl & Hyde boys have returned. Just when the Bulldogs were starting to come around and putting up a good series of wins, they go out and lose a series to the second-worst team in the SEC. Now at 26-26, the Silver Britches are still dangerously close to sitting at home. And yes, even with that No. 25 RPI and everything.

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- SAN FRANCISCO

Sunday Result: Beat Pepperdine 8-6.

Weekend: Won the series three games to zip.

Why it Hurts:

It wasn’t on the field that caused this to be such a painful weekend for the Dons. After all, they’re now 28-22 and 14-4 and in 1st place in the West Coast Conference. The big pain was finding out their ace Friday mound starter Matt Lujan would miss the rest of the season after injuring himself “during bullpen work” last weekend at San Diego. Considering they’ll be taking on Gonzaga for the WCC title in the regular season finale, not having their ace will hurt.

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- OLE MISS

Sunday Result: DNP

Weekend: Lost a series to rival Mississippi State at home.

Why it Hurts:

Well, let’s state the obvious first, losing to your in-state rival in a rivalry as heated as this, it’s a pain. Especially if you have to listen to your next door neighbor crow about it. This also kills their RPI momentum the Rebels captured after that weekend win over South Carolina last week. The Rebels drop back down nearer to the 40s of the RPI, which for an SEC team, is an area where they usually aren’t given much rope by the selection committee.

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- SOUTH DAKOTA STATE

Sunday Result: Won 8-2 at Oral Roberts

Weekend: Lost three of four games at ORU.

Why it Hurts:

This was a chance for the Jackrabbits to cement the Summit League regular season title, but went into Tulsa and got wiped out by scores of 4-2, 12-6 and 4-2 prior to salvaging the weekend with this win today. With the losses, SDSU now falls into a first place tie with ORU at 17-7 with four games left.. I guess revenge could be made when the Jacks will host the Summit Tournament next week, but this was their chance to make history.

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- NEBRASKA

Sunday Result: Lost at Texas A&M 5-1.

Weekend: Lost all three games in College Station.

Why it Hurts:

Just like in football last fall, the Cornhuskers will ride off into the sunset – and toward the Big 10 – having not had any success against their tormentors from the Lone Star state. NU finished the regular season going 1-5 vs. A&M and Texas, combined and now free-fall to last place in the Big 12 at 7-16. In addition, the Big Red had a chance to gloss up its flailing RPI hopes, but are stuck down at No. 59 now.

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- LONG BEACH STATE

Sunday Result: Lost at Cal State fullerton 7-1.

Weekend: Went 0-for-3 against their local rivals.

Why it Hurts:

In my ESPN preview, I talked about how this would be the Dirtbags’ last stand. It was either win this weekend and start a streak that could lead to at-large consideration, or get beaten by your rival and go meekly into the last two weekends of the regular season. After Noe Ramirez held the Men in Blacks’ bats to two hits in 8.0 innings, it was all downhill from there.

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- MICHIGAN STATE

Sunday Result: Lost twice to Indiana, 13-12 (15inns) and 7-4.

Weekend: Got swept at home by the Hoosiers.

Why it Hurts:

The Spartans came into the weekend still just on the edges of getting at-large consideration, but this stunning three-game drop-step assures they won’t be getting into post-season unless they take down the field in the Big 10 tournament. The bright side is that the Spartans still finish the weekend in first place in the Big 10 (by one game over Minnesota), which means they’ll still have a good shot at getting one of the two first-round byes.

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- BUCKNELL

Sunday Result: Lost to Navy 6-0.

Weekend: Lost two of three to the Midshipmen in the Patriot League playoffs.

Why it Hurts:

Well, the Bison DID go into the PL playoffs as the 4-seed, so they weren’t expected to win it or anything. But the painful part is that they also entered the post-season last year as the 4-seed and won their way to an NCAA bid afterall. This time, they did stave off elimination with a nerve-wracking 1-0 11-inning win on Saturday. But today’s loss means Gene Depew and his team 30th season.

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- TEXAS TECH

Sunday Result: Lost at Missouri 4-3

Weekend: Lost two of three to the Tigers

Why it Hurts:

It was bad enough for the Red Raiders to drop two of three in Columbia, since they are fighting the Tigers tooth and nail to get into the Big 12 Tournament field of eight. But on top of that, the Techsters also lost one of the best leadoff men in the country in firestarter Jamodrick McGruder, who broke the hamate bone in his hand.

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- ARIZONA STATE

Sunday Result: Lost 6-2 at USC

Weekend: Lost two of three to USC.

Why it Hurts:

Well, losing two of three in South Central is pretty bad, sure. But let’s face it, every team has a “Mulligan” weekend at some point in the seasons that everyone can forget about, and sure, the Devils already had one when they lost all three games at Oregon State. But this is truly a Milligan against a team that wasn’t as talented as they are.

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.

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First, let’s give some quick props for the teams and players that deserve a shout across the rooftops for their work on Sunday.

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– THREE UP.

The best of the day in college baseball.

This was the picture of Jeff McVaney that was sent to me by the Texas State media department after his three-dinger Sunday for the Bobcats. Gotta love the high-socks look.

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1- THE TRIPLE DINGERS.

These guys helped their teams to wins today with three-home run days at the dish.

- Arizona State’s Joey DeMichele.

Hitting from the cleanup position today, DeMichele ripped three fence-busters in a 3-for-3, 5RBI effort as the Sun Devils beat Stanford 7-1 to win the weekend. It was the first three-homer game for an ASU player since Jeff Larish pulled the trick vs. Nebraska in the 2005 CWS in what had to be one of the best college games I’d ever seen. Oh, Jake Barrett also struck out 10 Card batters in 8.0 innings of work to improve to 6-3.

- Texas State’s Jeff McVaney.

The junior outfielder hit home runs in the 2nd, 7th and 8th innings as the Bobcats took down McNeese State 14-7. Like DeMichele above, McVaney went 3-for-3 on the day, but also added a walk and a plunking in two other plate appearances. Above all that, State hit six bombs in all on the day including Casey Kalenkosky’s 16th dinger of the year, which leads the Southland Conference.

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2- DARTMOUTH, PRINCETON, NAVY and BETHUNE-COOKMAN.

All four teams won titles today.

- The Big Green and the Tigers won the Rolfe and Gehrig Divisions of the Ivy League this weekend and will face off in a best-of-three next weekend to decide the Automatic Bid for the Ancient Eight.

- Navy split with Lafayette today, which was good enough for a regular season crown in the Patriot League. The top-seeded Middies will host four-seed Bucknell in two weeks when the PL playoffs begin.

- BCU took down Maryland-Eastern Shore 7-3 to pull off a clinch of the MEAC regular season crown. They currently sit four games over Delaware State, with three games left in conference play, next week at home against the Hornets.

LIU catcher Tyler Jones has been a major force in the Blackbird's offensive onslaught.

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3- THE BIG COMEBACKS.

- Long Island.

The Blackbirds overcame a 9-0 deficit to overcome Mount St. Mary’s by an 11-9 score in their final home game of the season. A bases-loaded, two-run single with two out in the 8th inning by Tyler Jones made up for the final score. Jones, who entered the week ranked 6th in the country in batting, hit 8-for-16 with four walks and 8RBI in five games this week.

- Stephen F. Austin.

The Lumberjacks overcame a nine-run deficit themselves, coming back from a 10-1 deficit against UT-Arlington and pulled out a crushing 13-12 win in 10 innings. The win means that the Jacks have now won the series over UTA for the fifth straight season and they also keep pace with Texas State at the top of the Southland at 17-7. Bryson Myles went 4-for-6 with a HR and 4RBI and also stole second base – his 40th steal of the season – in the 9th inning, then was knocked home with the game-tying run on a single by Garrett Smith.

- Arizona.

The Cats ended up sweeping the weekend series from USC despite falling behind 5-zip to the Men of Troy early on today. The Desert Cats ended up rallying for the final eight runs of the day. Robert Refsnyder had two hits and 3RBI and Bobby Brown had three hits and 2RBI in the rally.

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And now, in lieu of the “Three Down” feature, here is where we’ll finally pick up the Ouch List cause and divulge who had really crappy weekends on the diamond.

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– THE OUCH LIST

Makes it’s debut… let the cruel reality begin.

- YALE.

Sunday Result: Did not play.

Over the weekend, the Elis dropped three of four to Brown. I know I’ve already documented this meltdown but unfortunately, the smart boys were tied at the top of the Ivy League’s Rolfe Division with Dartmouth entering the weekend. Now, they finish the regular season missing out on the Ivy League playoffs.

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- INDIANA.

Sunday Result: Lost 14-5 at Purdue.

Another well-documented crumble. The Hoosiers looked like a possible at-large candidate for the NCAA tournament a few weeks ago, but after this weekend’s sweep at the hands of Purdue, those dreams are certainly crushed. Get hot in Columbus, boys.

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- OLE MISS.

Sunday Result: Lost at Florida 7-2.

It’s not shocking that the Rebels lost all three games at Florida, but none of them were in the least bit competitive, as they were outscored 24-7. With an RPI at 40 entering the weekend, they could’ve used a win here. Or at least to put up a fight.

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- THE REST OF THE SEC WEST.

Nobody seems to want to win this thing.

With Arkansas losing to Georgia (and having Florida and South Carolina up next) and Alabama losing a series to Mississippi State, there is not a single team in the West Division that has a winning record in conference play. You’ve probably read this tired ole statistic before, but in East-vs-West games, the West is 23-43 in those games. Take away the wins vs. last place Kentucky and the West is just 10-41 vs. the East.

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- UL-MONROE.

Sunday Result: Lost 7-5 to Western Kentucky.

If the season ended today, the Warhawks would find themselves in a tie for 8th place in the Sun Belt with Middle Tennessee State. But since ULM lost two of three at MidTenn a last week, they’d be sitting on the sidelines while hosting the SBC tournament. Plus Troy and Louisiana remain on the slate. Not good.

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- TROY

Sunday Result: Lost at Florida Atlantic 7-1

This isn’t a major “ouch” but a small prick, really. Had the Trojans won today they would’ve put four games between the two and taken absolute control of the Sun Belt. Now, it’s a two-game lead with Louisiana coming up this weekend in a big time showdown. Although now that I think of it, a pitching staff that gave up 29 runs in three games vs. the Owls IS a major “ouch.”

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- TENNESSEE

Sunday Result: Lost to Vanderbilt 19-3.

Not shocking that the Vols lost all three games to VU, since they were prohibitive underdogs. But the Big Orange were outscored 39-5 in the three games. Day-yum!

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- TEXAS A&M.

Sunday Result: Won 3-2 at Missouri.

But let’s Big Picture this weekend by the Aggies. A&M’s vaunted pitching staff took some big time shots to its ego, losing 10-9 and 9-1 on Friday and Saturday to the formerly punchless Tigers. In addition, the Maroons lost 8-5 at home to Sam Houston State back on Tuesday. Their tenuous hopes of a national seed took a big hit this week.

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- BYU.

Sunday Result: Did not play.

The Cougars had faint hopes of challenging for the Mountain West conference title, but lost both games at home to TCU, by 12-6 and 6-4 scores and then had the third game of the series cancelled by snow. Coupled with two losses to Washington State in the mid-week and its 3-8 mark the last two weeks, this was a crushing blow to the Cougars hopes of raising their profile for an outside chance of an at-large bid.

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- GEORGIA SOUTHERN.

Sunday Result: Lost 8-3 at UNC-Greensboro.

Including Sunday’s loss the Eagles dropped all three games this weekend and have also gone 7-8 since early April, sending their RPI plunging into the 80s-ish range. Also, they now sit three-and-a-half games out of 1st place in the SoCon title chase. Early wins over teams like Georgia Tech, St. John’s and Florida may be all for naught now.

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…

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THE CHARLIE SHEENs (winners)

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- VANDERBILT

Coming on the heels of their first series loss of the season (at South Carolina last week), the ‘Dores got just what they needed, a blistering offensive performance that saw their bats put up double digits in all three wins over LSU. Oh and the pitching did pretty well too, especially on Friday and Saturday.

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- TEXAS A&M.

It was a showdown weekend in College Station and the Maroon crew came through big time. The Aggies were a model of efficiency, striking out 24 Oklahoma State batters, walking just two and giving up only 19 hits in 36 innings. Today, A&M completed the sweep with an 8-1 rout.

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- MIAMI.

The Canes ran out of wind today, losing at North Carolina 8-1. Beyond that, Saturday’s DH sweep in Chapel Hill helped pull The U back into contention in the ACC and back into the national consciousness too. The Canes have won 13 of their last 15.

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- TROY

In a showdown of what could be the two best teams in the Sun Belt, the Trojans swiped all three games from Western Kentucky this weekend by scores of 6-3, 11-3 and 12-9. The Trojans are also now three games up on FAU and four games in front of FIU, WKU and Louisiana. Today’s win secured their having won 30+ games for eight straight seasons.

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- CAL POLY.

Talk about a team that zoomed onto the radar. The Mustangs took down an injury-depleted Cal State Fullerton team in two of three games this weekend and jumped from No. 107 to No. 65 in the RPI. There’s an uphill battle ahead as Poly will play 14 of the last 19 games on the road.

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- MINNESOTA

The Gophers swept Indiana in Bloomington with today’s 5-2 win. And, as I think of it, is this a 2010 redux? Last year the Gophers got off to a really crappy start, but then timed their best baseball to take place in the latter part of the season. That’s what they appear to be doing now, improving to 14-15 and 6-6.

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- ARIZONA STATE.

After losing all three games at Oregon State in their last road trip, there were some raised eyebrows as they went to Berkeley. Kinda a wait-and-see kind of thing, ya’ know. Well, mission accomplished… by leaps and bounds. After outlasting Cal in game one in 17 innings, the Devil pitch staff threw up a pair of shutouts on Friday and Saturday.

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- VIRGINIA TECH.

Won at Maryland 13-5 on Sunday, scoring in double-digits for the fifth time in the last six games. The Hokies have won nine of their last 11 and have winnable series with Duke and Clemson coming up next.

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- CENTRAL FLORIDA

The Knights have bound up to No. 26 in the RPI after beating Florida and Florida Atlantic in the mid-week and taking down Memphis twice this weekend. Chase Bradford picked up a pair of wins on the week, one vs. the Gators and the Saturday game vs. the Tigers.

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- ESPN.

Not only did ESPN televise Sunday’s LSU-Vandy game on the Deuce, but this week was the first time that I got the chance to catch ESPNU’s “College Baseball Live” with a full 30-minute preview show that plays before the Thursday night SEC Game of the Week. It’s not exactly as exciting or high-amp energy of Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso, but give Lowell Galindo, Keith Law and former LSU pitcher Ben McDonald some props for taking care of the only weekly college baseball show that’s almost as cool as a Baldcast.

Lowell Galindo, Keith Law and Ben McDonald handle the studio duties of getting college baseball fans around the country excited about the weekend.

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THE BERNIE MADOFF’S (losers)

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- OKLAHOMA STATE.

Perhaps nobody was more under the microscope this weekend, especially after coming off a series win over Oklahoma last weekend. Well, the Pokes wilted this week, dropping all three games at Texas A&M. OSU scored only four runs all weekend and saw Dane Phillips, who entered as the Big 12’s best hitter, go 1-for-11.

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- INDIANA

The Hoosiers have looked like the Big 10s best team for most of the season, but that changed this weekend after John Mellencamp U. suffered a home sweep at the hands of Minnesota that was capped by today’s 5-2 loss. IU is now 25-15 and 6-6 in the Big 10.

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- FURMAN.

The Paladins led 12-8 going into the bottom of the 9th inning against College of Charleston today. Like UCLA at Stanford, you figured, “No sweat.” right? Well sure enough, the Cougars put up a five-run spree that was capped by Phillip Aldrich’s two-out double which scored a pair of runs for the win. Dang me!

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- LSU

The Tiger pitching staff got roped again today at Vanderbilt, losing 10-7. In the three losses to the Commodores this weekend, LSU gave up 31 runs while only scoring 11 themselves – with seven of those coming today, as previously mentioned. Despite their decent RPI (in the 20s), I still think the committee would be hard-pressed to take a last place team like this.

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- CREIGHTON

With today’s 2-1 loss to Southern Illinois, the Bluejays have now dropped three of their last four, including their Tuesday night loss vs. Nebraska in the first game at the new downtown stadium. Obviously, their stay in the national rankings will be short.

The Creighton defense has been awesome as usual, but the offense came up snake-eyes vs. SIU this weekend.

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- THE SEC WEST.

The occidental side of the top conference is not holding up its end of the bargain so far and this weekend was a perfect example. The West teams went a combined 2-10 vs. the East teams. The only wins were Arkansas pulling off one win at Kentucky and Mississippi State’s Saturday upset of South Carolina. In fact, as the standings show now, not a single team in the West has a winning record in conference play.

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- CAL STATE BAKERSFIELD

I documented their fall in Saturday’s write-up, after dropping all three games to UC Riverside. But what’s even worse is that the Roadrunners also have dropped from No. 35 in the RPI all the way down to No. 53. Again, redemption is at hand with the schedule ahead.

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- MICHIGAN STATE.

Went into this weekend in first place in the Big 10, but lost two of three at Illinois, capped by today’s 11-8 loss. That’s two consecutive weekends of conference losses for the Spartans, who have dropped to No. 98 in the RPI too.

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- NEW ORLEANS

Whoaaaah! It’s been a long season in the Crescent City. In their final season of Division I play, the Privateers are now 3-37 overall after today’s 11-3 loss to Temple. And yes, the Owls won all three games this weekend… easily.

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- CBS.

Hate to bag on the people that send me paychecks in the fall for college football writing, but the bad news actually happened last week, apparently. I just now noticed that the network formerly known as “CBS College Sports” has gone through yet another “branding” makeover, and is now known as the “CBS Sports Network”. So even though they weren’t doing much for college baseball anyway, the college exclusivity is no longer there for us to cling too for that once proud network. Ohhhhh my! What has become of that formerly great CSTV and CSTV.com? You bastards.

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Check back with you in a few days Stitch-Heads.

G’night.

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.

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WHAT I SAW AT DUANE BANKS FIELD TODAY.

A lot of really good pitching. Like a hell-of-a-lot of good pitching. Iowa’s Matt Dermody and Indiana’s Joey DeNato each was total nails on the bump for their respective teams, picking up wins in a DH split. It turned out to be an all-pitching, no-hitting-allowed weekend in Hawkeyetown as only 12 runs were scored in the three games, which included Indiana’s 2-1 win on Saturday.

Iowa's Matt Dermody was resplendent on the mound in game one.

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THE PROGRESSION

Game One:

IU – 000 000 100 – 1  8  0

UI – 100 001 00x – 2  7  0

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WP: Matt Dermody (4-3)

LP: Chad Martin (2-2)

Save: None

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Game Two:

IU – 030 000 012 – 6  15  0

UI – 000 000 000 – 0   6  1

WP: Joey DeNato (5-1)

LP: Ryan Lala (1-3)

Save: None.

Joey DeNato was the unhittable force in game two.

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Top Hitters.

Indiana:

- Dustin DeMuth, 4-for-9, 1RBI

- Jerrud Sabourin, 4-for-9, 1RBI

- Josh Lyon, 3-for-3, 2RBI (only played in game two)

- Michael Basil, 4-for-8, 1RBI

Iowa:

- Mike McQuillan, 3-for-8

- Tyson Blaser, 2-for-4, 2BBs, HBP

- Kurt Lee, 2-for-7

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RECORDS.

Indiana: 23-12, 6-3. IU stays tied with Michigan State for the lead in the Big 10.

Iowa: 13-20, 3-6. Hawkeyes fall to last place with Minnesota, the two teams I picked to lead the Big 10.

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IN SUMMATION.

Okay, I wasn’t totally correct in the opening above, there was SOME offense. Indiana, perhaps pissed at getting so bottled up in game one, whipped out the big bats in game two and smashed 15 strokes to terra firma to provide the Big Red with a series win here in Iowa City, two games to one.

More on that in a bit, first, going back to that first game of the day, the lanky lefty Matt Dermody was impressive as all get-out, spreading out eight hits, walking only one, striking out four and seemingly inducing the perfect groundout or pop-up at each clutch situation for the Hawkeyes. (And I think I just set a record for number of commas in a run-on sentance. Sorry.) Dermody threw 116 pitches in all (77 of which were strikes) and kept the intimidating Hoosiers gappers at bay. In fact, oddly enough, only four of the eight hits he surrendered actually made it to the outfield.

Dermody is a pitcher worth keeping an eye on as the sophomore is starting to figure things out, having won his fourth straight start with today’s game one effort.

However…

Game two was completely the opposite for the Hawkeyes, as Indiana slapped the ball around with regularity, having Jerrud Sabourin, Michael Basil and Josh Lyon all collect three hits apiece to pace the offense. The Hoosiers got off to an early 3-zip lead thanks to a two-out nightmare that saw consecutive batters in Josh Lyon, T.C. Knipp and Justin Cureton knock in single runs on a double, a triple and a double respectively.

That would be all the cushion that frosh leftly Joey DeNato would need. In 8.0 innings of work, he allowed just four hits and struck out 11 Big Red batters as part of a 120-pitch day. His only faux pas was walking four batters, but as you can tell by the score, none of them hurt.

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DEFENSIVE PLAUDITS.

The Hoosiers and Hawkeyes were both particularly sound in the field. Like, Dick Butkus-like. (Sorry to use a Big 10 icon from a rival school you guys). There was only one error committed on the day and none of the runs that were scored were unearned. The only E of the day was committed by Hawkeye Kurt Lee when his throw on a tipped ground ball had to be rush and pulled 1st baseman Bryan Niedbalski off the bag. In fact, the two teams came into the day with .969 and .966 defenses respectively, which is pretty damn good considering most of the errors these two committed this season occurred back in February and March, when northern schools get out of the gym and onto the field with all the grace of a newborn giraffe.

SS Michael Basil and 2B Micah Johnson were part of an impressive defensive display today.

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HOOSIER RECORD.

Jerrud Sabourin’s 9th inning RBI double to the wall was his 306th career hit, which is the new high-water mark for the IU program. The old record of 305 was set by Alex Smith (1982-1986). Earlier this season, Sabourin had already surpassed former All American Mike Smith on the Hoosier ladder, who is a player that I have repeatedly voted for on my College Baseball Hall of Fame ballot because he was the last triple crown winner in our sport in 1992.

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THE BEST WALK-UP MUSIC I MAY HAVE EVER HEARD…

Belongs to Iowa catcher Tyson Blaser. The standout senior backstop has Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” played as he strides to the plate. That song is appropriate since he’s a catcher and has a knack of cutting down base-stealers, as you’d imagine. And besides that, it’s just a great freakin’ song from Mr. Cash’s final studio album he cut in 2003 before he died. This song was also very cooly used in the promos for ESPN’s 30-for-30 documentary “Pony Excess”. It was a powerful backdrop to the images of Eric Dickerson and Craig James running rampant through opposing defenses in SMU’s wholly-cheated Pony Express days of the early 80s.

"One of these days I'm gonna cut you down" If I saw Iowa's Tyson Blaser coming after me, I'd run the other way too bro.

Here’s the video to the song, which features numerous cameos from such iconic dignitaries as Iggy Pop, Cheryl Crow, Bono, Kris Kristofferson, Flea and Anthony Keidis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, Johnny Depp and Dennis Hopper, among many:

( Hey there Stitch-Heads, since I originally posted this video link, the poster of the vid didn’t allow the link to be embedded, so I’ve just added this video link instead. You’ll still be able to hear the song. Check out the original video if you want, I’m sure you can find it.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

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STANFORD-LIKE PULLOVERS.

One of the things that jumped out at me right off the bat today was when I noticed that Indiana has gone the pullover route in their jerseys now, which is really cool. When I asked coach Tracy Smith about the dashing new look, he was quick to give credit where credit was due.

“That’s all coach (Ben) Greenspan’s work,” Smith said. “He’s the fashion consultant here. He was the one that came up with the idea. He told me, ‘You’ve got to leave it to me when it comes to the fashion decisions. Trust me, you’ll like it.’ And I have to admit, he’s right. We even had a couple players come up to me and say, ‘Coach, this is my favorite jersey.’”

Josh Lyon sports the pullover style jersey that so many IU players apparently like. Oh and the white shoes is pretty cool too. Well done Coach Greenspan.

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THAT CRAPPY RPI.

Coming into today, IU had an RPI of No. 90. So I asked coach Smith about his teams’ prospects for the post-season, noting that Boyd Nation’s RPI Needs Report had them needing to go 22-0 the rest of the way to get into the Top 45 of the RPI and what he thought of that.

“I’ve said it all year that this team is a potential Top 25 team and I really believe that. I’ve been pretty out-spoken about things like the RPI because it drives me crazy. I mean, it’s a double-edged sword, you don’t want it to be an excuse, but if you don’t say anything then nothing will ever get done about it. And it’s not anything against the Southern teams, though people might think it is. I’ve simply said from the beginning that I wish they’d do something at the NCAA-level about the first 20-to-25 games of the season, whether its weigh them better for road wins or give them less weight for losses. You know, there’s a reason why it’s called a ‘home field advantage’ because it IS an advantage. And the formula now doesn’t take going on the road into consideration enough.”

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QUOTES.

IOWA HEAD COACH JACK DAHM.

- When asked if his team was (for once) injury-free.

“No. Our catcher Dan Sheppard, who was drafted out of high school, blew out his elbow and had Tommy John surgery. Our number two starter, Nick Brown, who had the best numbers and been throwing the ball better than anybody, he’s out for a while. And then one of our best relief pitchers, Zach Kenyon, who beat Mississippi State, he’s just come back this week. And our closer has had some mechanical problems and we can’t use him right now. So the answer is ‘No.’ And the timing is pretty bad too.”

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- On my noticing he still likes to aggressively send runners toward home like he was notorious for in his Creighton days.

“I tell our guys that with two outs, I’m gonna send you guys from second to home about 95% of the time. Especially with the way we’ve been struggling to score runs. Coach (Jim) Hendry (former CU head coach and current White Sox GM) always told me when I was coaching 3rd for him, ‘Every good 3rd base coach gets guys thrown out from time to time. So you might get yelled at by me but don’t worry about getting guys thrown out once in a while.’ So I’ve lived by that philosophy ever since.”

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- When asked about his teams’ wins over Mississippi State and close losses elsewhere.

“Ya’ know, we’ve been right there in a lot of games. We beat Mississippi State twice, which was good, but we haven’t caught the right breaks in a lot of games it seems. Our starting pitching has been really good, but all of the sudden we’ve had a hard time scoring runs. We haven’t had that ONE guy step up, get hot and take charge. Look at this weekend, we had (Matt) Dermody and (Jarred) Hippen throw complete games in the first two of this series and they barely got any run support.

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- On his team’s potential the rest of the way.

“Pretty simple. College baseball is such a streaky thing. We haven’t started playing well consistently and the Big 10 is up for grabs this year. If we can just grind it out and get better every day, we have the chance to have a really special team. Especially if we can get Nick Brown back on the mound, but he’s suppose to miss a couple more weeks though. But we’ll get him back for the end of the year, so we know we’ve got the best ahead of us.”

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- On the biggest difference on coaching at Iowa compared to when he was the head coach at Creighton.

“The big difference is the money. Here we’ve got football money coming in and basketball money coming in, there’s a lot of money flying around. I don’t have to do any fundraising. At Creighton I had to do a lot of fundraising, but not here, we’re able to coach. The administration allows us to schedule anyone we want and go anywhere to play them. And we’ve got an aggressive coaching staff that has stepped up dramatically in recruiting and upped the talent level significantly. We’re excited about where this program can go.”

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- On the future of the Big 10.

“I really am confident about where we’re going as a league. Everybody is making the commitment with facilities and coaching staffs. A lot of us struggled early this year, but in the next year or two, especially with Nebraska coming in here having been the best program in the midwest the last 10 years, this conference is really going to improve dramatically. And the best part is, all the coaches are working together on this to figure out what we need to do to get better. We went to a three-game weekend in conference play now, we increased our travel rosters and we are finally able to over-sign in recruiting. That used to kill all of us. Like Michigan, they went from a Super Regional team one year to the bottom of the conference the next because they would lose so many juniors and we couldn’t over-sign in recruiting. Now we can, which gives us a chance to have more consistent seasons year-to-year.”

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INDIANA HEAD COACH TRACY SMITH.

- On his impressions of his team so far this season.

“We’re pitching very well and giving ourselves a chance to win, but we’re not swinging the bats at all. Some of it may be the new bats, sure, but we have most of the same guys back from last year and we’re just not doing it at the plate. But we’ve been playing solid all year. I tell you what, if we were scoring like we did last year, we’d probably be undefeated right now.”

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- On pitcher Joey DeNato’s 8-inning, 4-hit effort in game two today.

“Well he came to us as a high school All American, so he came in with some high credentials and from a very good league in Southern California. It was interesting because he didn’t give up a single run all fall, so we knew he was good. You saw today, he keeps the ball low, he spots it well, he’s competitive and a very tough-minded dude. And he goes against everything I believe in recruiting, he’s not 6′4/6′5, he’s maybe 5′7/5′8, but he makes up for it by being a very competitive kid.”

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- On if he liked the teams’ effort and personality.

“This has been one of my most enjoyable teams I’ve ever coached. We have a lot of fun and we love being on the road. And that’s usually the big test for me, when you see the same guys day-in, day-out and sometimes you get tired of seeing them every day. Not this team. This is a good group, very mature in their approach to coming out and working every day.”

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- On how this team compares to the 2009 team that finished the season so strong.

“It’s right there. I told our coaches, as well as we’ve done up until now, we’re still not clicking yet. Alex Dickerson is an All American, but he hasn’t gotten on track yet. And Josh Lyons did well today, but he was an All Big 10 DH last year and hasn’t done much yet. So I don’t know if this is as talented as that 2009 team, but we’ve got some really talented young guys. Whereas the 2009 team was a very mature team. This year’s team has more depth for sure. Just look at this weekend, our Friday guy and our Saturday guy didn’t even pitch this weekend, so that tells you about the quality of depth we have on the mound.”

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SOME MORE PICS.

A few more images from today’s two games.

Kurt Lee was called out on this steal attempt in game one. i.e.: Another fine defensive play.

Jerrud Sabourin became IU's hitting King today.

Not really sure what the hell this 2-2-and-2 ritual is, but these Hawkeyes were having fun with it.

Trevor Willis wasn't all that crash-hot about being called out on strikes. Don't worry Trev, you weren't the only victim in this well-pitched series.

The temperature was announced to be 45 degrees today. But it really didn't seem THAT cold, even though these IU fans were well-huddled under blankets.

Meanwhile, some people handled the day quite well. Like Indiana's bus driver here, cooly comfortable in a button-down shirt, showing those Iowa people how to "Man Up"

All American Alex Dickerson looks for divine intervention to improve his fortunes in his slow-starting 2011 season.

Jack Dahm and Tracy Smith shake it out after the conclusion of game two.

The statue of Nile Kinnick: Iowa legend, football standout and American hero.

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Getting late. Gotta hit the hay to get up early for my drive to Lincoln tomorrow. So here’s the speed round for today.

– THREE UP.

The good part.

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1- THE SWEEPERS.

Big props to…

- Oregon State for going 3-0 at Stanford. (Really? Wow.)

- St. John’s for taking down No. 28 Louisville in three straight at home.

- North Carolina State for shocking No. 6 North Carolina in all three games.

- Manhattan stunned Marist in three straight games, including today’s DH twin-killing.

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2- GEORGIA SOUTHERN’s VICTOR ROACHE.

Went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBI in today’s 16-13 win over Western Carolina. For the week, Roache has now homered in all five games this week and has hit 18 dingers on the season.

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3- UCLA’s BEAU AMARAL

Holy shit there might just be some offense to the Bruins afterall. Amaral went 3-for-4 with six RBI in the 8-5 win over Arizona today. He had the game-tying two-run yard call in the 7th inning and then the game-winning three-run double in the 8th inning.

Kevin Williams scores what would be the game-winning run for UCLA against Arizona. In the background is Beau Amaral, racing toward 2nd base after knocking in three runs with this hit.

3a- FLORIDA’s PRESTON TUCKER.

Only went 2-for-5, but both of his hits were bombs beyond the fence in the 14-7 win at Georgia. In the 7th inning, his two-run home run put the Gators up for good. Then in the 8th, he slapped a monstrous grand slam to finish the day with six RBI.

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– THREE DOWN.

The baddest of the very bad.

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1- NORTH CAROLINA.

As mentioned above, the Heels lost all three games at N.C. State, culminating with today’s 10-2 blowout loss.

(Special dishonorable mentions to Louisville and Stanford for going goose-eggs this weekend too.)

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2- KENT STATE.

Just when I defended the Flashes in my ESPN preview, they go out and lose two of three at Central Michigan (although I saw CMU beat Florida Gulf Coast earlier this year, so they are no chopped liver).

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3- DARTMOUTH.

The Ivy League favorites got body-slammed this weekend, losing all four games at Yale. In those four games, the experienced offense scored all of three runs. Three.

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G’night.

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.

While I was at today’s Stanford-USC game, I started thinking about how this weekend has brought up more questions than provided rock-solid answers for us college stitched-ball fans. So I decided to make tonight’s column a simple “10 Questions” segment.

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10 QUESTIONS THAT TODAY’S RESULTS BROUGHT TO MY MIND.

1- Are there a bigger set of Jekyl & Hyde teams out there than Stanford and Kansas State?

These two teams come from different ends of the spectrum, but give off similar shine. Let’s just hope it’s not light from a dead star, right? Today, KSU pulled out a second win over No. 7 Oklahoma with a 6-2 win, giving the Purple Cats their first series win over the Sooners since 2001. But they’ve also had some bruise-ugly losses, like to teams like Long Island (?), Western Kentucky and Cal.

Meanwhile, going the other direction was Stanford, who dropped a weekend series at USC with today’s 6-2 loss which dipped the Cardinal to 15-9 and 3-3 in the Pac 10. Look for SU’s No. 11 RPI to drop significantly when Boyd posts the newest rankings tomorrow. In their two losses this weekend, Stanford’s youth looked very obvious.

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2- Is LSU wearing down?

As I mentioned the other day, it’s not uncommon for a very young team to start to wear down physically as April and May come around, just ‘coz they’re not used to long baseball seasons. The bad side is, the Tigers have looked sick-kitten like recently. But don’t be shocked, LSU is very young on the mound and in their psyche. And with today’s 5-4 loss at Arkansas, the purple gang has now gone 5-9 since mid-March and, dating back to last season, have now lost seven of their last nine series in SEC play. Wow.

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3- Is Miami finally coming around to being Miami again?

The Canes completed a weekend sweep of North Carolina State with today’s 3-0 win. E.J. Espinosa went 7.0 innings, coming away unscathed on the scoreboard, surrendering just two hits and tossing a career-high 11 Ks in today’s win. The U has now swept its fourth ACC opponent to improve to 21-11 overall and 11-3 in ACC play. Things get a little hairier now, with road trips to Maryland and North Carolina, followed by the rivalry weekend vs. Florida State. So we’ll see.

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4- Shouldn’t we take a more jaundiced eye toward the “A” teams?

After this weekend, it appears as if we should wonder if teams like Alabama and Arizona State will join A-teams like Auburn, Army, Arkansas State, Arkansas-Little Rock and even Alabama A&M on our collective shit lists.

Arizona State got swept in three straight games at Oregon State, albeit all three of them were really close games, losing all three games by a combined six runs. But still, three L’s are three L’s.

Alabama, on the other hand, was practically handed its head on a platter. The Tide got blown out in three straight games at Vanderbilt, losing 11-6 today. It was Alabama’s big stage spotlight weekend… and the Tide retreated meekly, getting outscored 29-9 in the three games.

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5- Should we believe anybody who says so-and-so’s pitching staff is infallible?

Hell no.

Virginia may have won the series at Georgia Tech but the Cavs’ vaunted staff got knocked around by Georgia Tech’s offense, and in turn Tech’s pitchers got raked over the coals by UVa’s batting order. Oh, and remember Texas A&M’s stoic pitching staff? Well Texas Tech made minced meat of them to the tune of 30 hits, 22 runs and also issued 15 walks in three games. And Florida… mighty Florida. The home of Tim Tebow and Gatorade. The Gators lost to Mississippi State 7-5 on Friday night, giving up 12 hits and three home runs in the process. Look, everybody has cracks in the marble slab. And it’ll just make for a more interesting post-season, I’m tellin’ ya’. So hold your freakin’ ego in check dude, it’ll get slapped around soon enough.

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6- Should we go ahead and “buy in” on Stetson, Georgia State, Creighton and Kent State?

Sure, go ahead for now.

These four teams won the biggest non-Big 6 showdowns this weekend and set themselves up as the teams to beat in their respective conferences.

Stetson ended up sweeping Kennesaw State to take control in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Kent State? Definitely buy in on these guys, as they swept West Division leader Eastern Michigan in MAC play. By the way, the Flashes also owned an RPI of No. 28 going into Sunday’s action. Wow. Georgia State was able to out-homer homer-happy James Madison in winning two of three on the road and Creighton went 2-1 at defending MoValley champion Illinois State this weekend. All four deserve major props for the minor tremors they caused in Mid-Majorland.

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7- Was there a better “off-the-radar” team than Rider this weekend?

No. The Broncos went into McCann Field at Marist and came out with a stunning 3-to-nothing series win, by skin-tight scores of 4-3, 3-2 and 4-2. Keep in mind that the Red Foxes had an RPI of an impressive No. 59 coming into this weekend. The Broncos shot swiss-cheese holes in that ranking, despite all three games being white-knucklers. Look for RU’s No. 116 RPI to go ahead and make leaps and bounds as well. First baseman Mason Heyne tied the school’s high-water mark of 169 career RBI by gathering two ribs in today’s getaway game win.

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8- Are you guys ready for an Oregon State-North Carolina redux in The O?

After this weekend, we may be looking at these two combatants going for the big brass ring in Omaha again. Not kidding man. The Beavers were the most impressive team in the country this weekend, sweeping No. 5 Arizona State in Corvallis in three straight games. That left me slack-jawed, I have to admit. Then again, I also got all goofy-faced over the Tarheels winning the series at Florida State. How can this young team with an unheralded pitching staff take down the heretofore impressive Seminoles in front of the Animals of Section B? THAT’s the magic of head coach Mike Fox. Today the Heels scored all their runs in the 2nd inning and got their second straight save from Michael Morin to lock down the weekend win.

Wouldn’t it be bitchin’ to see these two in the finals again? I have to admit, I think I’d have to pull for Carolina. I mean, there’s only so much pain a really good program should have to go through, ya’ know?

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9- Aren’t Sunday games awesome now?

Woo-hoo! I can (almost) have a life again!

With the new bats, Sunday games aren’t so much the four-to-five hour headaches like they have been. Today, I went to see the Stanford-USC game which lasted two hours-34 minutes. In the recent past, a Sunday game like this would’ve lasted a freakin’ ice age. It’s soooooo much better man, I’m telling you.

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10- Can anyone explain the difference between East Tennessee State and California?

Look, we all know the RPI is a steaming pile of dung. It sucks balls. But going into Sunday, ETSU was still No. 23 in the RPI and Cal was nearly double that at No. 41. Yet, look at the quality wins:

- EAST TENNESSEE STATE (20-9):

- Marist (2).

- Rider (2)

- Jacksonville

- Stetson

- CALIFORNIA (20-9)

- Coastal Carolina

- North Carolina State

- Kansas State

- San Diego

- Rice

- Long Beach State

- Ohio State (2)

- Washington State (3)

- Arizona

I have nothing against East Tennessee State, after seeing them play in the Atlantic Sun Tournament in person last May, I love Paul Hoilman U. to death. I dig ‘em. But Cal has so many high-quality wins and also has a number of close losses against teams like Oklahoma, Stanford and UConn (all by two runs or less). It just doesn’t make sense.

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The Bonus Round.

Here are some pictures from today’s Stanford-USC game, won by the Men of Troy by a 6-2 count.

SC starter Logan Odom got the win with 7.0 innings of 6-hit ball wit 8Ks.

Danny Sandbrink hits the ground after colliding with 2nd baseman Lonnie Kauppila on a mid-field bouncer. Sandbrink would end up staying in the game unfazed.

SC head coach Frank Cruz had a perplexing Q for Dave Yeast (left) and the rest of the umpiring crew.

Freshman James Roberts (15) gets plaudits from Ricky Oropresa (33) after leading the Trojan offense today.

SC reliever Chad Smith gets the fist-bumps after getting out of an 8th-inning, bases-loaded jam to preserve the win.

The USC band was on hand to play "Conquest" after the Trojan victory while the teams were shaking hands.

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End of transmission.

G’night.