As you can see, these Pac 12 fans - or more accurately, these Omahans dressed up as Arizona fans - don't have a lot of respect for the ACC's Florida State Seminoles.

DAY ONE IN OMAHA.

The two Pac 12 teams in this year’s College World Series got off to great starts, as UCLA pasted Stony Brook with a breezy 9-1 win, and Arizona played a gut-check, 12-inning slobberknocker against Florida State, coming out ahead 4-3.

Looking ahead to Sunday in Bracket One, the Bruins have to be liking what they’re seeing right now as they’ll go with Nick Vander Tuig against the more-tired Desert Cats and expected starter Konner Wade. The last time those two took the mound against each other, UCLA came out with a resounding 15-3 win in Tucson on April 14th.

Meanwhile, in the upcoming Sunday loser’s bracket game, Florida State hopes to avoid the indignity of going 0-2 at the CWS once again as they’ll face off with Omaha-darling Stony Brook in Sunday’s first game, as both teams took it on the chin tonight.

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GAME ONE.

In direct contrast to their performance at LSU last weekend, Stony Brook fell behind UCLA in the first inning by five runs and the Bruins boat-raced the Seawolves in a breezy manner. Adam Plutko put up his third straight big time performance of the post-season, going 7.0 innings and giving up the five hits allowed for the game. About the only mistake he made was the tater he gave up to Seawolves’ catcher Pat Cantwell. This was Plutko’s seventh straight win in his last seven starts and is now 4-0, 0.88 in his NCAA tournament work.

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LINESCORE:

S.B.U. – 001 000 000 – 1  5  0

UCLA – 502 010 01x – 9  9  0

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PITCHING:

WP: Adam Plutko 12-3

LP: Tyler Johnson, 12-2

Save: None.

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TOP HITTERS.

SBU.

- Maxx Tisssenbaum, 2-for-4

- Pat Cantwell, 1-for-4, HR

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UCLA:

- Kevin Kramer, 2-for-2, RBI

- Kevin Williams, 2-for-3, 2RBI, double

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CONDITIONS.

4:11pm start

71 degrees

cloudy to start, gave way to sunny from 2nd inning on.

wind blowing out to center at 12mph.

3:04 duration.

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NOTES:

- Being a native of Chatsworth, California, Stony Brook starter Tyler Johnson was really hoping for a stellar performance vs. the hometown Bruins. It didn’t happen. The seven runs given up by Johnson is the most he’s given up in his career.

- The eight walks by Stony Brook is the most they’ve given up this season. Previous to that, seven was the most they gave up in a game vs. Fairleigh-Dickinson.

- Through the first six innings, Stony Brook was 0-for-4 with runner’s in scoring position. UCLA was 4-for-8. The Bruins would eventually go 6-for-15.

- Still can’t figure out why the new stadium doesn’t have a miles-per-hour indicator on that big-ass scoreboard… or anywhere else in the stadium for that matter. Wasn’t this stadium built at a cost of $135million or something like that?

- UCLA has now won 20 of its last 22 games, and 10 straight overall, which is tops in the country.

- This was Tyler Johnson’s first loss since March 2nd, which was a 1-0 loss at East Carolina.

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KNEE-JERK REACTION.

Not shocked here. I’ve been watching UCLA all season long and this year’s batting lineup has gotten better every week of the season. I told a radio host this week that the Bruin offense was much better than what they faced last week at LSU – with the exception of Raph Rhymes – where they gave up just 15 hits in three games.

Was it nerves? Yeah, maybe that played into it a bit since Tyler Johnson didn’t look anything like what we saw last week in Baton Rouge. But I also credit the Bruin 1-fthru-9, they’re not big home run hitters, but they’re laser specialists.

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GAME TWO

Two high-powered offenses were stifled pretty well tonight, being held to three runs each through the first 11 innings of the game. But in the top of the 12th, back-to-back doubles from Joey Rickard and Johnny Field put Arizona ahead by a run in the top of the frame, and frosh reliever Matt Troupe came on to lock down the W for Arizona with a scoreless – though threatening – bottom of the frame.

Arizona actually had things seemingly in hand and cruising with a 3-1 lead, but an errant throw on a routine grounder the first, a follow-up walk, and a slicing double by John Holland tied things up going into the 7th inning.

FYI, according to Creighton sports information director Rob Anderson, the last five teams to win extra inning games in the CWS have gone on to win the national title. Anyone ready to crown UofA the KingPins?… Huh?

Okay, calm down everyone, I was just kidding.

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LINESCORE:

UofA – 002 010 000 001 – 4  10  1

FSU – 001 002 000 000 – 3   8  2

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PITCHERS.

WP: Matt Troupe, 5-1

LP: Robert Benincasa, 4-2

Save: None

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TOP HITTERS

Arizona:

- Riley Moore, 3-for-5

- Johnny Field, 1-for-5, RBI double (GW)

- Joey Rickard, 2-for-4, RBI

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Florida State:

- Justin Gonzalez, 2-for-5

- Devon Travis, 2-for-6

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CONDITIONS:

72 degrees

Sunny, then dark

Winds blowing out to right field at 9mph

4:17 duration.

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KNEE-JERK REACTION.

Wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, not after what we saw the last few weekends in the post-season with these two pinball-like scoring machines. Just goes to show how pitching-and-defense heavy this joint is. Not exactly Hi Corbett or Dick Howser Stadium, eh boys? Seemed like Arizona was on top of things most of the way, then had one brain-fart in the 6th, and it snowballed into a 3-3 tie.

I found it wildly interesting that the Seminoles got a 1-for-8 performance from their big boppers James Ramsey and Jayce Boyd. If those two were involved in even one or two more hits, this could’ve ended up very different. Freshman Brandon Leibrandt looked good early, but quickly devolved as he let six hits go in his 4.1 innings of work. Contrary to that, Arizona Freshmen Tyler Crawford and Mathew Troupe combined for 4.1 innings of two-hit ball.

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NOTES:

- Kurt Heyer made his 12th straight start where he went 7.2 innings or longer. Only Wagner’s Ryan Van Spronsen has a higher innings per start than does Heyer with 8.33 innings per start compared to Heyer’s 8.09 innings.

- It’s odd to note that both of the FSU ‘Top Hitters” listed above were both erased on the basepaths tonight. Gonzalez was picked off first in the 11th inning, leaning too far off the base. And Travis was caught stealing an inning earlier.

- Arizona’s Robert Refsnyder has now reached safely in 35 straight games and Joey Rickard has six multi-hit games in the last seven contests.

- Florida State dropped its first extra inning game of the season, now 3-1. Tonight’s loss also was just the Seminoles’ third loss in 16 tries at one-run games.

- Prior to allowing the winning run in the 12th inning tonight, FSU reliever Robert Benincasa had not allowed an earned run in 13 of his last 14 innings of work.

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PICS

Some images from Day One at Rosenblatt… er, sorry, habit. I mean, Day One at The Big Tiddy.

The UCLA Bruins and the Stony Brook Seawolves are about to kick off game one of the 2012 CWS.

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I think the 4pm start time kept a lot of people away from the downtown stadium today. In fact, large sections of people were missing.

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Even ESPN's Jenn Brown is a Seawolf fan today. (Though I think the jersey could use some ironing.)

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UCLA's Jeff Gelalich is rundown in a pickle by SBU's high-topped William Carmona.

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Red Dawn: Looking almost Patrick Swayze-like, Pat Cantwell (#3) gave the Seawolves one of their few highlights with a solo shot home run off Adam Plutko

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Not Mullet Proof: Stony Brook centerfielder Travis Jankowski got caught playing a little bit too shallow as Trevor Williams' 2nd inning, 2-run double went past his outstretched glove.

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Adam Plutko picked up his 13th win of the season.

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Yep, bad call: Stony Brook's Kevin Courtney was incorrectly ruled out at home by umpire Mark Chapman on this play in the 5th inning. Bruin catcher Tyler Heineman makes the tag.

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The Wolf Hunter: Game Two starter Nick Vander Tuig (#21) rosins up his bow in the win over Stony Brook.

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UCLA freshman reliever David Berg throws what looks like a dirty, batting practice baseball. Berg was making his 48th appearance of the season today.

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Cinderella sees the writing on the wall. Even the superstitious "rally caps" can't help the 'Wolves in this one.

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Dammit Mr. Baseball, Behave!: This 3rd-inning Justin Gonzalez error proved to be pretty costly for the Seminoles.

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Will it go-round in circle?: These Omaha ruffians are twirling their shirts to get on the big scoreboard screen at The Big Tiddy.

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Doesn't he look like a slightly shorter Barry Zito?: Though he didn't get the win tonight, UofA's Kurt Heyer went deep into the game, as is his wont, to put the Cats in position to get the win.

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The Noles had their chances: FSU's John Holland puts pressure on Arizona flinger Kurt Heyer.

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FINALLY!!... For a long, long time I've been wanting CWS fans to do like NHL hockey fans have to do and make people wait until a stop in play to walk down the aisles to prevent them from disrupting people's view of the games. Judging by this pic it looks like the ushers at The Big Tiddy have finally gotten the memo on keeping fans courteous.

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Collision: FSU right fielder Josh Delph runs into center fielder James Ramsey but hangs on to make a catch late in the game.

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As you know, I usually give umpires the benefit of the doubt 'coz they're 95% right... but even I will admit that game two home plate umpire Darrin Sealey had a bizarre, nebulous strike zone tonight.

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Hair-raising!: The FSU batgirl was a roadside attraction to tonight's second game.

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Discipline people, discipline!: FSU's Josh Gonzalez is picked off 1st base, just when it looked like the 'Noles had something going in the 11th inning. Ouchie-mama.

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As FSU's Josh Delph will attest, Johnny Field's 12th inning double to the wall allowed for the winning run to score for Arizona.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've all heard about the Susan Lucchi factor when it comes to FSU head coach Mike Martin (#11), the perennial runner-up. He is looking at a long row to hoe now with tonight's game two loss to Arizona.

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Arizona is now sitting pretty, looking forward to a showdown with familiar foe UCLA in round two, after defeating Florida State in 12 innings.

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Hi J.M.: ESPN's Jessica Mendoza flashes those bicep "guns" as she gives her sideline reports during Game Two between Arizona and Florida State.

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Okay, we now move on to Day Two of the College World Series. Let’s see what Saturday has in store for us.

Yee-haw!

G’night.