Yep, you knew that.

The "Big Tiddy" is ready to open her arms to the college baseball world.

Let’s get this thing started.

As you know, everybody and their brother’s mother has a CWS preview out there that will post all the numbers, statistical tendencies and tiny dungeons-and-dragons minutia. We get it, and yes it’s all true.

But I like to explain it in the simplest terms possible. There are obvious and not-so-obvious reasons why each team will succeed like golden gods hoisting the trophy of the fatted calf above their heads or go flying over the handlebars and faceplant into the hay bails this coming week. Oh, and I’ve also added THE turnkey player for each team that will have the most importance hinging on his performance here in The O. Yep, I’ve laid them out for you below my friends. Coz that’s what I do for you Stitch-Heads.

Going in descending order of the brackets, here’s the whys and hows to look for…

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VANDERBILT: 52-10

How they could win it all:

- Talent.

The Commodores have a sick amount of talent on their roster. In fact, VU set an SEC record with 12 MLB draftees last week. So if the ‘Dores just play to their potential, they should win the brass ring, right?

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- If Tony Kemp and Mike Yastrzemski set the table well.

Kemp is the leadoff hitter, so you figure it’s huge for him to get on base to get the wheels turning for the VU offense. And Yaz, well he usually bats in the 5-spot so that means after Aaron Westlake and Jason Esposito knock everyone in, it’s up to him to re-set the table. By the way, Kemp and Yaz lead the ‘Dores in stolen bases with 16 and 22 respectively. That’s big.

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- Keep coming up in clutch with two outs

You saw it time and again during the Regionals and Super Regionals. It’s self-explanatory. Two-out hitting wins championships.

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How they could go belly-up in two:

- If the easy Regional assignment and getting a relatively cold Oregon State team in the Supers gives them a false sense of security.

Eh, it could happen.

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- If they fall to the wide-eyed effect of Omaha.

We’ve all seen wildly talented teams get to the CWS and fawn over being there for the first time (cough, cough… Florida in 2010… cough, cough).

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Key Player:

- Aaron Westlake.

So if the big stick keeps clipping along like he was last weekend, anybody and everybody who crosses paths with him is in trouble. And by the way, doesn’t his swing remind you of Eddy Furniss? Am I the only one here who thinks that?

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NORTH CAROLINA: 50-14

How They Could Win It All:

- If Patrick Johnson gives the Heels three quality starts.

The Tarheel ace is total badness on the mound and showed me a lot when he shut down Stanford in game one of the Regionals. In fact, his season has rivaled that of some of the recent Heel studs like Andrew Miller, Daniel Bard, Robert Woodard, Alex White, Adam Warren and Matt Harvey. Good lineage.

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- If the non-stars keep coming up aces.

The Heels haven’t had to rely on Colin Moran and Levi Michael all season. In fact, Brian Holberton, a .245 hitter entering last weekend, and 9-hole hitter Seth Baldwin both came up huge vs. the Cardinal in the Supers. And those are just examples of how balanced this team is.

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- They lean on their experience.

A couple of upperclassmen will be making their 2nd and 3rd appearance in Omaha, so this team probably won’t befall that wide-eyed effect.

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How They Could Go Belly-Up in Two:

- If no lock-down arm emerges.

The Heels have a deep, talented bullpen, but there’s no Andrew Carignan-type dominatrix to put the total clamps on someone and leave them wincing in proverbial pain.

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- With THIS bracket, they could get shut down.

UNC only hits .289 as a team and they are paired against Vanderbilt, Texas and Florida, who all have wicked-deep pitching staffs that can make you look foolish… and could easily send you home with your tail tucked between your legs in two games.

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Key Player:

- Chris Munnelly

The No. 3 starter for the Heels is just 6-5/4.11 and most importantly, will be walking onto the big stage for the first time. And in the CWS, you KNOW how important a third starter is to a rotation.

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TEXAS: 49-17

How They Could Win It All:

- If the “Augie Factor” kicks in again.

Coach Garrido went through a spell of seasons in the early 2000s where his teams always played better than their seeding, including the 2002 and 2005 title teams. If they play with the confidence and poise those teams did, they’ll go to the title round again for the second time in three years.

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- If one of the frosh hurlers pulls a Jungmann.

Remember how bitchin’ Taylor Jungmann was in Omaha in 2009, including the win over LSU in the finals? Well if the top two bullpenners, Corey Knebel (3-2, 1.15, 19saves) and Nathan Thornhill (3-0, 1.69) can come up just as clutch out of the pen, the Longhorns will go a long way.

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- If they stay out of the slugfests.

Obviously, you’re not going to out-score teams like Vanderbilt and Florida, so UT must make any games against those teams as big of pitching-and-defense grinders as possible.

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How They Could Go Belly-Up in Two:

- If Jungmann stays cold.

The All American ace has now famously lost two straight games. Tsk, tsk. His ERA has gone from 0.95 to 1.38 (Gasp!). And as mentioned above, they’ll be taking on some pretty formidable offenses, so dipping into the loser’s bracket is taboo.

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- If the offense turtles-up again.

UT hits a boney-armed .272 as a team, so they are certainly capable of being completely boxed up all week. Somebody has to come out and give this offense a shot in the arm or else they better hope two or three runs holds up against the powerful teams in their bracket. Not bloody likely.

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Key Player:

- Mark Payton

Obviously, I could’ve said Taylor Jungmann here. But the Longhorns’ No. 2 hitter in the lineup has been a huge key to their late-season success. For example, in their last seven losses, Payton has just one hit in those games.

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FLORIDA: 50-17

How They Could Win It All:

- Use last year as a learning experience.

I expect the Gators to be much more business-like this time around, leaving all the pomp and circumstance on the back-burner. Look for a better result this time as the “Wow Factor” isn’t an issue.

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- If Mike Zunino and Preston Tucker stay Satan’s-Cauldron hot.

These two are the biggest sticks in a still-loaded batting order. In the last six games of the post-season they’ve combined for 20 hits and 21 RBI. Keep that up and they’ll go far.

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- If Brian Johnson returns and is effective.

Imagine if this “day-to-day” guy is back and somewhat close to full-strength? He’ll bring another dimension to this offense and give the rotation another stud arm.

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How They Could Go Belly-Up in Two:

- If they didn’t learn from last year.

Conversely to No. 1 above, if these guys come in with an air of entitlement and think just showing up will work in Omaha, they’re nuts. (But I’ll assume they know that). Bear down boys.

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- If Hudson Randall gets into trouble early.

A huge key to Miami’s lone win over the Gators in the Regionals was in their ability to scratch across some runs and get Randall to actually – gulp! – issue a couple of walks. If he isn’t 100% sharp vs. Texas (or if he gets the call vs. Vandy and/or North Carolina), the UofF hopes are in peril.

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Key Player:

- Brian Johnson.

As mentioned above – and it bears repeating – if the two-way stud comes back and is anywhere close to effective, he gives the order another lethal big stick and on the mound he’ll provide a dominant third starter.

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CALIFORNIA: 37-21

How They Could Win It All:

- The Fresno State effect.

Just like the Bulldogs in 2008, everyone is overlooking the Bears and dismissing them as a “nice story” but no real threat here. That would be a mistake, people.

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- If the quality staff lives up to billing.

The Bears have an outstanding stable of arms. The staff ERA is 2.82 and the only well-used arm with an ERA above 3.00 is No. 3-starter Dixon Anderson, who by the way was a 6th round draft pick last year). Justin Jones and Erik Johnson did an outstanding job shutting down a really potent Dallas Baptist offense, so they’re at the top of their game right now.

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- If they stay hot.

This is a team that limped down the stretch, going 5-6 in their final regular season games. Well, since the opening round loss to Baylor, the Golden Bears have reeled off six straight wins. Plus, neither game in the Supers was in question at all.

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How They Could Go Belly-Up in Two:

- If they’re just glad to be here.

Kind of a reoccurring theme here, but it’s true, if Cal is satisfied with just making it here to Omaha and feel that’s enough of an “F-you” statement to their administration, this could be a quick trip, no doubt.

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- If Justin Jones isn’t 100%

The Friday night ace left Saturday’s DBU game complaining of something in his left bicep. If it’s healed and there’s no problem, that’s big time bully for Berkeley. If he’s found it to be a nagging problem and isn’t able to face UVa, that’s a huge red flare to send up.

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- If the bats go mysteriously quiet again.

I saw the Cal offense in complete shut-down mode in late-season games with Arizona State (with Kramer Champlin on the mound) and UCLA (with Trevor Bauer on the mound). They must revert to the ways that got them through the Regionals and Supers, or it’s curtains.

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Key Player:

- Tony Renda

The Bear dynamo came up gimpy in trying to hustle down the base paths vs. DBU last week and if he is still got a hitch in his giddy-up, it’ll be a big blow to their hopes. When healthy, this 2nd-baseman extraordinaire is a Craig Kohlkorst-type of high-energy, dirt-under-the-nails guy.

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VIRGINIA: 54-10

How They Could Win It All:

- If somebody new keeps stepping up each day.

This team is so talent-laden, even when Danny Hultzen, Steven Proscia or John Hicks have off-days, the Cavs have consistently had other players step up and make their presence felt. That’s got to be a relief to Brian O’Connor as a coach.

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- If Danny Hultzen returns to being Danny Hultzen.

The John Olerud Award Finalist needs to shake his recent skein as he’s gone just 3-3 in his last six starts. At the dish, he’s raised his average to .320, and must stay a force for his teams to make the order even more dangerous.

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- Get another transcendent performance from The Worm

Nine-hole hitter Keith Werman is hitting just .210 this season, but do you remember how huge he was in 2009? If he can come up with hits over the drawn-in outfielders, he’ll approach sainthood in Charlottesville.

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How They Could Go Belly-Up in Two:

- If they continue to be a struggle at the dish.

Hard to believe, but the Cavs have scored just four runs in the last 13 innings. They can’t rely on a miracle finish every day, especially not against the high-quality teams they’ll see in The O this week.

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- If they overlook Cal in game one.

It’s not bloody likely, sure. But could you imagine if this team treats the Bears like “Pfft! It’s just the sixth-place team in the Pac 10.” If UVa walks in thinking  too much about how they’ve only lost 10 games all year, it could be a big slap in the face should the Bears keep playing extremely well.

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Key Player:

- Brandon Kline.

The ace reliever has looked fault-line shaky the last two games, allowing UC Irvine to rally both times. It won’t be so forgiving if the Cav stud bullpenner can’t shut down anyone here. He’s GOT to have his A-game.

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SOUTH CAROLINA: 50-14

How They Could Win It All:

- It’s South Carolina, c’mon.

The Gamecocks won it all last season, in case you didn’t know, so they’ve definitely got the pedigree with most of the batting order and a good number of pitchers already having plenty of CWS experience. That’s a big time factor.

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- Get another out-of-nowhere, Michael Roth performance.

Last year’s elimination-game 3-hitter by Roth vs. Clemson was incredible. It was the best performance in the CWS. I’m not saying that somebody needs to do that again here, but if the Cocks do fall into the loser’s bracket, somebody in their deep ‘pen will need to have a tour de force like that for SC.

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- If these Jackie Bradley Jr. rumors are true.

As of press time for this column, we’ve heard rumblings that JBJ’s injury is healing fast and he is possibly going to be available for the CWS. If that’s true, it’s a sizable lift to the psyche of this team.

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How They Can Go Belly-Up in Two:

- If they get off to another slow start.

The ‘Cocks pulled off a tough trick last year, losing their first game of the CWS before sweeping their way through unbeaten from there. Not sure if this year’s team is as capable of doing the same (not that ANY team is). Starting pitching beyond Michael Roth isn’t as dominating as last year’s squad.

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- If they get off to another slow start, part 2.

Oddly, nearly 41% of the Cocks’ runs allowed have come in the first three innings this season. Though they are tough and have a good comeback ability, getting out to better starts in games will be a big factor in their success.

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Key Player:

- Jackie Bradley Jr.

Hate to repeat myself, but again, this is a huge (possible) development. Bradley was only hitting .259 this year, but he is a difference-maker in that clubhouse, no doubt. So we’ll see. Oh, and if not JBJ, then look for Matt Price as the key player. He’s actually shown some vulnerability at times this season (does he REALLY have three losses?), so he’ll need to be on total lock-down mode here.

Will SoCar get the chance to raise up Jackie Bradley Jr. again in Omaha? Good question.

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TEXAS A&M: 47-20

How They Could Win It All:

- Keep swinging it.

There was nothing wrong with the Aggie offense last weekend, hitting .300 off of Florida State, including knocking 1st-round draftee Sean Gilmartin around a bit. Not sure how the new park with play with hitters, but the Ags bats need to stay hot.

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- Find a third dominant starter step up.

Obviously, beyond Ross Stripling and Michael Wacha, things haven’t been rose petals and puppy tails. That 23-9 loss to Florida State was a big red flag. So while hoping a pitcher comes up with a big game is huge, staying in the winner’s bracket will be big too.

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- Get the running game going.

The Ags are in their comfort zone when they’re taking an opposing pitcher out of his. They’ve stolen 108 bases this season, including Krey Bratsen’s team leading 31 thefts. If they get on base early and often, it can be a game-changer.

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How They Could Go Belly-Up in Two:

- If they rely too much on Michael Wacha

In a 10-day span of the post-season, Wacha threw 302 pitches in three starts vs. Wright State, Arizona and Florida State. His last outing vs. the Noles was a 129-pitch effort on Monday. This dude’s arm has to have a limit soon.

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- Yes, yes, the “wide-eyed” effect.

It’s been since 1999 that the Aggies have stepped foot in Omaha, so you have to wonder how they’ll do under the big spotlight. Are they just glad to be here? If they show a lot of early nerves – walking guys, booting grounders, baserunning errors – it’s a quick trip in the promised land.

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Key Player:

- Nick Fleece.

With the injury to ace John Stilson, Fleece’s role has magnified. And being the only reliever with a sub-3 ERA (he’s 7-1, 1.48 in 33 appearances) means he’ll be more of a pack mule for this team than ever. Whatever his role will be this week, he’s got to shine like never before.

As you guys know, this night before the Regionals always brings me back to my childhood, which I’ve never grown out of, of course. This is the night before the round of 64 gets their gloves on, lace up the cleats and start swinging their Easton bats… well, the champion teams will, that is. (Ha, had to throw that in. Sorry.)

Waking up in the Pacific time zone means I’ll wake up as the early games out East are throwing their first pitches of the post-season. So, as you’d imagine, I’m excited as a little girl as to get this started. And that right soon.

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A HEAD’S UP TO YOU GUYS.

Not sure what I’m going to do for Regional coverage on this site this weekend. I’ve been asked by ESPN.com to contribute a nightly “What We Learned” write-up for each day of the Regionals. And get this… they’ve asked me to keep it to 600-650 words. I know, that’s about 3,000 words less than what I usually write, ain’t it?

Well anyway, I think I may just do the write-up for ESPN, provide a link on my site and then add a bunch of pics from the Regionals that I go to and the Regionals that the First Lady of Stitch-Head Nation covers for me. Oh, and I think the Doctor of College Baseball may contribute some from the right coast as well. Stay tuned in, ‘coz I’ll try to have something for you guys here as well.

Okay, admit it, how sick are you of seeing this ESPN-StitchHead visual this year?

Just wanted to let you know that I may not be doing the regular Regional coverage that you get from me here. More than likely ESPN won’t post my write-ups until the following morning since the Fullerton Regionals last game on each night won’t conclude until about 11pm Pacific. So it’ll be sending it in while you guys out East will be deep in sleep. Hopefully the ESPN peeps will post it first thing in the morning for you.

Tony Mueller led the offense and added the save in WSU's 7-5 win over SoConn.

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BY THE WAY, THE D-2 NATIONAL TITLE GAME IS SET.

Looks like it’ll be Winona State (42-17) and West Florida (51-9) set to face off for the Division II national championship game on Saturday at noon Eastern time on CBS College Sports. Tonight, the Doctor of College Baseball was at Winona State’s 7-5 win over Southern Connecticut, which was played in Cary, North Carolina, to advance to the title game.

Tony Mueller, the leadoff hitter for the Warriors, was 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI to lead the offense. He also pulled double-duty on the bump, throwing the final inning of the game to preserve his second save of the season and lead the Warriors to the title game on Saturday morning.

The Southern Connecticut Owls end their season with a remarkable 45-9-1 mark on the 2011 season. In case you were wondering, West Florida advanced to the title match after getting past Mount Olive by a 5-3 count earlier in the day to advance. Left Fielder Greg Pron now sports a .472 average after leading the Argonauts with a 2-for-5 day and advancing them to a national title showdown with Winona State.

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THE SMARTEST PLAY-BY-PLAY MAN IN THE COUNTRY.

In case you guys didn’t know, Fresno State’s radio play-by-play golden voice Paul Loeffler is also the expert color commentator for the yearly Scripps National Spelling Bee, televised on ESPN. In fact, the Spelling Bee is usually held during the Regionals round of the college baseball season, but this year the Bee was held a few days earlier so that Paul was able to make it to Los Angeles for the Dogs playing in the UCLA regional.

Wanna feel like a dip-stick? Just watch five minutes of these junior high kids in this Spelling Bee. While I’m here having trouble spelling words like sacrifice and error, these whiz kids are blurting out unimaginable words like naumkeag and panguingue.

Turns out that Paul himself was a former competitor back in the 1990 Spelling Bee competition. He’s been doing the commentating for the Bee for a number of years now and just completed the taping of the show last night. And as stated above, he’ll be back in the radio booth at UCLA for the Regionals on Friday.

This year, Fresno radio man Paul Loeffler (left) got to work with the ravishing, leggy Sage Steele for this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee. Nice goin' Paul.

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CAN AN EX-MLB GUY ACTUALLY SUCCEED AS A D-1 HEAD COACH?

On Thursday, Nebraska announced that former 14-year major leaguer Darin Erstad would go from unpaid assistant to head coach at NU. I love the fact that it’s a former Husker – particularly a former Husker footballer who beat the Hurricanes for the national title in their stadium – that is taking over the Big Red baseball program.

Darin Erstad (#12) scans the action of batting practice for the April 19th game vs. Creighton before the first game at the new downtown stadium.

As Sean Ryan of CollegeBaseballInsider.com pointed out, he’s an aggressive, go-getter type of coach who won’t take shit from anybody who is not hustling on the field. That part I love.

Watching him in the dugout during the Creighton-Nebraska game back in April at the first game at the new downtown stadium in Omaha, he was very demonstrative in giving out batting advice to the hitters during pitching changes and in directing the outfielders on the defensive side.

The only problem I see is the recent history of major leaguers that have come to the college game and struggled mightily. Just look at the dry runs of coaches like Tony Gwynn (one NCAA bid since 2002), Vance Law (one NCAA bid for BYU since late 90s), Ed Sprague (no NCAA bids in six or seven years) and Tracy Woodson (no NCAA bids at Valparaiso). The only ’successful’ coach that was a former MLB player in recent years is Scott Bradley at Princeton, who has taken the Tigers to six NCAA tournaments in his 12 years. But his overall record is barely over .500.

Erstad, directing the outfield from the top row of the dugout in that game vs. CU.

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“CAL STATE-NORMAN” FOR THE GIRLS TOO?

Just noticed while watching Oklahoma’s women’s softball team take on Arizona State tonight in the softball College World Series that five of the nine starters for the Sooner ladies are from California. That reminds me of the 1994 national champion Sooner baseballers who were nicknamed “Cal State Norman” because seemingly half of his title-winning squad was from the Golden State.

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BY THE WAY, I DIDN’T WANT TO BRING THIS UP…

But I have to say. All you angry fanatics of the big-money conferences and Top 10 snobs that don’t like my thoughts on the Big East being a really good conference and deserving of having three teams in the NCAA tournament. And also my bantering for teams like Hawaii, Stony Brook and Gonzaga, who should’ve all been in the post-season. Keep in mind, half the reason I know there are teams in the mid-majors that are better than most of you think is because I hear the coaches tell me they are. The other half of the reason? Because I’ve seen more teams play in person than anybody else has.

And I know, I sound like a pompous ass by writing that. To tell you the truth, I didn’t want to go there either. Sorry.

Now that’s bizarre.

MY MESSAGE TO THE NCAA SELECTION COMMITTEE.
This time, I’m doing this well in advance of the announcement show so they can hopefully take these points into account. 10 things we all hope the selection committee considers before they evaluate their field of 64.

1- USE COMMON SENSE MORE THAN THE RPI.
As was pointed out in Aaron Fitt’s tweet from yesterday, the same Georgia team that got drummed 10-0 and are sub-500 has a better RPI than Pac 10 leader Oregon State.

Sour Jesus people! How can this be?

2- IN FACT, FEEL FREE TO NOT USE THE RPI AT ALL
Just a suggestion. A strong suggestion.

3- PLEASE DO TAKE CONFERENCE AFFILIATION INTO ACCOUNT.
You always hear the Selection Committee chairman say “We didn’t take conference affiliation into account when making our decisions”. Well I’m here to tell you that you SHOULD take conference affiliation into account. In other words, if you’ve found that you’ve already taken six or seven teams from one conference, make that your cut off. If a team doesn’t finish inside the top six of their conference, it’s obvious they’re not the best team.

4- GIVE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT TO THE MID-MAJOR
It seems like the Big Six conference teams always get preferential treatment, especially those that finish under .500 in their conference races. But with the amazing parity of college baseball, it should signal the end of bottom division teams getting at-large bids. If it comes down to an 8th place team vs. a conference champion that didn’t win it’s tournament, go with the conference champion. Please.

5- MAKE ROAD WINS A HUGE PRIORITY.
Any team that has single digit road win totals (I’m looking your direction LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma State, Florida Atlantic) should be looked upon with a very jaundiced eye. It’s high time the sport starts encouraging multi-faceted schedules. Just assume that if a team has proven it can’t win on the road very much, it won’t have success in the regionals.

6- ENOUGH WITH THE REPEATED MATCHUPS.
We’ve seen enough of the usual matchups in the post-season, so knock it off. Please put TCU and Texas, Fullerton and UCLA and Florida and Miami on complete opposite sides of the brackets. In fact, make it to where the only way they could match up is in the CWS title round. (By the way, I’m sure there are more of those repeat matchups out there, feel free to add your own Stitch-Heads.).

7- LIVE UP TO YOUR SMALL SCHOOL MINDSET.
Six of the 10 members of the selection committee are from small to mid-major schools. Unlike last year, let’s hope it manifests itself this time in the field of 64.

8- IF ALL ELSE FAILS, LEAN ON THE HUMAN POLLS.
As much as I find the human polls so silly, when you guys see a wild discrepancy, lean toward what most people believe is true. In other words, when you see a team like UC Irvine down at No. 41 in the RPI, but at No. 16 in the NCBWA poll or Oregon State down at No. 25 in the RPI but No. 6 in Baseball America’s poll or UCLA at No. 42 in the RPI but No. 19 in the ESPN poll, use your common sense on what is probably more correct. You get my drift here fellas.

9- GO AHEAD AND PUT A REGIONAL SOMEPLACE NEW.
You guys are always so peacock proud to say “we want to spread the sport of college baseball with regionals in new areas”. Well, since you guys also have long contended that “it’s not about money” anymore (pause to cough), go ahead and put a Regional in an off-the-beaten-path place like you did with UConn last year. Ya’ know, Fresno and Stetson would still be outstanding two-seed hosts. Just sayin’.

10- KEEP IMPROVING.
This directive is a little more nebulous, but the last few years, you guys have slowly but surely gotten a little bit better. In fact, last year most national writers were fawning all over your brackets… even though I gave it only a C-. Anyway, not to pressure you here, but go ahead and keep making the baseball masses a little bit more happy.

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Now on to some of the things that happened on this day in conference tournaments.

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— THREE UP

1- THE ONE-HITTERS.
- TAYLOR JUNGMANN, TEXAS
Yep, the lanky dude has done it again. Today he one-hit Baylor in another complete-game performance to put Texas at 1-1 in the Big 12 tournament. Jungmann gave up a *slightly* high four walks, but also struck out seven in the complete game effort.

- ANDREW SMITH AND JOHN HAMILTON, CHARLOTTE
The 49ers took down 5th-seeded Richmond in the winner’s bracket matchup of the A-10. Smith went 7.0 innings, giving up the lone hit and striking out five as well. Hamilton came on in relief and gave up only a harmless walk to complete the one-hitter.

- JEFFREY GIBBS AND SHAUN COUGHLIN, MAINE
The two Black Bear hurlers held the potent Stony Brook offense in check to secure an 8-1 win. Maine now advances to the title game of the AmEast, after handing the Seawolves just their 11th loss of the season.

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2- THE STEAL OF HOME.
Georgia Tech had the balls to call a steal of home in the 15th inning to win their grudge-match with North Carolina State, 6-5. In the longest game in school history, frosh Mott Hyde pulled the trick in the top of the 15th off the windup of Wolfpack reliever Jonathan Ogburn. He slid under the glove of catcher Pratt Maynard.

This was also Tech’s 40th win of the season, it’s 22nd 40+ win season in school history.

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3- THE HBCU CHAMPIONS.
Turns out that MEAC champion Bethune Cookman and SWAC champion Alcorn State didn’t want to sit idly by this weekend. They’ve had the cajones to go ahead and schedule a double-header on Saturday, just for the hell of it. How cool is that? In an age where we can’t even get an unbeaten TCU and unbeaten Auburn football teams to agree to play each other to decide a national champion, these two schools, which are ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the Black College Baseball dot com poll, put egos aside and play for the HBCU title.

That’s cool ass.

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HONORABLE MENTIONS
– ILLINOIS AND ITS CARDIAC KIDS.
The Illini rallied with four runs in the bottom of the 9th to pull out an improbable 5-4 win over homestanding Ohio State to keep them in the winner’s bracket of the Big 10 tournament. This win marked the fifth straight last at-bat win for the Orange and Blue. Yes, five straight games of winning in their last at-bat. In all, UI has now outscored its opponents 34-7 in the 9th inning this season.

Matt Dittman scores the winning run for Illinois in a wild 9th inning comeback.

At 26-25 overall, if Illinois does eventually win this tournament, I’m not sure this is the kind of team I’d want to play. No game is ever over with these guys.

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– NEW MEXICO.
Staying on the cardiac attack theme, for the third straight day the Lobos won a one-run game, 6-5 over Utah, to push the Cherry and Silver into the championship round of the Mountain West tournament. Keep in mind, UNM’s overall record is now 19-39.

Coach Ray Birmingham surmised his team this way after the game, “There’s a lot of duct tape and bailing wire on them, but they’re competing and there’s a method to my madness in getting this program to one of the best in the country.”

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- STETSON’s WILL DORSEY
Threw 6.2 innings to help the Hatters get the 7-2 win over East Tennessee State in an elimination game. Dorsey threw a career-high 121 pitches and gathered a career-high nine Ks. Best yet, ETSU big guns Bo Reeder, Paul Hoilman and Derek Trent went a combined 1-for-11 on the day. Wow.

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– GEORGIA’s ALEX WOOD.
Pitched Georgia to a 3-2 win over Auburn, eliminating the Tigers from the SEC tournament and ending their season since AU is now 29-29 overall. The big strapper threw a complete-game 7-hitter with 8Ks to shut down the Plainesmen.

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– MAINE’s PITCHERS
Jeffrey Gibbs and Shaun Coughlin combined to one-hit regular season champion Stony Brook in an 8-1 win, sending the Bears into the championship round of the America East tournament. Although they gave up only one hit, the two pitchers did allow five walks and the defense behind them committed four errors. But Alex Calbick knocked in five RBI and Michael Fransoso knocked in three RBI to help UMaine put the game away.

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– MIAMI’s ZEKE DeVOSS.
The Hurricane leadoff man and speedster extraordinaire was 4-for-4 with 3RBI and also gathered two walks. His 6-for-6 day in reaching base safely, included a 6th inning bases-clearing double that jump-started the comeback.

Although he should be wearing the shades on his eyes when he's looking into the sun, Zeke DeVoss reached base all six times he went to bat today.

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— THREE DOWN

1- THE BLOWN 5-RUN LEADS.
- North Carolina was up 5-0 on Miami and lost 7-5.
In their final four innings, the Hurricanes scored seven runs on 10 hits, starting with four runs in the 6th inning and two runs in the 7th to flip this game around.

- Memphis jumped out to a 5-0 lead on Rice in the 1st inning, but ended up losing the game 8-5, giving up 14 hits to the Owls. One of the problems was giving Anthony Rendon some pitches to hit, which allowed him to slam a double and a home run as part of a 2-for-4 day.

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2- ELON.
The Phoenix went two-and-out in the Southern Conference tournament, claiming the first of the “Lucky 7″ to lose out in this week’s conference tournaments. In fact, Elon was the only No. 1 seed in the country to exit the tourney scene this week. An 8th inning throwing error by the Phoenix defense allowed College of Charleston to score the winning run. The Phoenix batters also have the indignity of hitting into a tournament record five double plays.

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3- THE CHOICE OF VENUE FOR THE HORIZON LEAGUE TOURNAMENT.
While the Big 10 and MAC tournaments suffered some delays, they were all still able to get their games in today. Meanwhile, 45 minutes away at Wright State’s Nischwitz Stadium in Dayton, Ohio, the entire day’s action was washed out. The problem wasn’t the rain, it eventually stopped. The problem was that Nischwitz Stadium’s field was deemed unplayable from all the rain before the game.

Looks like the Horizon made a poor decision on moving the tournament to Wright State.

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THREE MOST FREAKISH THINGS THAT HAPPENED TODAY.

1- THE UNASSISTED TRIPLE PLAY.
BYU shortstop Andrew Law pulled off the Tanner Boyle-trick today in the Cougars win over San Diego State, going unassisted for three outs after the Aztecs loaded the bases in the 7th inning.

The Triple Play: With the bases loaded, Andrew Law lost a pop-fly in the sun. But the umpires had already called the infield fly, so the batter was out.

The ball finds terra firma, landing six feet or so behind Law.

For some reason, the Aztec runners had started to advance. So Law went up to Pat Colwell and tagged him before he got back to 2nd base.

... then he chased down Cody Smith as he jogged back to 1st. Done. Unassisted triple play.

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2- INSIDE-THE-PARK HOME RUN.
Ohio State’s Greg Soloman pulled the trick in the 8th inning when Illinois center fielder Willie Argo attempted to make a diving catch off of Soloman’s sharp liner, but missed. The wet ground caused him to slip again and Soloman kept rounding the basepaths. A throw to the dish was off-line and a collision between Soloman and Illinois catcher Adam Davis was for naught.

Illinois CF Willie Argo makes a diving stab at a Greg Soloman line drive. He missed. The ball would eventually roll all the way to the wall.

Soloman, still on his horse, races toward home plate as the throw eventually makes its way there too.

Soloman and Illinois catcher Adam Davis have a mean collision at the plate.

Soloman sinks to the ground after touching the plate. The ball was thrown wide, but Davis took umbrage to his being slammed into.

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3- THE CYCLE BOY.
Central Michigan leadoff man Tyler Hall hit for the cycle today in helping the Chippawas eliminate Toledo 9-8. His final hit of the day was a bases-loaded triple in the top of the 9th which spearheaded a four-run inning and helped rally CMU over the Rockets. For the day, Hall went 4-for-4 with 5RBI and also earned two walks.

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BUBBLES BURSTING.
A couple of teams (probably) saw their seasons go bust today.

- EAST TENNESSEE STATE
Record: 36-21
RPI: 32
Today: Lost 7-2 to Stetson
The last thing the Buccaneers needed was a two-and-out at the A-Sun Tourney, but that’s what they got with today’s 7-2 loss to Stetson. Sure, they come into this week with an RPI of No. 32, but this 0-2 week coupled with the 5th place finish in the conference should (emphasis on “should”) be the death-knell for them.

- TEXAS TECH
Record: 33-25
RPI: 44
Today: Lost 3-1 to Oklahoma
I will give the Red Raiders some extra thought because they are one of those “geographically challenged” teams that have a hard time getting teams to come to Lubbock, especially in mid-week games. But this loss may have pulled the lynch pin on their grenade.

- SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA
Record: 35-22
RPI: 51
Today: Lost 5-2 to Texas State
This is a painful redux of 2010 as the Lions were at No. 40 in the RPI three weeks ago, but have seen it dip since then. Today’s 5-2 loss to Texas State made them 0-2 in the Southland tournament and most assuredly ending their season in frustrating fashion.

- ILLINOIS STATE
Record: 36-18
RPI: 55
Today: Lost to Indiana State 7-6.
The Redbirds didn’t have much of a chance, considering their just-out-of-range RPI. But today proved to be the final straw, going 1-and-2 in the MVC tournament.

- FLORIDA ATLANTIC
Record: 32-24
RPI: 43
Today: Lost 9-5 to Troy.
The Owls are now 0-2 in Sun Belt play and looking less likely to get the benefit of the doubt. Overall, the Blue Waves are now 9-11 in the last 20 games. You know how the committee prefers to take teams that are playing on an uptick? Unfortunately, that doesn’t describe the Owls.

- AUBURN
Record: 29-29
RPI: 36
Today: Lost 3-2 to Georgia
There was no margin for error for the Plainsmen here. The one thing Auburn could NOT do this week was go 2-and-out in the SEC tournament. Guess what they did? They went 0-and-2. Mark Etheridge had a great article about what went wrong with Auburn this year, Here’s the link for you to check out when you get the chance.

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BUBBLES BURST?
A couple more teams saw their hopes take a major hit… though not fatal.

- BAYLOR
Record: 29-26
RPI: 26
Today: Lost 6-1 to Texas
At the end of April, the Bears were down at No. 47 in the RPI, but winning weekends vs. Oklahoma State and Oklahoma jumped them up huge and despite the ugly record, should still be good for at-large status. But do they deserve it? Hmmm.

- MISSISSIPPI STATE
Record: 34-23
RPI: 27
Today: Lost 7-2 to Arkansas
With that RPI you’d have to figure the Dogs are safe. But what if the selection committee wises up and actually starts to disbelieve the numbers and starts penalizing the much-weaker SEC West? That’s ponderable, but not likely, I know.

- ELON
Record: 36-21
RPI: 37
Today: Lost 4-3 to College of Charleston
The Phoenix could still be in decent shape for an at-large bid, though there aren’t many glowing wins on its resume including some ugly blowout losses to North Carolina, Clemson and East Carolina, so you never know. Going 0-and-2 in the SoCon Tournament won’t help either.

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BEST QUOTE
TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle talking about his team’s loss to New Mexico on Wednesday night.
“The post-season is never about the best team, it’s the team that plays the best. I thought we looked like an elitist club that just expected to throw our gloves on and win.”

The Frogs would rebound and beat BYU 12-5 in a much more impressive fashion today.

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G’night

This was a typical scene in Athens tonight: Georgia's Michael Palazzone got stronger as the game went on, choking out the Commodores and pacing the Bulldogs to a big win over Vanderbilt.

In my ESPN preview, I proclaimed that teams like LSU, Baylor, Georgia, N.C. State and Louisville all had some much needed work to do this weekend if they wanted to keep their NCAA hopes alive. And they all came through with flying colors on Thursday.

Another team that took a big ole giant step toward procuring a national seed today was North Carolina, who put some major league clamps on No. 1 Virginia in a 6-0 win in Chapel Hill.

The Doctor of College Baseball was there and sent in a pretty dang good write-up about it all.

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WHAT THE DOCTOR OF COLLEGE BASEBALL SAW AT THE BOSH TODAY.

North Carolina handed top-ranked Virginia just its seventh loss of the season and improved their own hopes of becoming a national seed themselves.

Danny Hultzen will have to rally the Cavs in his start on the mound on Friday night.

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LINESCORE:

UVa – 000 000 000 – 0  4  1

UNC – 000 005 01x – 6 10 1

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PITCHERS:

WP: Patrick Johnson (10-1)

LP: Cody Winiarski (6-3)

Save: None

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HITTERS:

UVa.

- John Barr, 2-for-4

UNC.

- Levi Michael, 2-for-3

- Jesse Wierzbicki, 3-for-4

- Jacob Stalling, 2-for-3, RBI

- Tommy Coyle, 2-for-4, 2RBI

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IN SUMMATION

Patrick Johnson (10-1) pitched perhaps the best game of his career with a complete game, 4-hit shutout to lead UNC past No. 1-ranked Virginia in game one of the final weekend of ACC play.

Patrick Johnson threw a complete game to beat top-ranked Virginia tonight in front of the good doctor.

Johnson stymied UVa with 9Ks, allowing only four singles (no extra base hits), and walked none as he threw 136 pitches. He was so dominant that following a leadoff single by Danny Hultzen in the top of the 4th, Johnson retired the final 15 Cavaliers’ batters in order. Hultzen will make his usual Friday night start in game two.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the 6th inning as Johnson and Virginia’s Cody Winiarski held the hitters at bay on both sides. The Tar Heels erupted for five runs in the 6th to give Johnson all the help he needed. Third baseman Colin Moran started the scoring with a sacrifice fly that plated Chaz Frank. An errant pickoff attempt by Winiarski, a single by Jesse Wierzbicki, a sacrifice bunt by Ben Bunting and an intentional walk to Jacob Stallings set the stage for Tommy Coyle’s two-run single to make it 3-0.

Coyle hit a high chopper to 3B Steven Proscia, who was unable to handle the short-hop as the ball trickled under his glove. Levi Michael scored and Jesse Wierzbicki ran through a stop sign by Coach Mike Fox to score as well.

Greg Holt followed with a pinch hit single to score Stallings, then got caught off first base in what appeared to be an old-fashioned walk off, staying alive in a rundown long enough for Coyle to score the 5th run of the inning. Coach Fox’s fist pump as Coyle scored suggested this was a planned play.

Jacob Stallings blasted a solo HR in the 8th inning to complete the scoring and put the game on ice for the Heels.

The Heels congratulate Johnson and celebrate the game one win over the Wahoos.

UNC and Miami are guaranteed of finishing 4th and 5th in the ACC, although the order of the two teams remains to be decided. They’ll meet in the first round of the ACC Tournament in Durham.

(*Editor’s Note: In case you’re wondering, the true definition of a “walk off” is the double steal play that Carolina pulled off as described above.)

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Now let’s get on with the rest of the action from across the country.

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– THREE UP

The best of this Thursday in college baseball

1- THE DESPERATION TEAMS.

- Georgia.

Beat Vanderbilt 5-4.

Chase Davidson and Peter Verdon combined for five hits and each hit fence-scrapers to pace the offense, which got 10 hits off of the Commodores on the night. And get this, the Bulldogs hadn’t scored more than four runs in an SEC opener all season until this game. Special props to Michael Palazzone who had a rough start, giving up four runs in the first three innings, but cruised after that. In his last five innings of work, 38 of his final 43 pitches were for strikes.

- LSU.

Won at Mississippi State 17-1

The Tigers played like tigers cornered, bombarding the Dawgs with 14 hits, including seven doubles and a home run. A 10-run 6th inning was the sledgehammer that flattened the Bulldogs in a dominant fashion. Mason Katz and Mikie Mahtook each had 4RBI on the night. Mahtook hit his 14th home run of the season, tops in the SEC.

- Baylor.

Beat No. 7 Oklahoma 4-2.

Bears ace Logan Verrett went 8.0 innings and gave up just four hits to the Big 12’s second-best offensive lineup. He tossed eight strikeouts and walked three along the way. Max Garner came on in the 9th to get his 7th save of the season. Another Mad Max, 1st baseman Muncy, put the Green and Gold ahead for good with a 2nd inning RBI double.

- N.C. State.

Won at Boston College 9-4.

Despite a steady rain for most of the second half of the game, the Wolfpack breezed to their fifth win in the last seven games. I love how N.C. State SID Bruce Winkworth wrote it in his synopsis of the game, “The rain started in the 7th and the only question after that was whether the game would be suspended as a green, yellow and red blob crawled across the local radar screen toward Chestnut Hill.”

- Louisville.

Routed Notre Dame 14-2.

Coming into the weekend, the Cards were hitting a paltry .246 and facing a team with a stoic 2.82 team ERA. Today, it was the bats of the UofL blistering the Golden Domers. Three-hole hitter Ryan Wright was 3-for-5 with a HR and Stewart Ijames and Cade Stallings each went 2-for-4 with two ribs.

Lucky 13: FIU lefty Phil Haig picked up his 9th win on the season vs. FAU tonight.

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2- FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL

It wasn’t the “Killer B’s” this time, but the Panthers did enough to pull out a 9-7 win over local rival Florida Atlantic, and coupled with Troy’s loss to South Alabama means that FIU moves into first place in the Sun Belt. Phil Haig, an Illinois transfer, improves to 9-3 on the season by scattering nine hits and tossing seven punchouts.  Tonight’s win is the Golden Panthers’ 17th straight W, tops in the country, helping them improve to 36-16-1.

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3- TAYLOR JUNGMANN, TEXAS.

Ho hum. This is getting repetitive boys. The Longhorn ace was complete nails again tonight, throwing his fourth complete game of the season, shutting down Texas A&M in a 4-2 win. Jungmann threw 12Ks and gave up seven hits along the way.

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HONORABLE MENTION

- TCU’s Matt Purke.

The much-anticipated return of the bespectacled one went 3.0 innings, giving up one hit and striking out four as the Frogs won 9-0 over New Mexico. Purke improved to 5-1 with the short effort.

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- Michigan State’s Kurt Wunderlich

Threw a complete-game three-hitter without issuing a single walk as the Spartans shut down Northwestern 3-0. This was the seniors’ first ever complete game, in his final appearance at home as a Spartan.

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- Wichita State.

The Shockers stayed within striking distance of MVC-leading Creighton with a big comeback win over Bradley, 8-6. WSU trailed 6-4 after the 7th inning stretch, but scored two runs in the 8th inning and two more in the 9th inning to pull out the much-needed W.

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- Fresno State’s Greg Gonzalez

The Bulldog ace did it again, improving to 10-0 and striking out 12 batters for the third time in a game this season as Fresno took down Nevada 7-1 at Beiden Field. The better news for the Dogs is that Jordan Ribera has finally started to heat up, as he is now hitting .382 with 22RBIs in his last 13 games.

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- Rice.

The Owls aren’t ready to relinquish their usual perch at the top of the Conference USA standings, winning 4-0 at Southern Miss. Frosh Austin Kubitza threw 8.1 innings of five-hit ball while also striking out nine Eagles. Three of the top four batters in the order had two hits on the night. Additionally, and as usual, Anthony Rendon walked three times on the night. The Owls and Eagles are now tied atop the standings at 15-7. Stay tuned.

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- Florida State.

The ‘Noles earned their 34th straight 40-win season and fourth Atlantic Division title in the last six years with an 8-6 win over Clemson. Sean Gilmartin improved to 10-1 on the season, despite being pegged with a line drive with the second pitch of the night.

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– THREE DOWN

The worst of this Thursday in college baseball

1- THE AT-LARGE HOPEFULS OF THE ATLANTIC SUN.

Both East Tennessee State (RPI No. 33) and Jacksonville (RPI No. 51) lost by identical 10-8 scores in road games at Mercer and Kennesaw State respectively. The Buccaneers and Bears combined for six home runs (two by Paul Hoilman), but Mercer scored two runs in the bottom of the 8th to secure their seventh 35-win season in program history (they’re now 35-18). KSU took down the Dolphins despite trailing 5-0 going into the 6th inning. Will Howard had 5RBI, including a three-run bomb in the 6th to knot the score.

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2- VANDERBILT PITCHING.

Didn’t think I’d be typing this about the ‘Dores, but I started watching tonight’s game with Georgia on ESPNU in the 5th inning and saw the Dawgs come back from a 4-1 deficit on All American hurler Sonny Gray. The tying run was issued by Gray on a bases-loaded walk and the go-ahead run was scored on a wild pitch by reliever Will Clinard.

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3- ST. JOHN’S

For a team sitting at No. 49 in the RPI and scuffling to get into at-large consideration for the NCAA tournament, a loss to Villanova was what the witch doctor ordered. VU scored four 1st inning runs and held off a Red Storm rally to win 7-6. This was just the second home loss of the season for the Johnnies.

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DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

- Hawaii.

I’ve been on the Warriors bandwagon because the WAC leaders are certainly one of the best 64 teams in the country, regardless of what their RPI says (crappy measuring stick). But today’s first game didn’t help things as UofH was throttled 14-5 in game one at New Mexico State. At least they won game two 14-4, but that’s still a lot of damage done there.

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- Texas A&M’s John Stilson.

The Aggie ace has been nicked up a bit lately and it showed tonight, as he issued seven walks and gave up six hits in 6.1 innings of work. He also only tossed 61 strikes in his 117 pitches on the night. He’ll rebound, no doubt. It just didn’t happen for him tonight.

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- South Carolina’s offense.

The Gamecocks couldn’t keep pace with Florida either as they dropped a 2-1 game at Alabama to fall a game behind the Gators in the SEC East. Nathan Kilcrease threw a complete game for the Tide, as the ‘Cocks could only manage four hits in the entire game.

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- Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan.

The two MAC rivals played a classic 14-inning game that was, unfortunately, wrought with missteps and clunkers. EMU won the game 11-10 on an RBI double by Kyle Peterson (no, not THAT Kyle Peterson). The two teams combined for 16 walks, three wild pitches, two plunkings and a balk. Oh, and the two defenses committed eight errors which led to six unearned runs.

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- Troy

Lost to South Alabama 9-8 on a jog off home run by Brad Hook, knocking the Trojans out of first place in the Sun Belt and further damaging their No. 53 RPI ranking. An at-large bid to the NCAAs is getting further out of range.

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That’s it for tonight. The movie “Midnight Cowboy” just came on HBO, so I know what I’m doing for the next two hours.

G’night.

The view of Swayze Field at Oxford-University Stadium from the left field bleachers. The outfield fence could use some moving back, but otherwise a near-perfect venue for a college baseball game.

But the bigger story for me was the setting, the crowd and the stadium. Oddly-named Oxford-University Stadium was an incredible atmosphere and environment for taking in this Thursday night lidlifter to this rivalry weekend.

Caleb Reed picked up his 10th save of the season in tonight's white-knuckle finish.

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WHAT I SAW AT SWAYZE FIELD TONIGHT.

It was a game where the blunder made the big difference. Ole Miss committed four crushing errors, allowing for four capping runs to be scored by their rivals, including three turn-key plate taps in the 8th and deciding inning.

LINESCORE:

Miss. St. -  112 000 030 – 7   8  0

Ole Miss – 010 100 301 – 6  11  4

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PITCHING:

WP: Chad Girodo (3-0)

LP: Bobby Wahl (0-1)

Save: Caleb Reed (10)

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HITTING

MSU:

- Nick Vickerson, 2-for-4, 2runs scored

- Jaron Shepherd, 2-for-2, RBI, walk, 2SBs

- Brent Brownlee, 1-for-2, 2RBI, walk

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UofM:

- Alex Yarbrough, 2-for-5, HR, 3RBI

- Will Allen, 1-for-5, HR, RBI

- Blake Newalu, 2-for-4, 2 runs scored

- Austin Anderson, 3-for-4

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RECORDS

MSU: 31-18, 12-13 SEC

UofM: 27-22, 11-14 SEC

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IN SUMMATION

Mark Etheridge’s favorite “knife fight in a ditch” got off to a rollicking start here in Oxford tonight. In a back-and-forth contest, it was the guts and cool of MSU that pulled out a scintillating W in front of a super-charged crowd.

“I like to make it interesting.” That’s how MSU reliever Caleb Reed surmised things in the post-game around a gaggle of reporters, as he tried to explain why he managed to win the game despite a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the bottom of the 9th.

And as one of the reporters up there mentioned, it looked like he wasn’t kidding when he said it. In case you didn’t see it on ESPNU tonight, Reed was nursing a 7-5 lead, yet managed to load the bases with no outs with a walk, a single and a walk in the bottom of the 9th. Fortunately for him, he induced a double-play groundout from Matt Tracy, which made it 7-6 and then got Will Allen to strike out looking to end the game.

Ole Miss looked like it had wrangled all the momentum from this game after it had taken a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the 7th on a screaming 3-run dinger from Alex Yarbrough that whipped the 8,144 fans in attendance into a frenzy. At that point it looked like the Rebs would dig a grave for the ‘Dogs and bury that bone.

But it was the cool of MSU and the nerves of the UofM that decided things in the top of the 8th. A Brent Brownlee bunt, where no one was covering 1st base, scored a run to tie things up. Then, with the athletic Jaron Shepherd on 2nd base, pinch hitter Alex Frazier struck out, but Shepherd was in the process of stealing 3rd. Rebel catcher Miles Hamblin’s throw to 3rd scooted into left field, which allowed Shepherd to score the go-ahead run and give the Rebels another E on the scoreboard too.

The next batter was 9-hole hitter Wes Thigpen, who hit a single into left field. But Rebel left fielder Tanner Mathis was a little lax in putting his glove to the ground and let the ball skip past him. He retrieved it but by that time Brownlee had come around to score the insurance run and make it 7-5. In all, Ole Miss allowed four unearned runs to cross the plate in the game, which ended up being the difference on the scoreboard.

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QUOTES:

MSU pitcher Caleb Reed

- On making tonight’s game a white-knuckler.

“I like to make it interesting. I’ve been doing it all year and I guess I’m just going to keep doing that. My mom is out there (in the stands) pulling her hair out and I just make it hard on everybody.”

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MSU right fielder Jaron Shepherd

- On scoring the go-ahead run on an Ole Miss throwing error at 3rd.

“We actually had a run-and-hit called on that play. Even though Frazier swung and missed I was still going to 3rd and managed to get a passed ball to allow me to score.”

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- On being able to come back despite that crushing three-run homer by Yarbrough that put Ole Miss ahead late.

“I think our team did a real good job of putting that home run behind us and keeping our composure. There were still outs left to get in the game so we weren’t going to quit.”

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MSU head coach John Cohen.

- On the key to getting to Rebel ace Matt Crouse.

“If you look at Crouse statistically, he throws a lot of strikes and we got him to 100 in the 5th inning. We felt that if we did a better job in the strike zone we could get him out in a hurry. And we did.”

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- On having Jaron Shepherd steal third, inducing a bad throw and allowing for the go-ahead run in the 8th.

“You can’t force guys into making bad decisions unless you put guys in motion. With Shepherd at 2nd base, who is athletic and can really get going, Miles Hamblin normally wouldn’t do that in a thousand tries.”

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- On his feeling about the team.

“I just wish everyone could see everything these kids do every day in practice and in the weight room. They’re finally getting a reward for how hard they’ve worked.”

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Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco.

- On his summation of the game.

They get a couple of base hits and we make a couple of errors and don’t play well enough in the field. I thought we had them at the end there. But we let it all slip away.”

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- On his ace Matt Crouse.

“Matt struggled with his location early. They got some two-strike hits to push some runs across early. He usually doesn’t do that, but credit them for getting his pitch count up high early on.”

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BIGGEST BLOWHARD QUOTE.

“I just reached into my heart and brought out the warrior within me to just compete all night.” MSU’s starting pitcher Luis Pollorena.

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BIGGEST ‘THROW-AWAY QUOTE’

Sitting in the press box after the game, one of the Mississippi State beat writers asked for a “quick throw-away quote” from an Ole Miss player or coach to put in his story. A Rebel beat writer blurted out…

“We went from one end of the spectrum to the other pretty quickly.” Ole Miss 2B Alex Yarbrough, when describing his emotions from the game.

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CALEB REED VS. RIGHTIES

On the John Cohen Show last week, the Bulldog head honcho talked about how good his closer Caleb Reed is against right handed batters.

“I just don’t think a right-hander can hit him,” Cohen crowed. “He’s just impossible for them to hit.”

Tonight was a perfect indication of that. Reed came on in the 8th inning and got his first batter Will Allen to strike out. And, an inning later, with two out and the tying run 90 feet away and a righty at the plate again, guess what? A caught-looking backwards K to end the game. The batter? Allen again.

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REED RECORD WATCH.

Caleb Reed’s 10 saves on the season is three away from tying school record for saves in a year and four away from breaking the record for Mississippi State. He is currently tied with Jay Powell, 1991, and Van Johnson, 1998, for third on the saves list.

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STREAK SNAPPED.

Jarrod Parks came into tonight’s game with a 21-game hit streak, but saw his official line put him down for going 0-for-5 tonight. Although it could be argued that his first two “errors” were both balls that were smoked in the infield and got past their respective fielders. But both were ruled as errors instead of hits. If this game was played in Starkpatch, he would’ve been 2-for-5 tonight. Parks is still the leading hitter in the SEC as his average dipped to .405.

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OXFORD-UNIVERSITY STADIUM.

When God created college baseball, he made programs both big and small. He made stadiums both big and small. All are special in their own way. All are blessed. And then God made Ole Miss’ stadium.

This has to be THE perfect college baseball environment. Located in a college town, shrouded in trees and enough room to hold 10,000 people. It’s also perfectly tucked inside a hillside, making for a perfect pitch for the fans to get good sight lines. And there is plenty of shade to be found on hot days, even if you just have to duck into the trees for a few minutes.

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SMALL YARD.

Biggest drawback to the Ole Miss digs (other than, say, missing a view of the Pacific Ocean)? The outfield fence is almost ridiculously short, with 365-foot power alleys that, to the naked eye, look to be about 310 feet. According to the Starkville writers I sat next to, Ole Miss kept bringing in the fences every few years and finally stopped doing to a couple years ago. Reason No. 421 that changing the bats was a good thing.

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BEER… SORT OF.

A patron sitting next to me in the grandstand mid-way through the game had the smell of beer in his stadium cup, so I had to ask. “They serve beer here?”

“No.” he said. “But if you go into the outfield areas, you can get a beer and pour it into one of these stadium cups and bring it back into the grandstand.”

“Hmmmm. No problem with stadium security?” I asked.

“No.” he stated flatly again. “Now you can’t bring it back in a dixie cup or a solo cup. As long as it’s a stadium cup, they let it slide, ‘coz for all they know you could have a drink you bought from the concessions in there.”

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OXFORD STYLE.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that much khaki in my life tonight – albeit sprinkled amongst the plentiful red and blue of course. It seemed as if every dude in the stadium was wearing khaki colored shorts and flip-flops of some sort. I even saw a good bit of buttoned-down long sleeve polo-type shirts with the sleeves rolled up. I felt like quite the fish out of water with my black Stitch-Head t-shirt, black shorts and black Nikes. I’m sure as I walked by people would mutter, “Pfft! Bald-ass gothic boy.”

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BULLDOG BRUISES.

Starter shortstop Jonathan Ogden is a walking MASH unit. He had his nose broken last week in a game. He also has a pulled abdominal muscle and had a cortizone shot for it. Despite those two things, he has stayed in the lineup. But he’s pretty good at hiding his problems too. At one point last week the coaching staff had to come to him and say, “Look, you gotta tell us when you’re injured. You can’t hide it.”

But he’s not the only one. The guy that plays next to him in the field, 3rd baseman Jarrod Parks, might have him beat. Parks has been hampered from a bad back for a couple years now and has epidural shots in his back four times a year to lubricate his discs. I was told by Matt Stevens of the Starkville Daily News that he’s been doing that for four years now. He claims to get through games “on adrenaline” and after games, he apparently can’t move for an hour or so and will usually lie down on the couch until the pain subsides and he can move around again.

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PICS

Some images from tonight’s game in Oxford.

Mississippi State coach John Cohen forgot to be low-key for this game. (By the way, is the bat girl flipping him off?

Taking in the game from the student section in right field was great... until the Rebels hit a home run and everybody started throwing beer and water around, making me tuck my camera under my shirt and get sprinkled with brew.

As Kyle Peterson told me afterward, there are so many pretty girls in Oxford it's as if they "bus 'em in"

The Bulldog batters pushed Rebel starter Matt Crouse into some high pitch counts early and often tonight.

State's Jaron Shepherd avoids getting plunked by another Crouse 90mph offering.

One of the more disappointing facets of the Rebels, they still do that fist-pumping University of Miami rip-off when the song "Love is Gone" is played on the p.a. (Originality is everything, people).

I got to meet ESPN's Jenn Brown tonight. I'm glad to report that she seemed really down to Earth and had no sense of arrogance or hoity-toityness to her at all. Good to see her getting more assignments with ESPNU. She said she wasn't sure about getting assigned to work at the CWS this year, but she was going to be at the SEC tournament.

Former LSU catcher Mike Bianco didn't have a good time with the umpires tonight.

The MSU batgirls. I actually thought they were a little easier on the eyes than the Ole Miss batgirls. Then again, they're not exactly like a Pam Anderson sighting at a Pepperdine game, but who is?

Alex Yarbrough touches home plate and bashes his awaiting teammates with a forearm after his 3-run bomb put the Rebs ahead.

THE key sequence in the game: With the score tied, Adam Frazier strikes out. Reb catcher Niles Hamblin goes to throw to 3rd as MSU's Jaron Shepherd is trying to steal.

... and if this picture weren't so blurry, you could see that Reb 3rd baseman Austin Anderson just got through diving for the wild throw that has now gone into left field. Shepherd gets up from his slide and heads toward home.

... and while the Ole Miss fans boo the play of their team, Shepherd gets props for scoring the go-ahead run. State is now up 6-5.

A batter later, Anderson is diving again, but misses on this Wes Thigpen grounder. Brent Brownlee (42) heads toward 3rd on the play.

... then Tanner Mathis misplays the wormburner and has to go retrieve it, while Thigpen races toward 2nd base. On the play, Brownlee would score the needed insurance run.

Soon after all that mess, Caleb Reed would escape a nerve-wracking 9th inning jam and get congratulated by his teammates. Game over.

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A COUPLE OF MID-WEEK THINGS.

I don’t have time to cover a whole lot of things, but there were a few moments of interest from the last few days I wanted to touch on before I go to bed tonight.

1- STETSON’S PAIN.

Not a good time for the Hatters to flip a bitch here. All the hot talk has been of Stetson getting to host its first regional ever, since they were No. 12 in the NCAA’s official RPI released this week. But on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Hats pitching got pegged to the wall like a nerd by a football lineman, losing to Florida State 13-1 and to FIU 10-9. We’ll see if it costs them or not. For now, the Hatters dropped to No. 17 in Boyd Nation’s RPI simulator.

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2- CYCLE BOY

Oregon State’s 9-hole hitter Ryan Dunn went for the cycle in the Beavers’ 13-3 pasting of Portland on Tuesday. It was only the second cycle in OSU history. The other good news for the Beavers? All American catcher Andrew Susac returned to the lineup as a DH. He’ll eventually get his feet wet again and get some time behind the dish again.

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3- RECORD INNING.

I’m sure you’ve already heard, but in case you hadn’t caught it, the Belmont Bruins scored a ridiculous 19 runs in the 1st inning of their 24-3 skunking of UT-Martin on Tuesday. The Bruins got four singles, five doubles, four home runs, three walks and two hit batsmen in the inning to jump out to a truly insurmountable lead. And the Skyhawks ended up using three pitchers in the inning. I almost would’ve expected more pitching changes than that.

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4- GREG HOLT, NORTH CAROLINA

Got this gem from the Doctor of College Baseball.

Greg Holt came to UNC as a position player but became a reliever as a sophomore.  He hasn’t played in the field or taken batting practice since then, but wound up getting some starts this year in RF due to lack of production [and need for a right handed hitter] from other guys. In 37 AB he is hitting .459 with 6 doubles and 13 RBI, including a grand slam.

Mike Fox has said at his weekly radio show that Holt does better when he goes up and hits without thinking so he hasn’t even taken batting practice this year, spending all his practice time pitching.

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5- NORTHERN BASEBALL. WHERE THE BIG CROWDS AND OPPRESSIVE HEAT ARE.

For the second time this season Nebraska and Creighton hooked up at the new downtown stadium in Omaha and once again it was a significant crowd on hand. This time, 17,588 took it in on Tuesday night as CU came out on top with a 9-8 win. The last game on April 19th was announced as a sellout at 22,197, but only about 18,000+ actually showed up for the game. And get this, for that first game, the temperatures were in the low 40s and dropped to the low 30s by the end of the game. This time, the game time temp was 96 degrees with sunny skies. Oof.

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That’s it. Enough. By the way, it’s too late to go back and check for typos. If you see one, please excuse me this time. I’m beat.

G’night.

Ahhhh, the fruits of a well-pitched game. Arkansas ace A.J. Baxendale gets the win reflected on the scoreboard behind him AND an interview with former bikini model Jenn Brown.

The ten most interesting stories from the mid-week follow below. Read on.

1- THE NEWEST OF THE NEW BATS.
Florida and Arkansas were the recipients of Easton’s newest bats in tonight’s Thursday night ESPN game.

Razorback rebel-rouser Collin Kuhn shows off one of those new Easton "Power Brigade" bats. And yes, this pic was taken just seconds before he accounted for the game-tying home run that changed this game around completely.

The “Power Brigade” bat has got a little more pop to them and also look pretty badass too. Collin Kuhn hit a monster two-run home run and a triple and Bo Bigham added another triple with the new stick. And this despite some pretty stout pitching from Hudson Randall up until that fateful 6th inning, as Hudson had allowed just two hits prior to that frame.

The story of the game was on the hill for the Razorbacks, where D.J. Baxendale threw a complete-game, 127-pitch, seven-hit outing to improve to 7-1 on the season. He wasn’t spectacular (giving up seven hits, striking out seven) but was efficient, throwing his crushing cutter at just the right times to fool the Gators enough. That was one impressive breaking ball that Baxendale produced.

The game completely changed in the 6th inning with Kuhn’s two-run bomb, and was decided in the 8th inning when 8-hole hitter Jared McKinney took a Randall slider that hung over the inside portion of the plate into the UofA bullpen for a solo home run.

The swing that turned the game around. Kuhn swats his 6th-inning two-run home run off of Hudson Randall.

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2- THE EBB AND FLOW OF DALLAS BAPTIST.
As noted in my ESPN weekend preview, this will be an important weekend for the Patriots, who still sit just outside the at-large consideration for the NCAA tournament. On Tuesday, they helped their cause with a dominating 11-1 rout of Texas Tech, their third straight win over a Big 12 school and their sixth win in a row overall. Duncan McAlpine helped the cause with a 3-for-4 day that included 4RBI from a double and a home run.

But then, on Thursday, in front of that rowdy Texas A&M student section at Olsen Field in College Station, the Pats dropped a 4-2 decision to the No. 11 Aggies. They really could’ve used a win here.

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3- SETON HALL.
The Pirates edged above .500 (at 22-21) with an 18-inning, 1-0 win over Louisville on Thursday night. The amazing part is that four Hall pitchers, Joe Dirocco, George Fernandez, Rick Mangione and Ryan Harvey combined to hold the formerly formidable Cards to just four hits in the entire 18 innings. UofL batters went a combined 4-for-56 on the day.

The winning run was provided in the bottom of the 18th when Mike Genovese singled in pinch runner Michael Betz. The Pirates also committed just a single error in those 18 innings of play. Wow.

Oh, and, Louisville has now lost three games already this week, dropping a pair of games to Eastern Michigan (Really?) and this first game of the weekend to Seton Hall.

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4- LSU KEEPS ROLLING.
The youthful Tigers had another first-year arm come up huge on Tuesday in the 6-2 win over Tulane. In the win, Ryan Eades threw six innings and held the Greenies to two hits and one run to improve to 3-1 on the season. Matty Ott picked up his sixth save of the season, while Tyler Hanover and Raph Rhymes contributed two hits and an RBI each to secure their fifth straight win. The 29-17 Tigers now travel to Alabama to see if their sudden resurgence can continue on the road.

Paul Mainieri would say afterward, “What I liked the most about it was the way Ryan Eades pitched tonight. He threw very well. I’m really encouraged by his progress and what that can mean for us down the stretch.”

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5- LONG ISLAND.
With their 6-4 win over Hofstra on Tuesday, the Blackbirds improved to 27-15 on the season. Those 27 wins ties the school record for the most in program history as senior Jess Johnson made his first career start on the mound and got his first win of the year. The 1990 team went 27-13 and captured the program’s only NEC championship.

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6- LONG BEACH STATE’s EXTRA INNING EXPERTISE.
The Beach improved to 5-0 in extra inning games with Tuesday’s 7-6, 12-inning win at San Diego State. Maike Marjama led the Dirtbags with three hits and scoring the winning run after starting off the top of the 12th with a single. By the way, this also makes the Dirtbags 11-4 in one-run games this season. That’s clutch.

Then again, I’m not sure why I’m giving so much gloss on this game since Long Beach pitchers issued 10 walks in the game and the Fighting Montezuma’s stranded 20 baserunners. The game ended up six minutes shy of a 5-hour game.

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7- THE CAL STATE BAKERSFIELD-KANSAS STATE SERIES.
Ahhhhh, Southern California gridlock. Is there nothing better? The Roadrunners ran right into the teeth of traffic on the I-5 on Monday afternoon in trying to get to LAX. Ultimately, the crap traffic caused them to miss their flight to Kansas City. A press release was sent out saying that the series with K-State was cancelled. Two hours, 14 minutes later another press release was sent out saying that the series was back on after all. Turns out that the Runners were able to schedule a flight through Dallas to make the series happen once again. Game on on Monday was pushed back an hour or so, otherwise, no probs.

The two teams ended up splitting the two games with the Cats winning 8-6 on Tuesday and the Roadrunners winning 13-10 on Wednesday.

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8- SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE.
A couple of days before their big win over No. 4 Florida, the Arkansas Razorbacks suffered an upset of their own as the Redhawks took them down 6-5 on Wednesday night in Fayetteville. The win improved SEMO to 28-17 on the season overall as they sit one game behind Austin Peay in the OVC standings going into this weekend. Louie Haseltine’s pinch hit RBI double in the 8th inning accounted for the difference in the game.

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9- HARTFORD FIRES ITS COACH.
Jeff Calcaterra was let go of his duties by athletic director Patricia Meiser on Wednesday after starting this 2011 season at 3-34. The Hawks entered the season with seven returning starters but the pitching staff still managed to give up double digit run totals in 15 of their games this season. As a point of reference, the Hawks haven’t played in the post-season since 1992.

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10- CLEVELAND STATE TAKES ITS PROGRAM FROM THE DIAMOND TO THE MORGUE.
This announcement came on Monday afternoon and I was made aware of it by Chris Webb’s Buckeye State Baseball dot com site. Turns out that the Vikings still didn’t have an on-campus facility and were still playing games in Avon, Ohio, which is 20 miles from campus. According to the school’s website, “Consideration to build a new ballpark on the University’s North Campus were eclipsed this year by a lack of public and private funding. The costs involved with playing and practicing off-site simply could not be maintained in this economic climate,” CSU athletic director John Parry said.

The bastard.

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AND ONE TO GROW ON…
Got a chance to see The Raveonettes as part of a “Get ready for a college baseball weekend” concert at the world-famous Troubadour in Hollywood tonight. The Denmark garage rock band played a spirited 16-song set that brought to mind the old Jesus and Mary Chain sound from the late 80s/early 90s, along with a distinctive (if not slightly unclear) wailing guitars hook that seemed a bit over-the-top. None-the-less, it was an interesting show from this Danish duo.

The Raveonettes rock the Troubadour in Hollywood tonight.

I decided today would be a good day to go out to my old stomping grounds of Point Dume along the Pacific coast just north of Pepperdine and shoot another Baldcast with the great sea as my backdrop. But when I got out there, I discovered an angry sea my friends. The winds were at near gale force, which would make for too much aural static in my microphone, thus literally blowing out the idea. Since I couldn’t find a nice protected cove or anything, I jettisoned my plans for a Baldcast. It just wouldn’t have worked people.

Judging by the numerous whitecaps washing ashore behind me, the wind was kickin' ass out at Pt. Dume today.

But I’ll power on none-the-less and will still post my goods and bads from college baseball during this mid-week. Read on…

By the way, I also stumbled upon…

While I was at Pt. Dume, this photo shoot for an abdomen workout was being filmed and photographed. So it wasn't a total loss. "Hey young lady, watch your hands!"

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– THE TEN GOOD.
Some of the good things that have happened in the last four days of college baseball.

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– LAMAR’S JIM GILLIGAN
The longtime Cardinals head honcho won his 1,200th game on Wednesday as LU took down Houston by a 7-4 count. The really good news is that Gilligan can finally rest after his team had failed in its last six tries at getting the 1,200th win over the last two weeks. In this game, Tex Zentek led the attack, going 3-for-4 to lead the 12-hit attack vs. five Coog pitchers.

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– EASTERN MICHIGAN’s LEE LONGO.
Longo’s pinch-hit two-run yard call in the top of the 12th inning completed an unlikely 17-15 win over big brother Michigan State on Tuesday. The Eagles overcame deficits of 10-0 after two innings and 13-5 after three innings to tie the game in the top of the 9th inning, sending the game into extra innings. Zach Leonard did his part by going 5-for-5 with 3RBI to pace the offense.

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– SAM HOUSTON STATE.
The Bearkats beat Texas A&M 8-5 in 12 innings to improve to 28-15 behind Chris Andreas (4-for-7, 3RBI) and Luke Plucheck (3-for-3, RBI) at the dish and Caleb Smith, Michael Oros, Michael Burchett and Matt Shelton’s held the Ags scoreless for the final seven innings of the night. The ‘Kats scored two runs in the top of the 9th on an Anreas two-run home run before scratching across three runs in the 12th inning. More importantly, Mark Johnson would get revenge on his old team for the last itme in his career.

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– DARTMOUTH.
The Big Green jumped back into contention in the Ivy League’s Rolfe Division with a DH sweep of Brown on Monday, 2-1 and 11-4. They are now tied with Yale at the top with a 10-6 mark, but the Bulldogs will have the advantage heading into the final weekend as Yale swept Dartmouth in four games a couple weeks back. DC is now 23-10 overall.

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– ARMY’s CLINT MOORE
The Black Knight basher slapped four home runs in their two wins over Lafayette on Monday. In the two games, Moore went a combined 5-for-9 with 11RBI including a grand slam. Army won the two games 9-0 and 12-2, moving into a tie with Navy at 10-6 for first place in the Patriot League. By the way, technically, Army beat LU in three games on Monday as the two teams continued a rain-shortened game from Sunday, an 8-6, 12-inning win.

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– OREGON STATE’s JAMES NYGREN AND BEN WETZLER.
The two Beaver arms combined for 13 strikeouts and held Portland to five hits in a 6-1 win on Tuesday. The win propelled OSU to its 30th win on the season and also improved their win streak over the Pilots to 11 games.

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– CLEMSON.
The Tigers took down Furman 5-0 on Tuesday and Western Carolina 6-4 on Wednesday to run their recent spree of success to 13 wins in their last 15 games. In the two games, the Tigers struck out 12 batters and committed zero errors. Things get pretty serious this weekend as the Tigers will put their hot streak on the line against invading Georgia Tech.

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– VMI
The Keydets scored nine of their 10 runs vs. James Madison with two out as they swept the season series from the heavy-hitting Dukes for the first time ever with a 10-4 win. The game was a lot more of a blowout than the score even indicates as the ‘Dets allowed JMU to score three runs in the 9th inning.

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– THE BEST GAME NOTE I’VE SEEN ALL SEASON.
Stanford S.I.D. Niall Adler wins the award for this one when, after the Cardinal took down bay area rival Cal with a 9-5 win on Monday. Adler put this line in the “Notes” section, “If allowed in Scrabble, Cal designated hitter Michael Theofanopoulos’ last name would be worth 22 points.”

Meanwhile, I’m still stuck with the Q and the Z panels as the game ends.

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– THE PHOTOG WELLS AT THE NEW STADIUM.
I know this won’t mean a hill of beans to most of you guys, but the layout of the new stadium in Omaha and the policy of not allowing the photographers to run behind home plate between innings were huge potential problems for when the CWS rolls around. But according to an Email I got back from NCAA media director J.D. Hamilton, the policy of not allowing photographers to cross from the 1st base well to the 3rd base well between innings will be lifted during the CWS. They’re also building access steps directly into the wells on both sides (at the NU-CU game last week, photographers had to wait until the half-innings to exit the wells, because they were connected to the two dugouts with no other access points).

Okay, it’s a long story, but just know this scene won’t happen in June in Omaha… allegedly.

Here's a screen grab from the Nebraska-Creighton game last week. The cameras actually caught this scene of me getting busted for going onto the field. That's me on the far right, thinking it was okay to run behind home plate to get to the 3rd base photographer's well. But the dude in the white jacket is in the middle of yelling for me to come back and that I couldn't go onto the field of play. Instead, to get to the 3rd base well, I had to go back into the bowels of the stadium and walk to the other tunnel and wait until the next half-inning to get over there. That won't happen in June now.

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– THE TEN BAD.
Some of the bad things that took place in college baseball the last four days.

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– TORNADO IN ALABAMA.
Scary, scary sight to see. Glad everyone in the Crimson Tide baseball program is reportedly okay after that monster that ripped through town. Speaking from experience as a kid in tornado-friendly Omaha, there is nothing fun about tornadoes, man.

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– THE SUSPENSIONS.
The Mountain West disciplined 12 players from BYU and New Mexico combined for a brawl that took place on their Saturday game. Four BYU players were suspended three games for fighting. Five UNM players were also suspended for fighting. Mitchell Garver of the Lobos was given a “public reprimand” for an obscene gesture and BYU head coach Vance Law was reprimanded for “remarks critical of a fellow member institution.”

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– INDIANA
Lost 10-3 to Miami (Ohio) on Tuesday.
The Hoosiers are just cold right now. I mean a 7-run loss to Miami? Dang me. IU has now lost four straight overall and went 0-2 vs. the Redhawks this year, by a combined 16-4. Now the Hoos’ have Big 10-leading Purdue coming up this weekend.

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– UC IRVINE
Lost at UCLA 6-1 on Tuesday, to drop to 6-5 in their last 11 games and to 26-11 overall. With the recent skid, the Anteaters have dipped from the low 40s in the RPI down to No. 71 now. If the season ended today, the ‘Eaters would be sitting on the outside looking in for the NCAA tournament. But the good news is that they still sit just a game out of first place behind Fullerton in the Big West at 8-4.

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– GEORGIA TECH
I don’t suppose it’s the Jackets’ fault that Charlie Sheen showed up at their practice. But why does he keep choosing college baseball teams to make his appearances with? Earlier this season it was a UCLA practice that he chose to make an appearance, and we know how they’ve struggled this early season. Now it’s Tech’s turn. Don’t be surprised if you see a sudden seasonal downturn. As a Tech fan wrote me afterward, “With a recent drug death at Tech and Skole’s DUI last January, Tech is crazy to let him show up.”

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– CAL STATE BAKERSFIELD
The Roadrunners have hit a massive cold streak. They lost a pair of mid-week games at home to Kansas State, 5-4 on Monday and 9-zip on Tuesday. With this being their fourth and fifth straight losses, the Runners now have seen their RPI dip from the mid-30s down to No. 52.

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- TCU.
The Frogs lost to both Dallas Baptist 9-7 on Monday and to Oklahoma 7-4 on Tuesday. The Monday loss came on the strength of DBU’s Jason Krizan, who crushed a two-run jog-off home run. Against OU, there was a Lupton Stadium crowd of 5,261 fans, the third-largest home crowd in school history to watch the Sooners beat the Frogs for the eighth straight time. The Horned Frogs are losing grip on any chance of a national seeding.

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– MISSOURI.
A long season just keeps getting longer for the Tigers, especially after Wednesday’s 5-2 loss to Missouri State. That loss left MU’s April record at 4-12. But that’s not the worst news, which might be that the Tigers now must take on Big 12-leading Texas A&M and a suddenly-hot Kansas State team in the next two weeks. With a conference mark of 4-10, things look pretty bleak for making the Big 12 tournament.

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– THE KENTUCKY BULLPEN.
Did you watch that game with LSU tonight? Wow. Alex Meyer allows one run on three hits to help UK to a 5-1 lead through seven innings. In the 8th inning, the Wildcat bullpen allows eight runs on six hits. Talk about an implosion. LSU wins 9-5 and as Kyle Peterson said during the broadcast, “This half inning could’ve saved their season.” Just think what it did to Kentucky’s season. Again, wow.

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– FIELD OF DREAMS.
The Kevin Costner movie was on Encore this morning. Yes it’s a baseball movie, but it’s still one of the most ridiculous movies I’ve ever seen. It tries way too hard to pull at the heart strings, while also giving us the viewers way too little credit for having some sense of reality. I know movies are supposed to suspend reality, but this one makes waaaaaay too many grandiose leaps. “If you build it, he will come.” “Go the distance.” “Ease his pain.” God, please ease MY pain from accidentally having this thing on my TV.

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More this weekend.

G’night.

Just like many other Western teams on Thursday, we're left to wonder if we're supposed to take these guys seriously?

I hate to bag on so many teams that trust me not to bag on them, ifyouknowwhatImeanandIthinkyoudo. (Damn. I’m screwed here.) But there were a lot of favored teams that bit the dust out here this weekend. So maybe I should go ahead and institute the “Fraud” rule at this point in the season. Usually I wait ’till sometime in May to do that, but damn.

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WHAT I SAW AT SUNKEN DIAMOND TONIGHT

Almost shockingly, the Bruins and Cardinal got downright offensive about tonight’s game. In fact, it was the three Stanford yard calls that was the difference as the Cardinal out-hit the Bruins and slapped a 7-4 decision on the Baby Blues.

Mark Appel threw a-well. This was just his third win of the season but you can definitely tell there's something special about the dude.

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THE PROGRESSION.

UCLA- 002 001 010 – 4  11  0

Stan. – 030 001 30x – 7 10  1

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WP: Mark Appel (3-4)

LP: Gerrit Cole (4-4)

Save: None

After giving up six earned runs in 6.1 innings of work, you could tell Gerrit Cole didn't have it tonight.

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Top Hitters.

Bruins:

- Dean Espy, 3-for-5

- Chris Giovanno, 2-for-5

Cardinal:

- Zach Jones, 1-for-2, 3RBI, HR

- Stephen Piscotty, 3-for-4, RBI, HR

- Tyler Gaffney, 1-for-4, 2RBI, HR

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RECORDS

UCLA: 20-13, 9-4

Stanford: 18-12, 4-6

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IN SUMMATION.

The last thing I expected between these two teams was an offensive slap-fight, especially with Gerrit Cole and Mark Appel on the hill tonight. But guess what… the two teams combined for 21 hits. Even more shocking was the Cardinal, who came in with just 15 home runs so far this season, and smashing a trio of four-baggers, two off of Cole, to make for a big 7-4 win over the No. 11-ranked Bruins.

Nine-hole hitter Zach Jones got the merry-go-round started, with a three-run bomb in the 2nd inning to give Stanford an early lead. But UCLA didn’t lose its cool and scrapped back into the game. After the Bruins tied things up in the top of the 6th, the Cardinal didn’t freak out, like most young teams would’ve. Instead, they scored one run in the bottom of the 6th (on an RBI single from Bryan Guymon) and then plated three more runs (two on a home run by Tyler Gaffney), which chased Cole from the game for good.

And just to prove that they were going to stay in “bitch-slap” mode, Stanford three-hole hitter Stephen Piscotty welcomed Bruin reliever Mitchell Beacom with a no-doubter to left field on the first pitch Beacom threw. Game. Set. Match.

Wow.

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WELL GUNNED.

Not to sound too much like Baseball America here, but the two starting pitchers were throwing some pretty good bee-bees here tonight.

Gerrit Cole started the game hitting 94-95 on the guns in the first few innings. But in the 6th inning, he actually amped it up to 98mph on a couple of occasions. Oddly, he seemed to have hit the 98 mark on the pitches that followed after each home run he gave up. Call it an anger issue, right?

Meanwhile, Mark Appel was deceivingly fast, going mostly 91-to-93 with his fast ball. But his cutter was working extremely well (he had six Ks), so it seemed like his fastball musta been somewhere in the low hundreds as and continued to befuddle the Bruins throughout his stint.

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DINGER HAPPY.

Stanford may be starting to hit they’re stride (no pun intended… well… maybe a little). The Trees came into the game having raised their team batting average up to .303. But even more impressive is the recent power surge. In the last two games, SU has now hit four home runs. In the previous nine games before that, they had gathered just one round-tripper.

In fact, Zach Jones, who hit out of the 9-hole tonight, has gone gonzo lately. Tonight he parked a three-run jobbie that put the Trees on the board in the 2nd inning. Two weeks ago, at Washington State, the SU backstop hit two three-run dongs in the weekend series win. Prior to that, Jones was hitting somewhere in the neighborhood of .180 or so.

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F#&%!NG PISSED.

It was a frustrating night for Gerrit Cole again tonight. Not only did he drop his fourth decision of the season, he also showed some outward frustration too. After giving up a hard-liner to the gap by Stephen Piscotty in the 3rd inning (and then getting the final out), Cole looked at catcher Steve Rodriguez as he was walking off the field and you could see him mouthing to his catcher, “What the fuck did you call?”

While his teammates were holding hands up for fives as he approached the dugout, Cole skipped them altogether and slammed his glove and hat on the bench instead.

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THE BEST PROOF THAT THE NEW BATS ARE not A SAFETY THING.

After the game, Stanford head coach Mark Marquess was talking to some CBS radio dude in the dugout and was asked whether the new bat restrictions had anything to do with safety.

“No, not at all,” Marquess said. “There was a study that came out a couple years ago and it said that of all the collegiate sports that are offered, baseball was the safest sport of all. In fact, I know it’s not a safety issue because I’ve been involved in this game for 40 years and I’ve only seen one serious injury from a line drive off of a bat.”

That’s a pretty cogent point and it’s also a point I’ve been trying to make with people for years. There are rarely any serious injuries from line drives (yes people, I do know they still happen occasionally), and yes, some of those line drive injuries happen off of wood bats as well.

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QUOTES.

UCLA’s John Savage.

- On Gerrit Cole having only one strikeout tonight.

“Well, you really have to give Stanford a ton of credit on that one. They did a great job with two strikes and put the ball in play pretty hard too. It was kind of reminiscent of the South Carolina game last year in the finals where they did a good job of two-strike hitting and putting the ball in play, it was that simple. Again, all credit to Stanford for that because Cole didn’t pitch bad.”

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- On his impression of the highly-offensive game for both teams tonight.

“I didn’t think you’d see 21 hits, not with Cole and Appel on the mound. But again, I think they did a good job with two strikes and really so did we. It surprised me, sure. But the difference was that they got a couple of homers off of us and that can really open things up for your offense. So they took advantage of that.”

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- On his team’s offense in general starting to raise its game lately.

“I think we’re starting to see Amaral and Regis and Keefer and Espy all getting back to being themselves. For whatever reason, they were out of sync for a long time and we thought we were going to be a very offensive team from the get-go and it just didn’t happen. Now halfway through the season you see it start to finally click in for them and its shown.

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Stanford’s Mark Marquess.

- On if he saw anything in his team tonight that he hasn’t seen all season.

“Well we’ve really struggled with the bats going back to that first game at SC. When we’ve hit the ball, we’ve hit into a lot of double-plays. You go through those spells and you hope it doesn’t happen but we’ve through that the last two weeks.”

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- On the emergence of Zach Jones the last few weeks.

“He’s done a great job for us. When we played in the College World Series in 2008 he played third base for us. He was struggling early on, hitting under .200, but in the last two weeks he’s been the one guy that HAS hit. He’s been our hottest hitter and he’s really carried us the last few weeks.”

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- On his starter Mark Appel’s effort tonight.

“Ya’ know, he’s really good. He’s gonna be a great pitcher. I think he’s gonna be of the Cole and Bauer-type. He’s got great velocity, 95-96, and he’s a young guy that’s just learning how to pitch. He’s been our Friday starter against teams like Rice, Vanderbilt and Texas, he’s had some tough draws. He’s gone minimum of six, mostly seven innings against some of the top pitchers in the country and I think he’s learned from them too.”

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PICS

A couple more images from tonight’s game.

After gathering in a sharp grounder, Bruin shortstop Pat Valaika eyeballs first base as Jake Stewart tries to beat the throw. Vaiaika's throw won the race.

Looking back on his game, Garrit Cole knows he could've done better tonight.

Go ahead. Try and guess which UCLA Bruin hat belongs to Trevor Bauer.

Jake Stewart, Lonnie Kauppila and Brian Ragira are in I-formation awaiting the pitch from Mark Appel.

Soon after, Kauppila makes a nice stop ranging to his left and sliding in to make the stop.

After the final out is made, the Trees rush the field to celebrate a huge Pac 10 win with their home boys.

Fives all around. The Cardinal get a big game one win over UCLA, which has to further bolster their No. 16 RPI. Just imagine if they start to hit for real finally? Whew.

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NOW, ON TO “YOUR A FRAUD” THURSDAY.

As I mentioned up above, I slapped my head a couple of times when I was reviewing scores from tonight’s games. Especially those out West. It seems like almost every favored team lost to an underdog. Here’s a list of the teams that acted like they were waiting till their usual Friday game to start playing for real.

The UCLAns weren’t the only higher-ranked, higher-regarded team that fell on hard times tonight.

- No. 8 Cal State Fullerton lost at Cal Poly, 7-2.

Mustang hurler Mason Radeke went the distance and improved to 6-1 on the season. He gave up 10 hits to the Titans, but the Poly defense didn’t commit an error and threw 95 strikes in his 138 pitches. Poly also improved to 17-16, moving above .500 for the first time this season.

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- Cal State Bakersfield lost to UC Riverside 3-0.

The Roadrunners dropped to 24-9 after stranding 11 baserunners (compared to just five for UCR) and saw their top four hitters combine for a 1-for-16 day. The Highlanders improved to 17-14 overall with the upset win.

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- No. 25 Arizona lost at Oregon 4-2.

The Wildcats may be running out of steam, as they have now gone just 3-7 since an April Fool’s Day win over Oregon State. The Cats could only get three measly hits off of Tyler Anderson. UofA starter Kurt Heyer took just his second loss of the year, giving up nine hits in 7.2 innings of work.

- New Mexico State got skunked by Nevada, 9-0.

The Aggies came in with the highest win total in the WAC at 27-9. But today, the Ags managed just five hits as UNR’s Tom Jameson threw a complete game to improve to 3-4 on the year.

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And a couple of near-misses…

- Arizona State went to Cal and took 17 innings, the second-longest game in Sun Devil history, to finally down the pesky Bears.

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- UC Irvine had to use an 8th inning suicide squeeze to outlast UC Davis 3-2.

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- Oregon State, the leader of the Pac, needed a three-run 8th inning to finally shake Washington STate in Corvallis tonight. Parker Berberet, the replacement for All American Andrew Susac, doubled home two of those runs to account for the winning runs.

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On to some other notes from around this great country of ours.

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I DID FIND ONE IMPRESSIVE BRUIN MOUND PERFORMANCE TONIGHT.

Belmont’s Chase Brookshire tossed a complete game five-hitter with four Ks and no walks as these Bruins posted a 16-1 win over the Campbell Camels. The most amazing part had to be that he withstood a few long offensive innings by his cohorts to complete the effort.

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I PICKED THE WRONG GAME.

Probably. I could’ve woken up a 6am and left my house early enough to make the afternoon tilt between Arizona State and Cal in Berkeley. But coming off a road trip to The O, I thought I should spend the morning rough-housing with my dog and then going to the UCLA-Stanford game instead.

Dammit.

Turns out that Cal-ASU game was an epic game, with the Devils winning 6-4 in 17 innings. Seven-freakin-teen innings. The winning runs came off the bat of Deven Merrero, who sliced a two-run single in the top of the 17th frame.

The game went so long, it nearly ran out of daylight. As you know, Evans Diamond doesn’t have lights and it was nearly dusk when the final out was made. The game also went so long that Aaron Fitt didn’t make it over to Palo Alto in time to see any of the UCLA-Stanford game.

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JUNGMANN NEEDS A BATH.

… coz that dude’s filthy again (groannnn, bad pun. Sorry.). Tonight at Kansas, Taylor Jungmann, the lanky Longhorn flinger, gave up just one hit in 8.0 innings of work and struck out nine Jayhawks. Texas took game one of the series by a 9-0 count.

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THE SPIRIT AWARD GOES TO…

Kansas State.

Though they’ve showed a lot of fight, the Wildcats have to be a little on the fatigued side. They lost a 5-4 white-knuckler at Nebraska on Monday, beat Missouri State, 10-4, at home on Tuesday  and then beat the Red Raiders today 2-1. Shane Conlon went 6.2 innings, giving up four hits, Evan Marshall went 1.1 innings, giving up the lone run (and buying the next beer round because of it) and James Allen came on to get his 11th save of the season.

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HEART OF A LION.

LMU has really turned its fortunes around this season and Jason Wheeler, the front line horse, has been a big reason why. Today he proved it again, going the complete game, giving up just three hits in the Lions’ 5-2 win over SoCal rival Pepperdine.

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PRIDE OF THE REDMEN.

St. John’s swept a pair of games from Notre Dame, by 6-0 and 4-1 scores. In game one, Johnnies’ ace Kyle Hansen struck out 15 Irish batters and allowed only four hits in a complete-game effort. With the two wins, SJU is now 21-13 and 10-4 in the Big East, a game-and-a-half behind UConn.

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THE VAN ZANT 500.

West Virginia head coach Greg Van Zant picked up win No. 500 with today’s 6-3 downing of Seton Hall. Cleanup hitter Grant Buckner smashed a solo shot in the 2nd inning to get WVU on the board and give them a lead the Mountaineers wouldn’t relinquish.

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SHOOTING BLANKS

Pitt raised a big red flag and announced itself as a legit Big East contender, by posting a pair of impressive 4-0 and 3-0 skunkings over Rutgers. In 18 innings the Panthers surrendered only nine hits and three walks, while committing no errors defensively. Pitt is now 24-13 and 10-4 in the conference.

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THE BIG DOG.

Fresno State’s Greg Gonzalez continues to dominate in a big time fashion. Tonight, in a tight tussle with Sac State, Gonzo threw a complete game four-hitter with 12Ks and just two walks as the Bulldogs knocked off the Hornets in the Capital City. Gonzalez is now 7-0 overall and earned his first complete game of the season.

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WOLVERINE BLANKING.

Despite only earning 13 wins in an underachieving season so far, Utah Valley picked up its fifth shutout W of the year today with a 10-zip win over Chicago State. Jeremy Gendlek, who owns the Great West-best 2.17 ERA, had a hand in the third shutout of his last four starts and extended his scoreless innings streak to 17.

Coach Eric Madsen would say afterward, “Jeremy’s done that all year. So much of our success is dictated by our pitching and defense and that was a pretty gutty performance by Jeremy today.

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Okay, I’m waving a white flag now. Gotta go to bed at some point. Hey, just a head’s up here guys, I finished this column just past 1:45am west coast time. I still haven’t recovered from my trip back from Omaha. So with my eyelids starting to drag heavily, I didn’t get the chance to re-read about half of tonight’s entry. If you see a couple of typos in the last half of this column, send me an Email and I’ll fix them.

G’night.

Click here to view the embedded video.

About damn time, right? Well, I got fed up with doing videos for ESPN and straying from my Baldcast roots. Shame on me, I know. So here’s my first true Baldcast of the 2011 season, I hope you dig it. Let’s also take a quick look at some mid-week stuff I’ve been wanting to mention.

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ACCENTUATE THE NEGATIVE.

Look, we give props to the winners and lavish the positives of our sport way way way too much. It seemed like there was much more bad than good that occured in the mid-week, so for this mid-week wrap-up, let’s go ahead and concentrate on all the bad things that happened from Monday to Thursday.

Here’s a Top 10 of the Bottom 10 things from the past few days:

1- Florida.
Had Central Florida down to its final out of the game, only to see Darnell Sweeney deliver a knock-out blow: a two-out, two-run double, which allowed the Knights to pull off a 4-3 win over the No. 4-ranked Gators in Gainesville. UCF improved to 20-9 with the win and added a huge feather to their RPI cap as well, pulling them up to No. 24 in Boyd’s World’s latest edition.

2- Texas.
Beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 8-1 on Tuesday, but saw a chance for a no-hitter go up in flames when the Islanders’ Drew Vest hit a leadoff single to start the 9th inning. UT starter Sam Stafford surrendered no hits and four walks in 7.0 innings of work, while also striking out 11. It’s Josh Urban who will end up buying the beer round for everybody after eventually giving up two hits and an unearned run in the 9th.

3- Rice.
The Owls stranded an amazing 18 runners on base in their Tuesday night 2-0 loss to Louisiana. Of course, credit the Cajun rotation of Jordan Nicholson, Chase Traffica and Caleb Kellogg as each of them did the ultimate bend-but-don’t-break act on the hill. The Owls couldn’t take advantage of 10 hits, six walks and two hit batsmen. Wow. Just… wow.

4- Cal’s Kevin Miller
The Bear stud had his 24.1 inning scoreless string broken in 7-4 loss to Pacific. The senior righty came into the game with the second-lowest ERA in the country, but saw it rise to 0.63 and his won-loss record fall to 3-2. Cal coach David Esquer would call this “the worst game we played all year. Kevin pitched so well for us and we didn’t do him any favors. We can’t expect him to strike out 15 batters every time out.”

5- Indiana.
The Hoosiers committed three errors, plunked five batters and issued four walks in a 6-1 loss to Miami University on Tuesday. To make matters worse, don’t blame starting pitcher Brian Korte, who threw four innings of no-hit ball, allowing just one runner to reach base. But his stint wasn’t planned to go any longer than four innings and after he got pulled from the game, IU’s hopes went into the rubbish bin as the comedy of errors ensued.

6- Texas A&M.
Aggies allowed Houston to score the winning run in the top of the 9th in a 3-2 loss on Tuesday. The winning run was supplied by Coog senior Ryan Still, who got on base with a walk to open the frame. Still then stole both 2nd and 3rd base, eventually crossing the dish on Chase Jensen’s RBI single. All three of Houston’s runs were scored when the player was issued a walk

7- Oral Roberts and Arkansas-Little Rock.
These two played one of the longest, ugliest games of 2011. In a 4:27, 9-inning marathon won by ORU 15-14 on a two-point conversion with no time left. The two teams combined to issue 21 walks, uncorked seven wild pitches, hit three batters, commit four errors and use 13 pitchers on the night.

8- Gonzaga.
The Bulldogs have been hot of late, including weekend sweeps of UC Irvine and New Mexico back-to-back. But don’t say anything to them about facing local rival Washington State. In the last two mid-weeks, the Zags have been pounded by the Coogs, including Tuesday nights 11-6 shellacking that saw each of the starting infielders of Wazzu send out a yard call from the dish.

9- Arizona.
The Wildcats dropped a 10-5 decision to rival Arizona State in a non-conference game on Tuesday night. But the frustrating part for the Cats was seeing them leave the bases loaded on three different occasions during the game, going a teeth-gnashing 4-for-15 at the plate with runners in scoring position. Additionally, the Cats would commit four errors, walk five batters and give up 12 hits to the Devil bats in the loss.

10- Notre Dame.
No, not the baseball team. I’m talking about the hockey team. Today, taking on Minnesota-Duluth, who is the best power play team in the country, the Irish chose to spend most of the game in the penalty box, giving up three power play goals to the Bulldogs. And yes, the Irish were eliminated in the semi-finals of the Frozen Four by a 4-3 score.

The Fighting Irish only have themselves to blame after losing 4-3 to Minnesota-Duluth through a hail of penalties.

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IGGY
In case you’re wanting to hear/see the background music for tonight’s Baldcast, here’s Iggy Pop’s “Cold Metal” a song off his 1988 release “Instinct”. Ever the wild ball of unstoppable energy, this is Iggy at his best, albeit with a fair amount of bad 80s video aesthetic. None-the-less, if you can get past that it’s a great song made even greater by the fact that former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones is in the video and on lead guitar as well. (He’s the one with the long hair).

Click here to view the embedded video.

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PARTING SHOT.
This North Dakota fan didn’t appreciate Michigan celebrating their win over his Fighting Sioux…

"You're Number One man!" Michigan advances to the hockey national title game against Minnesota-Duluth.

A quick spin around the country to show what were some of the high points of the games that were played while we were all working our boring, dreadful, everyday jobs.

Cal State Fullerton and Arizona State got together for more high quality rough-and-tumble in the mid-week. By the way, Fullerton's Anthony Trajano was called safe on this play at the plate.

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10- OKLAHOMA STATE’s ZACH JOHNSON.

The Pokes 1st baseman jacked three dingers and a double in wins over Arkansas-Pine Bluff (by a 19-3 score) and Washington (4-2) as OSU improved to 16-5 on the season as the weekend series vs. Texas awaits.

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9- BEN KLAFCZYNSKI, KENT STATE

Went 5-for-5 with 2HRs, 2BBs in a 22-2 win over Xavier.

Still one of the best unknown players in the country, this dude’s crazy day against the Musketeers increased his season average to .446 on the season. He and fellow slugger Travis Shaw each had five runs batted in on the day.

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8- GEORGIA TECH’s MATT SKOLE.

The Lumberjacket went 5-for-5 with a pair of home runs in Tech’s 15-6 rout of arch-rival Georgia on Tuesday. Skole also accounted for eight runs batted in on the night.

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7- STANFORD’S BRIAN RAGIRA.

The freshman hit for the cycle in a 5-for-5 day in a 9-1 win over Bay Area rival Santa Clara on Tuesday. Ragira, a 1st baseman, is hitting .333 so far this season after coming to Stanford as a 30th round draft pick last June.

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6- CANISIUS’ SEAN JAMIESON AND RALPH ALLOCO

First off, the ugly truth is that the Griffins out-slugged Morehead State by a football-like 32-17 on Tuesday. The biggest culprits were these two jack-hammers as Jamieson hit for the cycle, including two yard calls and accounted for nine RBI, setting a school record, and Alloco set a program-best with six hits in the game and six RBI.

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5- THAT TEAM FROM JIMI HENDRIX’s HOME TOWN.

Seattle Univ. has started to make their own scene man. The Redhawks beat No. 26 Oregon State on Tuesday 5-4 to improve to 9-6 on the season. Not bad for this being just their second season of D1 baseball. Also, is there a way to credit the Redhawks for OSU’s All American catcher Andrew Susac committing two errors in the game?

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4- ARIZONA STATE AND CAL STATE FULLERTON HOOKED UP.

Ya’ gotta love these two teams, man. Ya’ just do. This was year No. 4 for the Dimarini West Coast Challenge featuring these two western monsters. Although it’s only a pair of mid-week games, these are big time matchups and usually well contested. Okay, this time around the two games turned into boat races really quickly, with Fullerton jumping on ASU for seven early runs in the 7-3 win on Tuesday, and then ASU scored eight runs in the first four innings and ran away with a 10-1 win on Wednesday.

Matt Newman (11) and Zach Wilson (25) were the stars of Wednesday's 10-1 win at Goodwin Field.

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3- TEMPLE AND GEORGIA STATE.

These two teams accounted for their 10th straight wins on Tuesday. The Owls got a jog-off RBI single from Cameron Green to down Monmouth 6-5 in 10 innings as they earned their first 10-game streak since the 1985 season and improve to 13-5 overall. (In case you didn’t know, that’s pretty remarkable for this program). GSU beat Kennesaw State 6-3 to get their 10th straight W. Will Campbell improved his record to 5-0, going 7.1 innings, allowing just four hits. The Panthers are now 19-4 on the season.

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2- DAVID HERBEK AND JAKE LOWERY OF JAMES MADISON.

Herbek hit a pair of home runs in the two wins over Cornell to raise his season total to nine fence-busters on the year, tying him with his teammate Lowery for the national lead. Can’t tell these boys there are new, deader bats being used out there.

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1- STETSON

The Hatters are mad, I tell you. On Tuesday they beat nearby nemesis Bethune-Cookman 7-6 and then upped the ante even more with a win over No. 7 Florida State by a 6-4 count in extra innings. With those two wins, SU has now owns wins against the Wildcats, the Noles, a series sweep of Georgia and an A-Sun sweep of defending conference champion Mercer. Wow.

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AND SOME NOT-SO-COOL THINGS FROM THE MID-WEEK.

1- THE HARD CRASH OF REALITY

Lots of really promising teams really took some nasty losses this mid-week.

- College of Charleston.

Lost to No. 6 South Carolina, 24-4.

The Cougars can’t seem to get a good win against a good team as hard as they try, having already lost to teams like Coastal Carolina, Auburn, Southern Miss, UConn and now the Gamecocks.

- Rhode Island.

Also lost to No. 6 South Carolina, 17-8.

The Rams came in with high hopes, fresh off a win over the Cougars above, but the Cocks smacked ‘em back to reality with this ugly rout on Wednesday. URI drops to 9-8 before the toughest road test of the A-10 season comes up with a trip to Charlotte this weekend.

- Kent State.

Lost at Louisville 11-2.

The Flashes have shown flashes this season and were hoping to get back to the W-column against a high profile team. It didn’t happen here as the road-weary Flashes (all 19 of their games so far have been roadies.

- UNC-Wilmington.

Lost at North Carolina 14-2.

You KNOW the Seahawks wanted this one. They are always wanting to take down their in-state big brothers, but their woes continued instead as seven pitchers didn’t have the answer to stop Carolina’s bats. Colin Moran, brother of former Tarheel pitcher Brian, was 3-for-4 with a triple, a home run and six RBI.

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2- UCLA KEEPS LOSING WITH IMPECCABLE PITCHING.

The Bruins split a Monday double-header with Cal Poly, losing 2-1 and winning 8-0. In the first game loss, Gerrit Cole started, but only threw two innings and then the game got pushed a day because of rain. Usual Sunday starter Adam Plutko came on and held the Mustangs to two runs and seven hits. But the Bruin offense still couldn’t muster the offense to outscore them. Going into this weekend the Bruins are hitting a Pac 10 worst .234. Is that incredible or what?

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3- TEXAS TECH LOSES ITS ACE.

It was announced on Tuesday that the Raiders’ Friday night mound starter Daniel Coulombe will miss the remainder of the season and undergo Tommy John Surgery next week. Up to this point, Coulombe was 0-2/3.98 with 28Ks and only 7BBs in 20.1 innings.

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4- LSU’s MATTY OTT.

The Tiger closer extraordinaire from the 2009 season seems like a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. On Tuesday he continued his string of shaky performances, giving up four hits and two runs in one inning of work in the Tigers’ 11-5 loss to Louisiana on Tuesday night. For the season, Ott is 0-1, 5.06 and four saves. But he has also surrendered 14 hits and seven runs in his 10.2 innings of work.

It's been another weird out-of-body-type season for Matty Ott.

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5- WEATHER… AGAIN.

Stupid Mother Nature keeps screwing with us.

There were numerous amounts of rainouts and postponements this week, particularly in the volatile Northeast. For example, the Big East  had eight of its nine scheduled games cancelled on Wednesday.

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Okay, my Virgin America flight is about to land (my Gawd! do I ever love this airline), so I’m gonna have to go. I’ll slap you guys back again later on today with my ESPN weekend preview that you’ll be very proud of… as long as you can find it, of course.

G’day