It Was a White-Knuckler Friday

  What a panic today was. In the 16 games featuring Top 25 teams, nine of them were either one-run games or went into extra innings.   Yep, it must be getting to crunch time in college baseball.

A Perfect From-the-Couch Friday

Jason Hursh piled up the pitch count tonight, but was also my Billy Bad-Ass of the Day with his complete-game effort in Game One of the Bedlam Series.

Ya’ know, sometimes I think I go to too many games during the season.

Today was a perfect example. I mean, I realized that it’s good just to sit my ass on the couch and do nothing but watch college baseball. Yes, in other words, it’s a dream day for me.

The other part of it is that I got to see the entire game one of the Bedlam Series between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, one of my favorite rivalries in all of college sports. And tonight’s game certainly didn’t disappoint at all.

Creighton Turns Nebraska Into A Blue State

Good crowd tonight at The Big Tiddy as 8,395 fans made their way to the downtown stadium, making it the largest crowd in the country for a stadium that is two blocks off-campus this entire season.

Oh sure, it took some finagling, but I was able to make my way to The O today – via Lincoln and a one-way rental car – and got to see Day One of the TD Ameritrade Classic at the Big Tiddy in downtown Omaha.

Greetings from San Luis Obispo. Wish you were here.

Surrounded by bucolic mountains and grassy hillsides, Baggett Stadium at Cal Poly is one of the best environments to watch a game. It also doesn’t hurt to have the Mustangs and No. 4 ranked Cal State Fullerton both playing really good ball lately.

I’m tired of terminals, security checks, friskings, overpriced airport bar drinks, sitting next to the guy wearing flip-flops with the yellow toenails. It was time to get in my ’64 Dodge Dart with the primer’d front fender and coat-hanger for an antennae and make this weekend a road trip.

First stop: the Big West showdown between Cal State Fullerton and Cal Poly up in the Central Coast town of San Luis Obispo.

Woo Pig, Screwy.

Even “Calling the Hogs” was quiet tonight. Sure chicky, you’re cute and all, but as cruel fate would have it you didn’t have much to cheer about tonight in Fayetteville. Don’t worry, this is college baseball. Tomorrow’s another day.

I thought it was going to be louder.

I thought it was going to be closer.

I thought LSU might be running out of good fortune.

I was wrong on so many counts.

LMU throws a wet blanket on USD

San Diego’s Andrew Daniel turns a double play vs. LMU… one of the few Torero highlights of the day.

After traveling 3, 045 miles to attend my last baseball game on Wednesday, it was refreshing to walk just 1.2 miles to go to see a game today.

Baseball In Bigfoot Country, Day 1

O Joy! Oregon players happily get their “O” on after the win over Arizona.

I love Oregon. I really do.

Everything is freakin’ lush, green and beautiful. I don’t see any graffiti. I don’t see any razor wire over the street signs, I don’t see any dead shrubs and weeds along the freeways. And it’s got some kick-ass college baseball.

A Beautiful Night for an Ugly Game in Sin City

The view from my penthouse suite is pretty wicked-good.

Hey, who can turn down a trip to the City of Lights?

And who would turn down the chance to see the team that took down mighty Stanford in three straight games last weekend?

Big East? Big Least.

Creighton head coach Ed Servais and Co. will soon be levitating baseballs like this in the Big East… be that a good or bad thing.

(Using the ESPN 30-for-30 voice over here)

What if I told you it took baseball to make two steps back for an athletic department to take a giant leap forward?

Fullerton is Dressed to the Nines

Thomas Eshelman runs through the gauntlet during introductions before tonight’s game with Oregon.

Okay, let me apologize to Titan fans everywhere, that was a horrible attempt to be coy with that “dressed to the nines” headline above. Please forgive me for even trying to score with that gawd-awful bad pun.

But the truth of the matter is, Cal State Fullerton blitzed past Oregon 8-2 tonight to advance their record to a school-record 9-and-0 on the year. Think of all the great Titan teams – even the 57-9 team from 1995 – nobody in those pinstripe unis has ever started a season with nine straight wins.