Monday, June 23, 2003
Here we go, Stanford vs. Rice for all the marbles. This is the first time in years that I've watched a good chunk of the College World Series. I really like the new format, with a pair of double-elimination brackets followed by a best of three.
I was a little surprised yesterday at the number of empty seats (I guess if you are a fan of another team, say Texas, you might just go home).
I stopped watching college basketball when Hank Gathers died. Back in those days almost all college hoopsters went four years. When you filled out your brackets a good rule of thumb was "don't trust a team with a freshman point guard". Stanford went with their freshman fee-nom Mark Romanczuk on the mound. He didn't look like the guy who who had been the #2 starter all year. He managed to walk in three runs in the first inning, and was lifted in the second. Even given his youth, Romanczuk earned his spot in the championship game, looking down the bench Romanczuk was the clear choice to start.
Since the departure of Romanczuk Stanford has held back the floodwaters, but their bats haven't been pinging as normal.
Here in the sixth Rice is active on the bases again. Stanford has survived four elimination games in this CWS, but it doesn't look good for five.
Mark Romanczuk
So much for holding back the floodwaters. Stanford brought in Drew Ehrlich as the new pitcher. How much work has he seen this season? Well, let's put is this way - a quick check of my Stanford Photo Roster reveals that I have no photos of Ehrlich. Of the hundreds of pictures I took at Sunken Diamond, he didn't show up once. Maybe he's a tad more camera-shy than the rest of his teammates, but you figure I would have at least one. That's the problem with coming through the loser's bracket in Omaha, it just burns out your bullpen. On the other hand, the best of three championship series does reward depth...
Rice has plated four runners, and there are still no outs. Stanford has shown the ability to put up massive numbers of runs this year, but Rice pitching is just so good. I think it is all over but the cheering.
After six the score is 11-0 Rice. And Stanford has exactly one hit to its credit. I know you should never give up in baseball, but it might be time to let some bench players get a taste of playing at Omaha.
A silver lining for Stanford fans - Sam Fuld just broke the CWS career record for hits with 24. Congrats to Sam.
Sam Fuld
Congrats to Rice on their first NCAA title. As a Northwestern grad I'm happy any time a school with high academic standards can do well in sports. This was one heck of a College World Series.
College baseball is done for the year. Looks like I'll have to follow the pros now.
posted by David 7:52 PM
