On to Omaha

Pitching will have to be nails … and even then, it will take some offense to beat Florida and Vanderbilt/UNC. They club the ball.

Congrats to the Horns.
 
I’m looking forward to the Gators.

Gators won on accounta Miss State’s setups/closers couldn’t hold. Well, at least their football team has an outstanding D Coach… or… wait a minnit…

Hopefully that Slacker Jungmann comes to play….. jokes!!

We’ll draw Gator right-hander Hudson Randall. 10-3 with a 2.29 era. Not over-powering stuff topping out at 90 mph but has ridiculous control with 12 walks in 110 innings pitched. We’ll have to be agressive which is what scares me. They lost their closer Austin Maddox to a foot injury but they’ve got some good arms in the pen. They didn’t impress me in three games against a BAD MSU team from a pitching standpoint, but their kids can rake. Of course, that was against Miss. State pitching. I like our chances if Jungmann brings his good stuff.

Their offense sure impressed the hell out of me. Those boys raked that entire series. It wasn’t even close if it wasn’t for State’s Vickerson.

What’s the new stadium’s name? I’m thinking something like Starbucks Latte Grande Heartland Field or such…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TD_Ameritrade_Park_Omaha

One of the greatest sports days of my life…the Longhorns clinch another trip to Omaha, and the Dallas Mavericks have won the NBA title. Unbelievable. 31 freakin years of futility, and to see Dirk Nowitzki and the rest of the Mavs hoisting the O’Brien Trophy after the heartbreak of 2006 and all the other times they came up short, and all the lost and embarrassing and underachieving seasons along the way, it was all worth it to see that happen tonight.

This team could be two and BBQ or win the whole goddamned thing and neither would sirprise me. As I’ve said before I don’t think they’re nearly done torturing us yet.

Anything can happen once you get to Omaha and our old coach kinda knows his way around the place. That’s fairly important.

Look at all that foul ground.

Terrific accomplishment, particularly in overcoming adversity. This is far from our best baseball club so it feels like anything they do from here is gravy.

I would think the huge foul territory would benefit us, just as the giant fouls territory in the astrodome used to benefit the Mendoza-line dwelling Astros of my youth.

this brings up a good point old rosenblatt was a hitters park is the new rosenblatt similar?

Kyle Peterson, the ESPN analyst who lives in Omaha, said the new park is not hitter friendly like Rosenblatt.

Look at all that foul ground.
Aiieeee! That’s ucking fugly. Not sure I’ve ever seen a circular baseball field. Stands’re packed too, ain’t it?

That win felt so good. Why was Nomar announcing this series? Didn’t they say his former head coach at GTech is the pitching coach at ASU? For 5+ innings Nomar couldn’t open his mouth without bitching about the officiating or talking up ASU’s players.

I have to think the NCAA is relieved that we eliminated the team playing due to appeal.

Jungmann is going to totally shut down the Gators.

HOOK EM!!!

A little research @ wickipedia shows Ameritrade field is perhaps a little BIGGER than Disch-Falk.

 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Disch-Falk / Omaha
Left Field Line . . . . .340 . . . / . . 335
Left Field Power . . . 375 . . . . / . . 375
Straight-Away Ctr . . .400 . . . . / . . 408
Right Fld Power. . . 375 . . . . / . . 375
Right Fld Line . . . . .335 . . . / . . 325

Looking at this begs the question—why do park designs generally BLATANTLY favor left-handed power? Are ballpark architects members of a clandestine Lefty movement—NAALHP, perhaps??

OOOPS
Flip-flopped the Right Fld Line numbers. Should Read:
. . . . . . . . . . . . .Disch-Falk / Omaha
Left Field Line . . . . .340 . . . / . . 335
Left Field Power . . . 375 . . / . . 375
Straight-Away Ctr . .400 . . / . . 408
Right Fld Power. . . 375 . . . / . . 375
Right Fld Line . . . . .325 . . . / . . 335

What does the term “left field power line” mean? How does the park favor it if the right and left field power lines are the same?

Considering that at the begging of the year we were picked to finish 2nd or 3rd in the Big 12 I’d say we’ve done pretty damn good. I was not expecting to be playing next weekend.

ut-06 I think they mean power alley.

or power bottom.

I agree with you texasengr, the NCAA is no doubt relieved, as is anyone who loves justice. Imagine if ASU had won and gone onto win it all in Omaha, only to have to vacate the title in a few months when they lose their appeal, as I’m sure they will.

Gotta say I didn’t see this coming. This team is something like the first one Augie took to Omaha (2000, I think). Good pitching, no power and a terribly challenged offensive bunch. That one upset Arizona State in regionals out there and swept a so so Penn State team at the Disch.

This one will be better in CWS than 2000. Fair bet to reach the bracket final, but we’ll need a scoring burst or a meltdown by some opponent to reach title series.

Really gutty bunch, though. Overachievers are fun to root for, if hard on the nerves.

“Really gutty bunch, though. Overachievers are fun to root for, if hard on the nerves.”

Ain’t that the truth.

I am resisting the urge to compare and contrast to other Texas programs.

but we’ll need a scoring burst or a meltdown by some opponent to reach title series.

Or superb pitching and D.

But superb pitching means fuck all if you can’t get a consistent strike zone.

Through all the various Region/SuperRegion play, most of the umps seemed to have a pretty random strike zone, varying at least from batter to batter, although in one game I saw three consecutive pitches to the same batter identically placed, with one called a strike and the other two balls.

This is one of the most frustrating things a pitcher can face – all we’re looking for is reasonable consistency… the rule as I recall is that the vertical extent of the strike zone is from the bottom of the knee (the “hollow” below kneecap, I think) and a point halfway from belt to top of shoulders. For some reason, a lot of umps seem to only remember the “belt” part and anything above that is a ball. Eh, whatever, just make it consistent for the game, okay? Inside/outside? Let’s don’t even get into that – at least it theoretically doesn’t change from batter to batter.

Here we go!

Tex, the guy last night was all over the place with his strike zone. There was no pattern which has to be very frustrating for the hitters and pitchers. No advantage to either team, but even more kudos to our pitching for still getting it done.

By the way, I’ve not seen Milner throw as hard as he did last night. He was absolutely nails. Also, watching Knebel bring it is worth the price of a ticket. This kid is big time. He now holds the record for most saves in a season and he’s only a Frosh.

I like our chances in a ballpark like this one but it won’t be easy. Nothing this team does is easy, but somehow they keep doing it. One thing for sure, it won’t hurt our offense since we rarely hit a HR or even for extra bases.

I like our chances in a ballpark like this one…

As do I. Interesting that the hardcore smallball we showed in the XII Tourney was not nearly so much in evidence in the post-season so far.

I have no problem with sacrificing to get runners to 2nd or 3rd, but when you’ve got the 3-4-5 hitters up, or one who’s been hot, that’s not always the best use of their (current) talents.

Here’s hoping the F-word we use is more Fun and less Frustrating… would like to trade for the kid from TCU, though… is the deadline past?

Well, he’s not busy right now so maybe we can get him. :)

don’t kid yourself — this team is considerably better than the 2000 team that essentially backdoored its way into the CWS.

I think Jungmann will be fine. he was good against ASU — not his fault we made some bad errors behind him.

Green and Stafford are pitching extremely well. management of the bully in the Super was phenomenal. truly a luxury to have Milner/Carrillo/McKirihan in the roles they’re currently working. and I’m not sure there’s a more underrated player in America than Knebel.

All this said…I echo some of the sentiment above. I’ll not be surprised by any result…2 & que, NC or anything in between.

Is it even humanly possible for Jungmann to lose three starts in a row??? I can’t imagine it’s possible. So I’m guessing we’ll be one of the last 4 standing.

However, in order to win it, we need at least two guys that have struggled to get red hot at the plate. I’m thinking Lusson and Walla break out and deliver. At least I’ve seen them hit well before. Payden seems to be really coming on already. We only have 3 guys that hit well and we have about 3 in the starting lineup that just can’t hit period. It’s the other 3 that need to come through, imo.

Maybe we steal one as payback for the many we lost with the superior team.

The new Ameritrade park in Omaha is not bigger than the Disch. What makes the Disch so big are the power alleys at 405 and center field is 400 but has the green monster you have to hit over. Not a fan of huge foul areas because the spectators are farther away.

That could easily be a picture of the old Oakland Coliseum when the Raiders played there.

texasengr,

The connection is that the ASU pitching coach was the head baseball coach at UW and faced Nomar at a regional final at Wichita State. The story continued, but it only matters to Nomar as I am not even sure Mia listens to him.

Fact, i am sure Mia doesn’t because there is no way she would have married the guy if she did listen to him.

Any Corn-holers immolate themselves yet? Perry should just foreclose and buy the state of Nub-hicks-a - TEXAS owns them anyway!

The four GaHHHHHciaparrrrrrrrahhhhhhh gals:

http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/37369222.jpg

Aggy vs FSU got bumped by ESPN2 in favor of UVA vs Anteater.

The BOMC is alive and well on The Longhorn network(s).

Oops! Their game was moved from 3:00 to 6:00, probably on ESPNU since USC and UConn are showing to be on ESPN 2 in that slot and a relay of our game is showing in that slot on ESPNU.

They are on ESPN2 at 6pm. That has been the plan since they lost yesterday.

Here is the schedule for this weekend. Texas’ first game is at 6 p.m.

Rachel McCoy to throw out first pitch!

http://www.ncaa.com/news/baseball/2011-04-29/2011-cws-schedule

Here is the weekend schedule.

Rachel McCoy to throw out first pitch.

I’m taking my daughter on vacation this weekend. “Surprise honey! You get to watch baseball!”.

Take her to a carnival. with barkers. she’ll love it!

Carnies. Circus folk. Nomads, you know. Smell like cabbage. Small hands.

Virginia gets a 2 RBI walkoff single in the bottom of the 9th to beat UC Irvine. Clutchy. Would have been nice to see the #1 overall seed eliminated but they refused to go quietly. Tough out for the Anteaters.

Boy, just a terrible start for FSU in the bottom of 1. Ags single, four-pitch walk, bunt single, four-pitch walk. One more ball and the starter’s outta there.

Third baseman should have let the bunt roll. It was going foul.

How appropriate that one of the Aggies is named “Fleece.” You just know he’s got to be a team favorite … maybe even the team ball warmer.

Aggies drop 6 runs on the Seminoles’ 280 lb Okeechobian pitcher in the first.

Another two run bomb in the second. 8-0. Amazing Martin hasn’t pulled him yet.

Omaha is the new Portland, apparently.

This must be true, as I heard it on NPR.

That could easily be a picture of the old Oakland Coliseum when the Raiders played there.

First place I thought of. But in Oakland they had the excuse of being used for both baseball and football.

used for both baseball and football.

UT Omaha euthanized the football program, dinnit? Or was that an abortion? Or both?

Yeah, UNO killed football. They played on campus.

UNO Athletic Director Trev Alberts killed their football program.

My Aunt in Omaha mentioned that there has been flooding up in the Dakotas and it is headed down. Hope the new field stays dry as it is alot closer to the river

The airport is right on the river. Potential problem. Rosenblatt was on a big hill. If downtown floods, Omaha has more problems than the CWS.

“Omaha is the new Portland, apparently.

This must be true, as I heard it on NPR."

I’ve spend a lot of time in Omaha over the years, and while it’s getting much better, and they have done a nice job on renovating downtown— I’m not sure if its the loss of Juan Williams, Vivian Schiller or govt. cash, but NPR has lost their fucking minds.

Omaha is where young people go to retire.
 
And they put birds on things.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110615/NEWS01/706159888#water-swallows-parking-slots

Cotcher will have a preview of our bracket up later today.