OMAHA, Neb. — College baseball’s championship trophy is headed
back to football country.
With both South Carolina and Florida winning Friday in Omaha, the
Southeastern Conference guaranteed itself a third straight national
champion in baseball.
The
SEC has been the prevailing postseason conference in multiple
sports, but recently, the gridiron greats have also developed into
diamond studs.
In
2009, Louisiana State won the national title, and last season,
South Carolina won its first-ever major men’s national
championship.
The
SEC East trio — UF, USC and Vanderbilt — made history earlier this
week becoming the first three teams from the same conference to
reach the semifinals of the tournament.
In
Omaha, the three teams are a combined 8-2 — the only two losses
coming in Florida’s two wins over Vandy.
The
SEC has thrashed the storied Atlantic Coast Conference this
postseason, especially at the CWS. During Regionals and Super
Regionals, Florida and Mississippi State easily took down Miami and
Georgia Tech.
At
the CWS, the ACC (North Carolina and Virginia) went 0-fer against
the SEC, as Vanderbilt and South Carolina both eliminated the Tar
Heels and the Cavaliers — beating them in all four tries.
Corbin not so sunny
One
of the many postgame storylines following the UF/Vandy triller was:
Why did Commodores coach Tim Corbin bring ace Sonny Gray back out
in the eighth?
Needless to say, Corbin was none to fond of the criticism.
“I
don't care what the number of pitches was. He wanted to go back
out there,” Corbin said. “That's all there is to it. You're not
going to take the ball away from him or else you're going to fight
him. I’d rather give him the ball and let him pitch.”
After Vanderbilt rallied for a pair of runs to tie the game,
instead of using his deep bullpen, Corbin elected to let Gray —
who’d already thrown over 120 pitches and had a seesaw start
anyways — go back on the mound.
Things quickly unraveled on the junior right-hander in the eighth,
as Florida loaded the bases on a single and two misplayed bunts.
Two
batters later, Preston Tucker did his thing. Again.
OMS’ “How Bizarre”
Something happened during Florida’s win Friday that I’ve never seen
before.
SEC
Player of the Year Mike Zunino — who, despite UF’s success, has
quietly struggled (2 for 12) at the CWS — shattered an aluminum
bat.
An aluminum bat.
Jammed on an inside heater, Zunino’s stick broke off at the handle,
and the barrel went flying into the stands.
Vanderbilt’s Mark Lamm literally sawed off Zunino’s metal bat.
The
NCAA wanted the college bats to perform more like MLB wooden bats,
but I doubt this is what it had in mind.
If
the game weren’t so damn dramatic, I would have totally asked about
this afterwards.
Trumping aces
En
route to a championship berth, Florida went undefeated during CWS
bracket play against three pitchers with a combined record of 38-6
before facing the Gators.
UF
took down three first-round draft picks for a chance to capture its
first national championship in baseball.
Texas right-hander Taylor Jungmann, the 12th overall pick by the
Milwaukee Brewers, and Vanderbilt’s Gray, 18th overall pick by the
Oakland Athletics, and Greyson Garvin, first round supplementary
pick of the Tampa Bay Rays, all had middling starts against the
Gators.
Quote of the week
“Right now I want to take my phone and computer and dump it in the
Tennessee River and just spend some time with these guys, because
this is the toughest moment a coach, coaches, players can go
through. … You know, I've always said it's a car that's going 100
miles an hour and slams on the brakes. Tomorrow they're all gone.
That part stinks. That's not fun. That's not fun at all. I just
hate to see it come to an end. But it does. And life moves
on.”
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— Commodores coach Tim Corbin after a tough elimination loss Friday
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Florida catcher Mike Zunino had his aluminum bat sawed off in the eighth inning of UF's 6-4 win over Vanderbilt on Friday at the College World Series
