College World Series On The Offensive, Plus CWS Factoids

The 2009 College World Series got off on the offensive Saturday as the Titans of Cal St. Fullerton, were upset by Arkansas 10-6. In the second game, SEC traditional power LSU downed the Cavaliers of Virginia 9-5. this game featured two teams who were in the top 10 in having the best team ERAs.

Virginia Head Coach Brian O'Connor was amazed and chagrined at the fact that his team stranded a lot of runners on base: "We left 14 runners on base - it's a whole lot to leave on," said O'Connor. "We had situations when guys stepped up and hit the ball hard and LSU made two diving catches in the outfield. We just couldn't come up with that one big hit to break it open." LSU Head Coach Paul Mainieri was equally amazed at the amount of offensive power displayed by both teams: "That was the most offensive game I've ever coached in the CWS," said LSU head coach Paul Mainieri. "I can't really explain it because what Virginia has done in the postseason is phenomenal -- 10 runs in the last seven games."

It wouldn't surprise me that more of the same will happen tomorrow. The first game features two #1 seeds, Arizona St. and North Carolina. Both teams are very capable of pounding the ball and bringing in runs. They've already done that in the Regionals and Super Regionals. The second game features the Texas Longhorns against the CWS Cinderella, the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. The Gold and Navy boys from Hattiesburg are making the first ever trip to Omaha. They are a scrappy club capable of pulling off upsets. They already knocked out perennial powers Georgia Tech and Florida, but in both games, they had help from errors and unearned runs given up by the Yellow Jackets and the Gators. They will need more of the same from the Longhorns.

A plethora of former and current Major League players have played in the CWS. Probably the two most famous are Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. Both were in college at around the same time (the early 80s) and may have faced each other. Also, Robin Ventura of the Chicago White Sox played for Oklahoma St. in the CWS in 1987. Going into the 87 CWS, Ventura had a 57 game hitting streak going. I'm not sure if it continued, but that may be an NCAA record that hasn't been broken. Former Toronto Blue Jay Ed Sprague, who hit a key home run in the 1992 World Series against the Atlanta Braves, was on the Stanford team that won the 1987 and 88 CWS. Southern Cal has won the most CWS titles with 12. Boston Red Sox Catcher Jason Varitek was on the 1994 Georgia Tech team that went all the way to the Finals and lost to Oklahoma St.

Other former and current MLB players that have played in the CWS are Dave Magadan (NY METS, Univ. of Alabama--early 80s), Pete Incaviglia (Texas Rangers, Oklahoma St.--Mid to late 80s), Will Clark (SF Giants, Miss. St.--early -mid 80s), Mike Mussina (Baltimore Orioles--late 80s--early 90s) and current Chicago White Sox Shortstop Gordon Beckham, who helped lead his Georgia Bulldog team to the Finals a year ago, losing to the CWS All-Time Cinderella, Fresno St.. The Bulldogs of Fresno St. had to win the WAC Tournament to even qualify for the NCAA Tournament. They eventually made it to the 2008 CWS and won the National Title.

This year's CWS has already been exciting. Can Southern Miss become another Cinderella Champion, or will Texas fufill what they are expected to do, win it all. The action continues. Some of the information in this blog comes from fellow blogger Amy Farnum Novin, who blogs for the NCAA. You can read her blogs on this year's CWS at www.ncaa.com/blog/2009cwsblog.