North Carolina coach Mike Fox and Louisiana State coach Paul Mainieri had an impromptu press conference to address tonight’s game, which was suspended after a three-hour, five-minute weather delay. [...]

"I’d like to announce that Mike Fox has agreed to give us a mulligan, and we can start the game over tomorrow," Mainieri said at the start of the press conference. Then he turned to Fox and said, "Didn’t you agree to that?"

Fox quickly and firmly responded, "No."

Heh heh. Be sure to read the whole story.

The NC/LSU elimination game will resume tomorrow night at 6:08 with UNC leading 2-0, bases loaded, 1 out, and Garrett Gore at the plate (0-1 count). LSU will likely go with another pitcher in relief. You never know, though. Maybe the starter (who hit two and walked in a run on a 4-pitch walk...yikes!) will be all better tomorrow evening.

By the way, the games scheduled to be played tomorrow will be pushed back to Saturday and final games will be played on Sunday if needed. I think the best-of-three Championship series schedule is unchanged.

Last Monday, I said I'd be rooting for Fresno State and I'm still doing that. Sadly, I didn't get to watch their game this evening. I was out listening to some fantastic music. But, I hope to watch them play on Friday. Again, I say: go, Bulldogs!

I just love college baseball. That is all.

And, here's the sequence as he runs down the line:

I've "watched" quite a few games on GameTracker and that's the first time I ever noticed the red-hot pain of being hit by a pitch. Heh.

The next batter singled up the middle, scoring one. The next reached on an error by ss. I have no idea what the actual error was but according to the GameTracker graphics, the ball hit the shortstop in the chest and landed on the baseline in front of him:

Note how the ball is just laying there on the ground?

The final batter (Dean) hit a bases-clearing double to lf. According to the GameTracker graphics, the ball bounced right to the left-fielder who just held onto it and didn't bother to throw home.

See how the left fielder (Luna) is hanging onto the ball?...while Hollander's avatar turns an eerie shade of yellow as he heads back to the dugout after scoring and Mitchell runs toward the plate? We all know that's not what really happened, though, right? I saw a replay on the news and the double went off the wall in lf and bounced back into the field past Luna. By the time he caught up to the ball, it looked like the 3rd run was crossing the plate.

They've modified the field graphics a bit for the CWS. The CWS logo now shows up on the scoreboard in lf for most of the game. There's a big "Rosenblatt" banner above the scoreboard. And the astro-turf "College World Series" ring around home plate has shown up as well (making it difficult to read the names of the catcher and batter).

What are some of the regular things that happen? When a strike is recorded, you see the ball cross the plate while the batter swings ineffectually...whether he really took a swing or not is immaterial. Whenever a ball is hit, the batter drops his bat on the ground before running to 1b. The same thing happens on a walk. When a game ends in the bottom of the 9th, the final "frame" usually reflects conditions on the field at the time of the last out or final score. In today's game, it ended on that bases-clearing double by Dean:

I love how they don't clear the field. When the home team is ahead and doesn't have to bat in the bottom of the 9th, GameTracker usually clears the field and the last batter's bat lays discarded near home plate.

Ah well. If only they could get the system to the point where it wouldn't freeze up for minutes at a time. I'm sure that's on the way. In the meantime, those little things do entertain.

UPDATE. I found him listed on the Ogden Raptors roster sporting jersey number 46.

UPDATE #2. I was going over that Raptors roster again and noticed the manager's name: Mike Brumley. I'm pretty sure that's the Mike Brumley that played for the Horns when I was a student at UT...the one on the 1983 National Championship team. Cool! I also noticed that Brian Ruggiano (Aggie second baseman) is listed on the roster.

I've also received a few notes from people asking if the movie is available for purchase. It does not seem to be at this point in time. If I see any news of a DVD release, I will be sure to post.

• Film chronicles baseball coach Augie Garrido by David R. Henry (in the Daily Texan)
• Richard Linklater's 'Inning by Inning' follows coach Augie Garrido by John DeFore (in the Statesman)
• Zen and the Art of Winning Championships by Ashley Moreno (in the Chronicle)
• Documentary on Baseball head coach Garrido makes TV premiere on June 15 (TexasSports.com)

It airs at 9 here in Austin.

PS: Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there...especially mine!

• Kyle Walker with the Rockies (see June 13 press release)
• Kenn Kasparek with the Mariners and assigned to the Rookie affliate Pulaski Mariners in Virginia (see June 12 press release)
• Casey Whitmer with the the Nationals (see June 10 press release)

It's also being reported that the Dodgers and Kyle Russell have reached a preliminary deal (scroll down to the "Dodger Blue Notes" heading near the bottom of the page).

And, the usual note: check my 2008 MLB Draft Summary page for additional info.

PS: I didn't notice at the time but my last post (the one about the CWS field) was my 500th post to this blog. That makes this one #501.

As soon as I saw that Fresno State won the Long Beach Regional, I knew I had to root for them in the Tempe Super Regional. The Sun Devils won the first game 12-4 on Saturday. Yesterday, the Bulldogs had a big 4th inning, scoring 5, and managed to hold on to win 8-6. Which led to the deciding game this evening.

It was a very close game through 6. With the score tied 5-5 going into the top of the 7th, the kids from Fresno State pushed 6 runs across. What? Amazing. And, then they held the Sun Devils scoreless in the 7th and 8th. They tacked on another run to go up 12-5 in the top of the 9th. And, then the kids from Arizona State started their own big inning. With one out and runners at 1b and 2b, the Bulldogs sent their closer (Brandon Burke) to the mound. Burke walked the bases loaded. Then he gave up a single (and the 6th ASU run). And, then another single (along with the 7th and 8th ASU runs). Then he got the next batter to fly out to lf. Two out, runners at 1b and 2b. The 8th batter of the inning singled, driving in the 9th ASU run and putting runners at the corners. The 9th batter, representing the tying run, walked (!) to load the bases!!!

Oh. My. Goodness. This was the final game of the Super Regionals. The LSU/UC-Irvine game had ended 10 or 15 minutes earlier.

Everyone who cared about college baseball was glued to ESPN2, just waiting to see what would happen. We were all watching the Fresno State closer struggle. He'd get his first pitch over for a strike, pull ahead of the batter, and then give up a single. We watched. And couldn't believe what we were seeing.

The 10th batter of the inning went to the plate. He'd struck out to start off the inning. Now he was getting a second chance. Now he represented the winning run. If he homered, ASU would go to the CWS. And, he'd already hit 2 homeruns earlier in the game! Two of 'em. One in the 4th and another in the 5th. Wow. He lifted a pitch toward lf. And, it was caught by the Fresno State left fielder. Game over.

Amazing.

This is the first time a 4th seed from the Regional round has made their way to Omaha since the Regional/Super-Regional 64-team format was instituted. Wow. I'm gonna keep on rooting for the kids from Fresno State.

The field is now set:

• Miami
• North Carolina
• Fresno State
• Florida State
• Stanford
• Rice
• LSU
• Georgia

Miami, Florida State, Stanford, and Georgia are on the 1-4-5-8 side of the bracket. North Carolina, Fresno State, Rice, and LSU are on the 2-3-6-7 side. The winners of each 4-team bracket will face each other for a best-of-3 series in a couple of weeks.

Fresno State faces Rice at 1 PM on Saturday. Usually, I'd be rooting for Rice. But, I can't do that this year. I have to root for the underdog. Go, Bulldogs!

• Kyle Russell (3rd round, Dodgers)
• Robbie Grossman (signee from Cypress, 6th round, Pirates)
• Jordan Danks (7th round, White Sox)
• Kyle Walker (11th round, Rockies)
• Kenn Kasparek (12th round, Mariners)
• Hunter Cervenka (signee from Baytown, 27th round, Red Sox)
• Casey Whitmer (30th round, Nationals)
• Brandon Loy (signee from Garland, 32nd round, Orioles)
• Sam Stafford (signee from Spring, 40th round, Red Sox)
• Riley Boening (42nd round, Twins)

Will they all sign? I have no idea. I'd be very surprised to see Kyle Russell, Jordan Danks, Kyle Walker, or Kenn Kasparek on campus next year. Very surprised. The others? No idea at all.

'Notice a name or two missing from the list? I was very surprised that Preston Clark and Austin Wood were not drafted. I was particularly surprised about Preston since he was drafted last year. But, I guess his injuries have scared some people away. At least for the moment.

Other random notes:

• Casey Whitmer and Riley Boening turned 21 in March and April (respectively) so were draft-eligible as Sophomores.
• Hunter Harris and Marcus Tacket also turned 21 before the draft and were eligible as Sophomores but went un-drafted.
• Draft-eligible juniors who were not drafted: Drew Bishop, Preston Clark, Garrett Clyde, Pat McCrory, Keith Shinaberry, Juston Street, Michael Torres, Travis Tucker, and Austin Wood.

We'll have quite a few more seniors on the squad next year than we've seen in several years. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out.

Don't forget to check my draft summary page for additional notes of possible interest to Texas fans.

Kyle Russell was drafted in the 3rd round (93rd overall) of the draft today. He went in the 4th round (142nd overall) last year so he improved his stock by quite a bit...despite his slow start this year. Also drafted was Texas signee Robbie Grossman (outfielder from Cypress). He went in the 6th round.

So far, those are the only Texas-related draftees that I've been able to find. As usual, I've set up a draft summary page with info on our drafted players along with a list of Big 12 and SWC players. Check that page out for periodic updates.

The draft stopped at the end of the 6th round and will resume tomorrow at 10:30 Central time.

Florida State beat Tulane late. I'd forgotten that Josh Prince had transfered to Tulane. He went 2-for-5 with a double and 2 runs batted in this evening. For the season (according to GameTracker), he hit .231, had 143 at-bats, scored 22 runs, had 33 hits, with 8 batted in, 1 homerun, 19 stolen bases, 14 walks, 23 strikeouts, and 3 doubles.

Number 1 seeds Stanford and Georgia also won to advance. The final #1 seed still playing is Cal State Fullerton (CSF up 5-3 over UCLA in the 6th as I type).

The most entertaining result of the day: #4 seed Fresno State won the Long Beach Regional. They now get to travel to Tempe to play #3 National Seed Arizona State. I think I kinda have to root for the Bulldogs in the next round.

So, 7 of the 8 National seeds won their tournaments this year...with the result of the #5 National seed Regional still pending. The last time all of the National seeds won their Regionals was in 2005. Interesting. Texas, by the way, beat the #5 National seed (Mississippi) in the Super Regional round and went on to win it all. Of course, the Titans might still lose.

In the bottom-half of the National bracket, #2 seed UC-Irvine, #2 seed Wichita State, and (as mentioned) #4 seed Fresno State played the role of spoiler in their Regional tournaments.

UPDATE: Cal State Fullerton won 5-4. So, the top 8 National seeds all won their tournaments and will now host the 8 best-of-three Super Regional tournaments.

• Head coach Augie Garrido:
• They out hit us and they out pitched us. We played better defense than they did. Two out of three won.
• On not getting out of the regional
  It's disappointing, extremely disappointing and difficult because we know what the expectations are, and we know what the criticisms are. It's still the way it is, and it needs to be fixed. It's about the fundamentals of the game. I do know how to fix it.
• On how team's sacrificing and inability to bunt impacted the game
  It didn’t play into this game as much as their hitting played into the game. They took apart our pitching with their hitting. The three-run rally they put together was really nicely done. We offered up a lot of bases. I thought that had more to do with it. The separation that got there, got there as a result of several things connected to the pitching parts of it. The walks, the hit batsmen to lead off innings, stealing of bases, the way they executed and hit the ball. They had 11 hits and they hit them hard and they hit them often. The separation was really over the pitching, in my opinion, and the hitting. They made quality pitches on quality hitters at critical times, struck guys out who are the bread and butter of our lineup. Reduced the power that we have in our lineup to one home run.
• On the Rice relief pitchers
  I thought the left hander (Matt Evers) that came in for that little run he made threw us off balance because we were over aggressive trying to win the game. We kept trying to attack his breaking ball. (Bobby Bell) really attacked the strike zone. He threw 95% strikes in the last three innings on the first pitch.
• Starting Center Fielder Jordan Danks:
• On Rice's pitching
  I tip my hat to everybody I faced today because they knew exactly what to throw me in what counts. I just couldn't make contact.
• Starting Right Fielder Kyle Russell:
• On his decision to bunt
  I saw the third baseman back and the pitcher was going to throw me nothing but changeups. I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to lay down a bunt.
• On the grind of a long day and a long game
  I think we came through the Rice game with good confidence. When we got 3-3 and tied the game, we got more confidence. We raised our self esteem and knew we could have this baseball game. We tried hard, we really did. We tried very hard to try to get there. Rice is a great team. You just have to owe it to those guys because we played great baseball today, believe it or not. We might have had 10 strike outs, but we hit the ball real well today too. It is a grind but that's baseball and that's double headers for you. That's what you've got to do in those times. That's what we tried to do and we played very well today.

In the post-game press conference, Coach Garrido described the season as good for the first part as the team went 16-6, then pretty lousy as the team lost their way in the middle of the season, and then very good again at the end of the season. Rice just out-pitched and out-hit the Horns in the final game.

If you think about it, it's it absolutely stunning that there were 6 errors in the final game of the year and not one was committed by Texas. The fact that the Rice pitchers limited the Horns to 6 hits really did make all the difference in the world. If the Horns had been able to get just one or two more hits, they likely would've won the game. Baseball really is a cruel sport sometimes.

Sigh...

And, how did things go elsewhere? Let's see...

Houston beat Illinois-Chicago to earn their way into the Championship game in College Station. And, then they managed to beat the Aggies this evening. So, they will meet again tomorrow evening to determine who'll be headed to Houston to play Rice in the Super Regional. I still think it sucks that they paired those two Regionals.

Elsewhere, the Big 12 did not fare well. Oklahoma State eliminated TCU in the first game but then fell in 10 innings to Wichita State in the second game. Nebraska was eliminated in the first game of the day in Lincoln; UC-Irvine won that Regional and now heads to Baton Rouge to play LSU. Missouri was also eliminated in the first game of the day by Ole Miss who went on to lose to Miami in the late game. Oklahoma beat Vandy in the first game of the day but they lost to ASU 0-12 just a few minutes ago.

That also brings us up-to-date on the rest of our old SWC conference-mates that were still in the tourney at the start of Day 3 (Houston and TCU).

A summary of the entire field (in seeding order):

1. Miami moves on to the Supers.
2. North Carolina moves on.
3. Arizona State moves on.
4. Florida State will play Tulane (#3 seed) tomorrow night; winner moves on.
5. Cal State Fullerton: UCLA (#2 seed) is the unbeaten team and is tied with CSF 1-1 in the 2nd as I type (CSF has men aboard in the bottom and is threatening). If CSF wins, the teams play again tomorrow night.
6. Rice moves on.
7. LSU moves on.
8. Georgia will play Georgia Tech (#2 seed) tomorrow night; winner moves on.
9. North Carolina State moves on.
10. Nebraska lost; UC-Irvine (#2 seed) moves on.
11. Texas A&M will play Houston (#3 seed) tomorrow night; winner moves on.
12. Stanford will play Pepperdine (#2 seed) tomorrow night; winner moves on.
13. Oklahoma State lost; Wichita State (#2 seed) moves on.
14. Long Beach State lost; San Diego (#2 seed) and Fresno State (#4 seed) play tomorrow night; winner moves on.
15. Coastal Carolina moves on. Coastal Carolina, by the way, scored 47 runs in the three games they played this weekend.
16. Arizona (#1 seed at Michigan) moves on.

For those of you that don't generally follow the CWS, please note that there will not be a re-seeding of teams at any time. You're put into the tournament at a certain spot in the bracket and those spots do not change. If, for example, Bethune-Cookman (#64 seed in the tourney, by virtue of being the #4 seed in the #1 Regional) had somehow managed to win the Miami Regional and then the following Super Regional, they would be the #1 see at the CWS. Very odd, if you ask me. But, nobody asked me. I just report the facts. Although, I guess you could argue that if a #64 team did manage to get to that point, they just might deserve a #1 seed, eh? Heh.

And so it goes...

UPDATE. I forgot to post the All Tournament Team for the Houston Regional. So here you go:

• Catcher: Zornes (Rice)
• First base: Padron (Rice) - goes to show that fielding does not count at all in these things
• Second base: Comerota (Rice)
• Shortstop: Hague (Rice)
• Third base: Clark (Texas)
• Outfielders: Russell (Texas), Mozingo (Rice), and Sebek (Sam Houston State)
• Pitchers: Barnes (St. John's) and Ruffin (Texas)
• Designated hitter: Torres (Texas)
• Most Outstanding Player: Russell (Texas)