Pitching matchups today:

Lousiville: Zack Pitts, Jr., RHP (10-3, 2.23)
Rice: Ryan Berry, Fr., RHP (11-2, 2.71)

Mississippi State: Justin Pigott, Jr., LHP (7-6, 4.40)
North Carolina: Robert Woodard, Sr., RHP (10-2, 3.01)

-- MWE

Not a good day for either Berry or Pitts. Up to the pens now. Cardinals lead 10-8 going to the bottom of the 7th.

-- MWE

The way this game is going I'm half expecting Jarrett Dillard to score...

Sat... 4pm PT... ESPN... Got it (Maury "Baseball Wonderland" Brown, Portland, OR).

Would be nice to see the Beavers go back to back.

Pitching matchups:

UCI: Scott Gorgen, So., RHP (12-2, 2.68): Gorgen's been the best pitcher in the postseason so far.
Arizona State: Mike Leake, Fr., RHP (13-1, 3.59)

Oregon State: Jorge Reyes, Fr., RHP (5-3, 3.13).
CSU-Fullerton: Wes Roemer, Jr. RHP (11-6, 3.24).

-- MWE

If there is a god, we'll see Oregon State vs UC-Irvine so we can get a Beavers vs Eaters matchup.

Sunday pitching matchups:

Mississippi State: Chad Crosswhite, So., RHP (8-4, 4.24)
Louisville: Justin Marks, Fr., LHP (8-2, 2.54)

Rice: Joe Savery, Jr., LHP (10-1, 2.78). Savery hasn't pitched since the regionals.
North Carolina: Alex White, Fr., RHP (6-5, 4.22). White has been hammered in the postseason.

-- MWE

Back from vacation -- missed the disappointing Friday loss to Rice. Good start in the top of the first against Miss. St. But a lead doesn't mean much, as we saw the other day . . . . Go Cards!

Louisville has a pitching advantage today, I think.

Dominguez goes deep. 3-0 Cards, top 2.

-- MWE

That was a bad call against Mississippi State on interference. It may have cost them a big inning in the bottom of the second. The runner did come up to take out Johnson, but it didn't interfere in any way with the play. Given the K that followed, there should have then been first and third, two outs, so who knows what would have happened? But it was a bad call.

The rules on interference are normally different in amateur ball than they are in pro ball. I'm taping the game to watch later, and I'll have to take a look at it.

-- MWE

Cardinals stay alive, 12-4. Two HR for Dominguez, outstanding relief work by Skylar Meade to keep MSU at bay. Cards play the Rice/UNC loser Tuesday at 2.

Marks was hit in the knee by a line drive off the bat of Mitch Moreland in the sixth. The injury has been diagnosed as just a bruise, and he should be OK for future duty if needed.

-- MWE

I presume, at this point, that Wark will start on Tuesday, although it's possible that Pitts could come back on three days rest.

-- MWE

Rice looks like they have an advantage in tonight's game, but given the way that the Tar Heels' bullpen has come through in the postseason, I wouldn't want to bet against them.

-- MWE

Interesting: Savery, who has been hitting cleanup almost all season, has been dropped to the six hole tonight, with Aaron Luna elevated to the four spot.

-- MWE

I agree 100% with Sam M on the interference play. That call was a disaster.

I didnt see the play being discussed but in NCAA ball, unlike the pros, you have to slide RIGHT AT the bag and, I believe, stay fairly low and not wave your arms up too high. You can'tdo the big league thing of sliding to the slide and catching the bag with your hand.

Oh, this is too funny. Sean McDonough just said UNC coach Mike Fox "is NOT one of the most firey guys you'll ever meet. He's a bit of a Southern Gentleman."

I'm sorry, but thats BS. 100%. I'm sure he can be charming off the field, Carolina recruits well after all, but ON the field Fox can be a raging jerk. He b!tches ENDLESSLY at ANY call, gets in the face of every ump, delays games (every game seemingly, often once every couple innings) for SO long walking around and yelling at the top of his lungs and at one point yelled at a fan who didn't like a call Fox made to "come on down and face me man to man".

And I know that obviously Sean McDOnough can't be intimately accquainted with Carolina baseball pre-Omaha but it wouldn't kill him to at least know the rep of big-time coaches and not just go by how nice they were at their press conference

Fox is much more Larry Bowa/Dallas Green, in terms of on-field temperment, than he is Dean Smith.

"
Interesting: Savery, who has been hitting cleanup almost all season, has been dropped to the six hole tonight, with Aaron Luna elevated to the four spot."

Carolina continues their lineup juggling tonight to seperate lefties, something they didn't often do (even vs. LHP) in the regular season.

you have to slide RIGHT AT the bag and, I believe, stay fairly low and not wave your arms up too high. You can'tdo the big league thing of sliding to the slide and catching the bag with your hand.

The MSU runner did slide right at the bag; that's not what the ump called. ESPN had the ump (or Ron Polk) miked, and you could hear the ump explaining the basis for the call was that he said the runner "leg whipped" the U of L second baseman. Which may have been true, or at least was arguable. The problem was that it came way, way, WAY after the play was over, and thus shouldn't have constituted the basis for an interference call. Johnson had long since thrown the ball to first, long before the runner came close to the bag or any contact. That was the fundamental problem with the call.

I see Sam, I stand corrected. As I said, I didn't see it.

Seeing the Fox argument replay, where he was miked, was priceless.

The ump calmly tells Fox he is going to go back to the field and Fox is going to go back to the dugout while Fox is red in the face and hootin and hollerin'.
Glad to see the Omaha umps are willing to put Fox in his place and not back down in the face of him, which umps dont do often in Chapel Hill, possibly due to the crowd

By the way, real pity Ron Polk had to go home so soon. I'm really rootin hard for Louisville, so I'm glad they won, but Polk is one of the best coaches ever and it was nice to see him back in Omaha.
I hope he keeps giving the NCAA hell

I'm sure UNC was trying to avoid having to use Wooten in this game.

-- MWE

Rice must really be taking the Tar Heels' comeback ability seriously: St. Clair comes on in the 7th with an eight-run lead.

-- MWE

Monday pitching matchups:

UCI: Wes Etheridge, Jr., RHP (12-4, 2.49).
CSU-Fullerton: Jeff Kaplan, Jr., RHP (11-3, 3.16).

Kaplan beat UCI and Etheridge 10-2 on April 6, allowing five hits and 2 runs in 7 1/3 IP. Etheridge allowed 9 hits and 7 runs in 3 IP. UCI won the other two games of the series, at Fullerton.

OSU: Mike Stutes, Jr., RHP (10-4, 3.93)
ASU: Josh Satow, Jr., LHP (13-3, 2.41)

ASU swept OSU in a three-game series this year at Corvallis. Stutes lost 4-3 to Mike Leake in the opener, allowing 10 hits and all four runs in seven innings. Satow threw eight shutout innings in the second game, allowing only 2 hits while fanning 8 in winning over Joe Paterson 3-0.

-- MWE

If I'm not mistaken, Louisville on Tuesday will try to become the first Big East team ever to win two games in a CWS. If they beat UNC to emerge from the loser's bracket, they'll better Notre Dame's 2002 performance, when the Irish won one game before being ousted.

The Tar Heels might win, but they better bring their bats to do it . . . .

Stutes is a fine pitcher in his own right but Satow has been one of the least heralded great pitchers in the NCAA this year. He's only 6 foot, and lacks much of a fastball but seems to really know how to pitch, has a great change and throws strikes.

I assume UNC is going to start Woodard again since he didnt throw many pitches before MSU ran him on Friday. So few, in fact (38) that Carolina considered him a relief option in the event of a close game tonight.

If Carolina runs Putkonen out there they might as replace any pregame rituals they have with a team bag-packing and hotel checkout session

Louisville on Tuesday will try to become the first Big East team ever to win two games in a CWS.

True, although Miami was a Big East member in everything else but baseball when they won in 2001 and 1999.

-- MWE

Some game going on between Irvine and Fullerton: 4-4 in the 11th, now the 3rd longest CWS game ever.

UCI 5-4 in 13; longest game in CWS history. Fullerton almost escaped, throwing out the potential winning run at home in the bottom of the 13th, but lefty-swinging Bryan Petersen delivered a game-winning single off lefty reliever Dustin Birosek, who had been brought in expressly to face Petersen. The Anteaters came back from 1-0, 3-1, and 4-3 deficits in this one. Senior RHP Dylan Axelrod threw 4 2/3 innings of one-hit, one-walk, 7-K relief for the win.

-- MWE

So now we are set up for one rematch (UCI v. Arizona St.) and one new match-up (U of L v. UNC) in the loser's bracket finals. Meanwhile, the teams with the most experience, and recent titles, await with undefeated records (Oregon St. and Rice). I'll go with tha Anteaters to win the rematch, and Louisville to end the ACC's hopes in frustration yet again. I just hope the latter pick isn't made through Cardinal-colored glasses!

I presume, at this point, that Wark will start on Tuesday, although it's possible that Pitts could come back on three days rest.

It'll be Wark, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Tuesday pitching matchups (this is where pitching depth really starts to play a huge role):

UNC: Luke Putkonen, So., RHP (7-1, 4.74). Woodard is being saved for a potential matchup with Rice, according to this morning's News and Observer.
Louisville: Colby Wark, Jr., RHP (3-3, 3.63).

Both coaches are likely to be quick to go to the pen in this one at the first sign of trouble; Dan McDonnell has already indicated that everyone will be available.

UCI: Eric Pettis, Fr., RHP (4-0, 4.36)
Arizona State: Brian Flores, Jr., LHP (11-2, 3.86) was a surprise starter on Monday night but pitched just one inning. He could get the call again, or Pat Murphy could go in a completely different direction.

-- MWE

Ah, well. Just saw the final outs of UNC's 3-1 win that eliminated the Cards. The irony that Dominguez's error allowed the runs to score that were the margin of defeat -- after he had carried the team past Missouri (with so much controversy in the regional), and done so much thereafter -- is pretty strong. This has been one wild ride for that freshman, and I imagine an experience he'll learn a lot from.

I'd have bet a lot of money on the "over" if you'd have said four runs, total, in today's game, but then I'd have also bet a lot of money Louisville wouldn't have still been playing on June 19th. What a fun ride. Not many teams make it to a BCS bowl (and win), to the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, and to the CWS in the same year. But the Cards did it in 2007. Here's to us!

This is a hell of a game (ASU/UCI).

You gotta love that ending, huh??? At least one Cinderella team stays alive today.

Wednesday pitching matchups (UCI/OSU is tentative):

UNC: Robert Woodard, Sr., RHP (10-2, 3.30)
Rice: Ryan Berry, Fr., RHP (11-2, 3.03)

UCI: Probably Scott Gorgen, So., RHP (13-3, 2.83), even though he pitched two innings last night.
OSU: Daniel Turpen, Jr., RHP (9-1, 3.65), who hasn't pitched since the regionals

-- MWE

Dominguez is supposed to come up here to the Cape. I'm excited to see him play.

UCI opted instead for little-used freshman RHP Christian Bergman (0-3, 6.11; he'd pitched just 17 2/3 innings all season). Bergman lasted four innings, and really only made just one mistake, which Mitch Canham deposited in the right-center bleachers. He was let down by his defense; Tyler Vaughn threw away a potential inning-ending grounder, and Brian Petersen misplayed a liner to right which went for a (generously scored) triple. Daniel Turpen struggled early, but got better and better as the game went on.

Tonight's pitching matchup:

UNC: Adam Warren, So., RHP (11-0, 1.95). Warren's record is a little deceiving, in that he was Carolina's midweek starter, which meant he faced the lesser teams on the Tar Heels' schedule; he pitched in only one ACC game during the regular season, and lasted justed 4 1/3 innings against Georgia Tech in the Heels' 8-4 loss in the ACC tournament. He didn't pitch at all in the regionals or the super regionals, but was outstanding in relief of Woodard in the CWS opener.

Rice: Matt Langwell, Jr., RHP (8-1, 2.11). Transferred from Sam Houston State. Langwell was Rice's Saturday starter for much of the Conference USA season, but eventually switched roles with Ryne Tacker, coming out of the bullpen in the middle innings. Tacker was hurt in the C-USA tourney and hasn't pitched since. Langwell replaced Tacker in that game, was masterful over 7 1/3 innings for a win, then won both his regional start (over Prairie View) and his super regional (over Texas A&M), pitching well both times. He was hammered by Louisville in relief in the opener of the CWS.

I honestly think that whichever team emerges from this bracket will be at a disadvantage against Oregon State. The Beavers are playing extremely well, especially defensively, and their pitchers will be well-rested. Neither UNC nor Rice will be able to make that claim.

-- MWE

Well, that was mostly an anti-climax. Wayne Graham did a little bit too much coaching last night, IMO pulling the trigger way too quickly on Langwell (who except for the two HR balls wasn't pitching badly at all). Warren pitched well for the Heels, but Mike Fox's overuse of Rob Wooten and Andrew Carignan almost came back to burn them last night; if not for an extremely questionable strike-3 call on Joe Savery to close the 7th, Carolina might not have gotten through.

So now we get the first-ever CWS rematch, between UNC and Oregon State. I still think the Beavers have the advantage here, with UNC in a position where inffective-in-the-postseason freshman Alex White almost has to start Game 1 of the best-of-three while OSU has the luxury of using either Reyes or Stutes.

-- MWE

When did the NCAA go to the best of 3 format for the final two teams?

I was watching Rice-UNC and saw the WE graphic that was discussed on SABR-L.

The CWS, like most other college tournaments, was pure double-elimination until 1988. It was then changed to the four-team bracket setup that we have now, with the bracket survivors meeting in a single championship game - the reason for the change then was that CBS wanted a known schedule slot for the championship game, which you can't have in pure double-elimination. When ESPN got the rights to the entire tournament in 2003, the NCAA switched to a best-of-three final series between the bracket survivors, which gets back closer to the spirit of double elimination.

-- MWE

Saturday pitching matchup:

UNC: Alex White, Fr., RHP (6-6, 4.74). White has struggled since a shutout outing against Virginia in the ACC tournament, allowing 18 earned runs in 9 2/3 innings in three tournament starts. He also struggled throughout much of the conference season as well. White's biggest problem has been command; he's got three quality pitches, but he hasn't been getting his hard slider over consistently in the postseason.

OSU: Jorge Reyes, Fr., RHP (6-3, 3.00). Reyes moved into the Beavers' weekend rotation at the end of April as the Sunday starter after a series of poor outings by Daniel Turpen. He jumped ahead of Mike Stutes in the rotation after a stellar performance against Rutgers in the regional, when the Beavers had to battle back through the losers' bracket to knock out host Virginia, and was brilliant in the super-regional against Michigan and the CWS opener against CSU-Fullerton. He's given Pat Casey the luxury of using Joe Paterson out of the bullpen in the postseason. Reyes throws a tailing fastball that comes in to RHB, and uses his slider as his out pitch against LHB. Unlike White, Reyes's command has been exemplary in the postseason.

-- MWE

Game 1 went about as I anticipated. Alex White couldn't throw quality strikes with his breaking stuff, and OSU was all over the fastball. The Beavers then mopped up against the back of the pen. Reyes wasn't real sharp, but he threw good pitches when he needed them.

Eddie Kunz, the Beavers' closer, has still only thrown a third of an inning in the CWS.

Game 2 matchups:

UNC: Luke Putkonen, So., RHP (8-1, 4.44). Putkonen did the job the last time he pitched when the Tar Heels had their backs against the wall, shutting down Louisville on just three hits on Tuesday. Like White, he had struggled in his earlier postseason starts prior to silencing the Cardinals' bats. Putkonen was UNC's Sunday starter this year after handling the midweek chores a year ago. He's probably the most talented of the starters that the Heels can throw out there, complementing a mid-90s fastball with a sharp-breaking curve and a straight change. If he gets the curve over consistently, he'll be tough to handle.

OSU: Mike Stutes, Jr., RHP (11-4, 4.03). Stutes was the Beavers' Friday starter for most of the season, but was pushed back to the #2 slot in the postseason as a result of the rain delays in the regionals and OSU's coming from the losers' bracket there. Stutes was just adequate in the regionals, pitched well against Michigan in the clincher in the super regional, then fought his command through six innings in the Beavers' 12-6 win over Arizona State in their second game of the CWS. Stutes went to Santa Clara out of HS but transferred back home after his freshman season with the Broncos. He needs to stay in tempo and not rush things; when he gets quick, his fastball loses some pop and his curve some bite.

-- MWE

Well, now that UNC has spent the Carignan bullet, I'd say the odds are OSU pulls away to a comfortable victory.

I don't know. UNC has made a habit of come-from-behind wins in this postseason, and I haven't been all that impressed by what Stutes has been doing tonight. How rusty is Kunz at this point?

-- MWE

Maxwell on for Stutes. He should be well-rested; he hasn't pitched in three weeks.

-- MWE

You could be right, Mike: UNC might be able to score some runs, too. But are they likely to be able to hold Oregon St. in check along the way?

This kid Ackley has such a sweet swing.

But are they likely to be able to hold Oregon St. in check along the way?

Apparently not.

-- MWE

What a play! I can't believe they sent the runner in that situation, though . . . .

I can't either. Down 4, you can't get someone thrown out on the bases there.

-- MWE

Why in the world would you bring in Woodard here?

-- MWE

Quite an accomplishment -- and done in awfully impressive fashion. Dominant, to say the least.