SB Nation User Blog: bkmhoxx

College World Series: LSU vs Texas (Game 1) Hit N' Run

bkmhoxx — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:30:09 -0000

LSU fan

View full size photo uploaded June 23, 2009

by Aman Reaka

Game 1 of the College World Series National Championship absolutely did not disappoint. Two of the most historic programs in college baseball history meet up in this "best of three" game series.

Louis Coleman on the mound for LSU

Chance Ruffin for Texas

more after the jump.....

The evening started off with jets doing a fly-over and the temperature felt like being inside one of those jet engines. It was absolutely sweltering hot with an index of 107-110. Their was a little breeze blowing out to LF at about 10-15 mph but if you were in the sun, it felt a lot like you were on the sunny side of Mars. The heat would play a huge part in this game as it went on. The appropriate name for this championship series location in 2009 is going to be OMAHOT.

- A few pre-game notes and thoughts: LSU has zero errors thus far in the CWS. Texas has really had to scrap for their CWS wins this year by playing a lot of "small ball" and explosive late game heroics. The Texas team motto is "FIND A WAY" and it has held true all season as they normally DO find a way to win. This crowd at Rosenblatt is favoring LSU by a decent amount. The LSU faithful take over Omaha when they are here. You can hear them everywhere you go. They are crazy, fun and very loud. They like to talk and are normally very welcoming and friendly to everyone. They have a lot of chants and cheers and you will begin to hear them a good hour before gametime. What the LSU cheers lack in creativity and originality, they make up for in enthusiasm and energy. Both teams are used to playing in heat and humidity although noone is used to heat like this.

- In the 1st inning (2nd batter faced for Ruffin), Ryan Schimpf hit a 415 foot, no doubter into the right CF bleachers. It was his 22nd HR on the year which puts him in a tie for the NCAA lead. Schimpf is now 7-12 with 3 HR in the CWS. Schimpf was drafted in the 6th round by the Toronto Blue Jays. Other than the Schimpf HR, Ruffin was nasty, striking out 2 in the 1st.

- Louis Coleman opens the game with a crafty 1-2-3 inning. Coleman was drafted by the KC Royals in the 6th round of the 2009 draft, so he actually has a decent opportunity to be back here in Omaha pitching again someday soon (Omaha Royals, AAA). Im not sure what it is, but Louis Coleman looks a little bit like Carson Daly in the face.

- On the year, Texas has 45 HR and LSU has 104. On the year Texas has 102 sacrifice bunts and LSU has 26. As you can see, these two teams are on opposite ends of the earth in playing styles.

- Jared Mitchell gets a single to start off the 2nd inning. Mitchell is a lot of fun to watch play. He was drafted in the 1st round in the 2009 draft by the Chicago White Sox. Mitchell can run like the wind and also is a WR on the LSU football team. He met his match in Chance Ruffin however, as Ruffin has a decent pick-off move and a very quick delivery to home plate. With those two things, its hard for even the fastest of runners to steal on him. Mitchell was no different and appeared very nervous leading off of first and had very conservative leads. Even playing it safe, he still almost got picked off.

- Ruffin now has 4 K's after 2 innings. Other than the Schimpf HR and Mitchell basehit, he has been dominant.

- Russell Moldenhauer gets a base hit for Texas in the 2nd. "Moldy" was drafted in the 3rd round out of high school but has been battling injuries off and on all season and is batting only .233 and has shown little power. Preston Clark make a loud out to LF and Texas fails to get on the board.

- The strike zone appears to be rather large in this game. Im wondering if the heat might be playing a part in that. Its only human nature to expand the zone a bit when conditions are extremely uncomfortable.

- Texas baseball alumni that you may know of: Roger Clemens, Bruce Ruffin (Chance Ruffin's father), Huston Street, Greg Swindell and the list of Texas greats goes on forever.

- LSU baseball alumns: Aaron Hill, Brad Hawpe, Albert Belle and Brian Wilson to name a few.

- Austin Nola leads off the 3rd with a single and he is sacrificed over to 2nd base. Thus far it seems a role reversal is in effect as Texas is swinging away and LSU is trying to manufacture runs. Schimpf then strikes out and Ruffin now has 5 K's after 3 innings.

- Coleman comes out with another 1-2-3 inning. His pitches have a ton of movement. Texas has hit a few hard, but right at the defenders. Coleman has only thrown 36 pitches which is a very strong positive in this draining heat. Coleman is throwing his sinking fast ball in the 89-91 range. His slider comes in around 85-87 and his off speed curveball is around 78-80. He has a very funky delivery and throws across his body. He's fun to watch.

- Ruffin gets his 7th K in the 4th inning. Jared Mitchell hit another liner, this one deep to CF but Connor Rowe gets on his horse and makes a nice catch. We then head into a beach ball delay. There is always some dumbie that hits the beach ball out towards the field. A security guy then comes and gets the ball off the field and pops it. You fans out there that hit the ball on the field, yeah you know who you are, dont be dumb. Keep the fun alive out in the bleachers!

- The tiny Travis Tucker gets the Longhorns on the board in the 4th with only his third HR of the year. It barely made it over the LF wall but still counts as one on the scoreboard. Russell Moldenhauer then follows with an absolute bomb to deep CF. That was his second HR on the year. What is happening? Texas now leads 2-1. The big boy, Kevin Keyes then hits a bomb to left CF to give Texas a 3-1 lead. The "swing away" mindset pays off in this inning. They were hitting Coleman fairly hard at times but the ball was going right at the defense. Texas is 11-0 when hitting 3HR in a game and the 3 HR in the bottom of the 4th ties with the most they have hit in one game all season. The hot and humid air is playing a huge part thus far.

- Ruffin gets his 8th K to get out of the 5th and Coleman gets two K's to end the 5th. The pitchers owned this inning.

- In the 6th, Ruffin gets his 9th K (Schimpf again). LSU throws out some "hit and run" and the Texas shortstop and second baseman messed up their communication and both players were covering the bag on the steal attempt, leaving open the right side of the infield. So what would have been a double play, now results in runners at 1st and 3rd and only 1 out. Ruffin gets his 10th K of the game and 2nd out of the inning. Ruffin has induced 17 outs and 10 of them have come via the strikeout. Austin Wood then replaces Ruffin because of some serious cramps. Yet another heat related problem. Jared Mitchell then hits a bullet to left center and shows his blazing speed with a triple. That ties the game at 3-3.

- The umpires now have wet sweaty balls in their ball bags (yeah thats what i said). Its becoming a problem for the pitchers. Mahtook makes a nice catch at the CF wall for LSU and immediately drops to the ground with cramps in his calf. "Moldy" does the unthinkable and hits ANOTHER homerun over the LF wall. It is his 3rd HR on the year and all 3 have come during the CWS. Amazing stuff. That is Texas' first 4HR game of the season. Keyes then singles, Brandon Loy doubles and with Longhorns on 2nd and 3rd, Coleman throws a wild pitch that go's behind the batter and scores Keyes to give Texas a 5-3 lead after 6 innings.

- Austin Wood (drafted in the 5th round by the Detroit Tigers) gets two quick outs in the 7th and then gives up a DJ LeMahieu HR over the CF wall. Wood very rarely gives up the long ball either. LeMahieu swung one handed with his bottom hand and still got it over the CF fence. That takes strength as well as some nice hot and humid air to hit bombs in. I think about anyone could hit one out in these conditions. LeMahieu was drafted in the 3rd round by the Chicago Cubs and has a lot of projectability with his tall and lanky frame. Cubs GM Jim Hendry was even in attendance earlier in the week to see LeMahieu in person. That puts the score at 5-4 with Texas holding on tight.

- Connor Rowe gets in on the power party with a HR to left making the score 6-4 Texas. Louis Coleman is then pulled for Chad Jones. Jones is quite the interesting story. He is a converted outfielder that realized he wasnt going to play much so decided to try pitching. He is a safety on the LSU football team and like Mitchell is a serious specimen. He has pitched very few innings this year but has had good success in his limited time on the mound. Coleman finishes with 6 K's in 6 innings but also gave up 6 runs.

- Wood gets out of some trouble in the 8th with a double play. Bertuccini replaces Jones for LSU and uncorks 2 wild warmup pitches (one hits the backstop). Dry balls are tough to find at Rosenblatt right now so the umpires decide to let the dugouts and ball girls keep track of them and keep them dry. Once again, mother nature has her hands all over this game. Still 6-4 Texas, heading to the 9th.

- Sean Ochinko singles to start the 9th. Id like to call him Ocho Cinco but that doesnt really make sense. He was drafted in the 12th round by the Toronto Blue Jays. Texas uses Tuesdays starter, Taylor Jungmann to try to get these last two, ever so important outs. Jungmann issues a walk and now has the go ahead run at the plate. After 6 pitches, all balls, Augie replaces him with Austin Dicharry. So i guess Jungmann can still pitch tomorrow but WOW did he scr ew that one up. Dicharry gets a big strikeout with his super nasty changeup. His changeup appears to be a major league quality plus pitch. Then we come to DJ Lemahieu again. He smokes the first pitch down the LF line for a 2 out, 2 run double to tie the game at 6-6. After an intentional walk to Schimpf and a Blake Dean fly out, we head to the bottom of the 9th to see if Texas has any more magic left in the tank.

- Matty Ott comes in as the stopper for LSU. He immediately hits a batter and Texas goes into "small ball" mode with a sac bunt. So Texas has the winning run on 2b with 1 out. That is exactly where they want to be. However, Matty Ott had other ideas, getting 2 fly outs to leave the runner stranded and head to extra innings.

- To start the 10th, Dicharry walks Micah Gibbs on 4 pitches, Mahtook singles and Mitchell hits a liner to the right fielder. Throw in a wild pitch and an intentional walk and LSU now has the bases loaded with 1 out. Texas then calls upon the hard throwing right hander, Brandon Workman. Workman uses his 96 mph heater to get 2 HUGE strikeouts and get Texas out of the jam.

- Bertuccini gets through the bottom of the 10th without much trouble. He pitched around Rupp and managed to take his team to the 11th in OMAHOT.

- Workman starts the inning with a leadoff walk to LeMahieu. Schimpf pops out to the SS and Dean hits a deep fly to LF for out number 2. LeMaihue then steals second and the throw from Rupp sails into CF. Add another walk and LSU has runners at 1st and 3rd with 2 outs and Mikie Mahtook (several IV's later) singles in LeMahiue to give LSU a 7-6 lead. Mahtook couldnt hit Workmans fastball to save his life. He was missing or fouling it off over and over again. So what would you throw him? A fastball right? Umm nope. Workman tosses his slow curve in there and gives Mahtook a chance and he took advantage. Not sure if the pitching coach, the catcher or Workman himself called that pitch, but cmon now.

- Brandon Loy opens the bottom of the 11th with a K. Tim Maitland follows with the same. Ott looks like a true bulldog closer on the mound. He bleeds confidence and power. His slider is what I call SICK with tons of movement. Rowe grounds to 2b to end the game. LSU wins this epic 11 inning battle in game 1 by a score of 7-6.

- Texas was amazing but a leadoff walk and an extremely poor pitch selection cost them this game.

- Since the best of 3 series was put into affect, the winner of game 1 has won the title 4 of 6 years. LSU has the upper hand. No doubt about it. But dont count out Texas and the legendary Augie Garrido. Dont you dare.

- Attendance tonight was announced at 23,019 although Id guess it wasnt very close to that number. The stands had a lot of empty seats and I think the heat made some people leave early or decide against coming.

- Game 2 is tonight at 6pm CST on ESPN. Texas is now on the hot seat with their backs against the wall. Of course every seat is hot here in Omahot.

Texas vs LSU - National Championship OPEN THREAD

bkmhoxx — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:59:04 -0000

Road to Omaha

View full size photo uploaded June 22, 2009

Tonight will begin a "best of 3" game series between these two storied baseball monsters.

Game 1 - Monday, June 22nd - 6pm CST, ESPN (Louis Coleman, LSU vs Chance Ruffin, TEXAS)

Game 2 - Tuesday, June 23rd - 6pm CST, ESPN

Game 3 (if needed) - Wednesday, June 24th - 6pm CST, ESPN

Let this be your discussion for pregame, in-game and postgame.

ENJOY!

North Carolina vs Arizona State IN PHOTOS

bkmhoxx — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:57:47 -0000

More to come!

Texas vs Southern Miss OPEN THREAD

bkmhoxx — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:02:02 -0000

Cole Green for Texas

Todd MCInnis for S.Miss

North Carolina vs Arizona St. OPEN THREAD

bkmhoxx — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:16:44 -0000

Josh Spence vs Alex White. Should be a good one!

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Arkansas vs CS Fullerton HIT N' RUN

bkmhoxx — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:28:47 -0000

Andy Wilkins after his BIG homerun

View full size photo uploaded June 14, 2009

by Aman Reaka

The 2009 College World Series NCAA baseball championship got started on Saturday, June 13 at 1pm CST. This matchup included a regular here in Omaha, in Cal State Fullerton taking on a very hot team in the Arkansas Razorbacks. My game notes and thoughts will follow.

- Fullerton has a very nice team. Experienced offense, very tough to get them out, excellent team speed, amazingly good defense and a very deep history of being at the CWS and winning championships. This is their 16th appearance and they have 4 championships. They are the #2 seed in this tournament.

- Arkansas has absolutely nothing that makes you say wow. Very average offensive numbers and very bland pitching numbers. On the surface, that shouldnt scare anyone, but that reason alone, should scare everyone. How did they get this far? Umm...yeah. Exactly. Noone wants to play the average team on a hot streak. This is their 6th appearance at the CWS and they have zero championships. They have a decent history of baseball success and they have a great coach (Dave Van Horn, formerly Nebraska head coach and braintrust). Arkansas is the #7 seed in this tournament.

- It was a gorgeous day at Rosenblatt. About 75 degrees with a bit of humidity in the air and a little breeze.

- The pitching matchup for this game was Dallas Keuchel (Arkansas) vs Noe Ramirez (Fullerton). Ramirez is a freshman All-American right hander and has had nothing short of a phenominal season. Keuchel is a junior leftie that relies on location and deceptiveness to get his outs.

- The game started off with Arkansas playing Fullertons game, with a walk, a sacrifice bunt, a sacrifice fly to score a run and then a base hit to score another. Right off the bat, the freshman Noe Ramirez throws 25 pitches, gives up 1 hit but has his team down by 2 runs. His command was quite shaky but I expected him to settle in once the nerves were under control.

- The junior Dallas Keuchel comes out and pitches like a true veteran, getting Fullerton to go 1-2-3 with 3 groundouts on 9 pitches. This is what he does. Another day on the job for Keuchel.

- In the 2nd inning, Noe Ramirez (Im going to call him NoRam) looked to be on his way to settling down a bit as he got 2 K's, a popup to LF but he included a hit batter. His command still isnt quite there but he looked much better.

- Khris Davis gets the first Fullerton hit and then proceeds to steal second. This is Fullerton baseball. Absolute terrors on the basepaths and you never have any idea what they might do next. They force the opponent to think about everything but the pitch that is about to be thrown. Brilliant, but Keuchel gets out of the inning with a strikeout.

- And just as it appears NoRam is really starting to settle in with a single, a strikeout and a popup, WHOO PIG SOOIE! Freshman 3b Zach Cox hits his 13th homerun of the year, a no doubter with a runner on base to give Arkansas a 4-0 lead in the 3rd inning.

- Arkansas 2b Bo Bigham made an incredible diving catch in the 3rd inning. This is one of my personal favorite things about the CWS. You get to see some amazingly talented baseball players that are playing as hard as they possibly can. Amazing plays happen all throughout one of these games and its a joy to watch.

- Following the great play was a Fullerton double steal, a sacrifice flky to RF, and an error on Arkansas first baseman Andy Wilkins on a very tough play so Fullerton gets their style of play going in full force and scores 2 runs to get the score back to within 2. 4-2 Arkansas lead at the end of the 3rd inning.

- Fullerton alumni that you may know of: Chad Cordero, Mark Kotsay, Phil Nevin, Aaron Rowand, Kurt Suzuki, Tim Wallach.

- Gary Brown, the right fielder for Fullerton looks like a blurr when he runs. His legs reminds me a bit of the Roadrunners feet or the Flinstones when they are driving their stone-age vehicle.

- Throughout the year, the only way to beat Fullerton is to get to their bullpen because their pitching depth has been somewhat of a question mark this season.

- Arkansas alumni that you may know of: Cliff Lee, Eric Hinske, Kevin McReynolds.

- So in the 4th, the young and talented NoRam continues to struggle with his command, loads the bases and gets pulled for another freshman all-american in Tyler Pill. Pill shows some nerves and gives up a 2 run single that scores 2 runs followed by a 3 run HR to the RF bleachers by Andy Wilkins. Fullerton pitchers are struggling. The youth is really showing and Arkansas is really taking advantage of it. It is now 9-2 Arkansas in the 4th.

- Keuchel proceeded to come out and get Fullerton 1-2-3 with three easy outs. At this point, Fullerton started to show signs of being beaten. Pill gives up a basehit and then overthrows the second baseman on a pick off attempt. The Arkansas runners advance and they end up scoring another run.

- FUN FACT: 8 of the 9 Arkansas runs scored have been with 2 outs.

- Fullerton then proceeds to come out in the 5th, down by 7 runs and play more small ball. This will never make sense to me but then again, Im no D-1 baseball coach either. Two bunts, a basehit, runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, a ground out and Fullerton scratches across 2 more runs. The score is now 9-4 after 5 innings and Arkansas owns all of the momentum and their fans are officially pumped up.

- FUN FACT: The last National Champion that played on Day 1 of the CWS was in 1999 (Miami). In other words, you dont want to play on day one. So history would predict that your champion will come from Sundays four teams (Arizona St., North Carolina, Texas or Southern Mississippi)

- Part of the fun at the CWS is heckling the ball girls that catch the foul balls off the screen behind home plate. If they drop it, they get booed, and I dont mean lightly. Its a full on boo of massive proportions. The ball girl in game one must have been a rookie because she was struggling. Maybe her and NoRam were experiencing the same kind of butterflys.

- In the bottom of the 8th with no outs, Fullerton has the bases loaded. It must be time for the Titans to show their California muscle. Jared Clark (aka. Diesel) strikes out, the Arkansas SS makes an error on a tag and Fullerton gets a run, and Fullerton then proceeds to hit into a double play to end the inning. So much for muscle. 10-5 Arkansas leads after 8 innings.

- Fullerton got Arkansas to hit into a double play in the 9th and they managed to score another run in the 9th but couldnt muster the momentum to make any sort of serious comeback. The final score was 10-6 with Arkansas advancing to the winners bracket. Fullerton never was in this game. The few times they had opportunities, they didnt get much out of them. Arkansas squashed most of the big innings that Fullerton had going. They were great at damage control and taking advantage of the poor pitching that Fullerton had out there today. Arkansas basically beat Fullerton at their own game. Arkansas did look a bit sloppy at times with 3 errors but they held strong and got outs when they needed them.

- Arkansas' #3-4-5 hitters drove in ALL ten runs. Now that is what you call production from the heart of the order.

- This was Dave Van Horn's first CWS victory.

- Arkansas stars: Andy Wikins 1B- 2-5, HR and 5 RBI Zach Cox 3B- 2-5, HR and 3 RBI

- Zach Cox is going to be a stud and already looks like a professional out there.

- Fullerton stars: Christian Colon SS- 3-4, 1 RBI Joey Siddons 3B- 2-4, 1 RBI

- Dallas Keuchel: 6 innings pitched, 3 earned runs, 2 K's and only 1 walk

- NoRam: 3.2 innings pitched, 7 earned runs, 4 K's and 3 walks. OUCH!

Arkansas might be this years cinderella story depending on how Southern Miss and Virginia do. Fullerton still has the talent and coaching to come back from the losers bracket and win this entire thing. Sometimes youth is good and sometimes youth is bad and their youth really showed on this big stage in Omaha.

LSU vs Virginia IN PHOTOS

bkmhoxx — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:02:42 -0000

More to come!

LSU vs Virginia OPEN GAME THREAD

bkmhoxx — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:10:48 -0000

Should be a good game!

Arkansas vs CS Fullerton IN PHOTOS

bkmhoxx — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 22:43:52 -0000

Whoo Pig Sooey!

View full size photo uploaded June 14, 2009

More to come!

CAL ST. FULLERTON vs ARKANSAS open thread

bkmhoxx — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:04:35 -0000

Say what you want, make your predictions, comment on the game, ask questions and have at it!

SB Nation User Blog: bkmhoxx

College World Series: LSU vs Texas (Game 1) Hit N' Run

Texas vs LSU - National Championship OPEN THREAD

North Carolina vs Arizona State IN PHOTOS

Texas vs Southern Miss OPEN THREAD

North Carolina vs Arizona St. OPEN THREAD

Arkansas vs CS Fullerton *HIT N' RUN*

LSU vs Virginia IN PHOTOS

LSU vs Virginia OPEN GAME THREAD

Arkansas vs CS Fullerton IN PHOTOS

CAL ST. FULLERTON vs ARKANSAS open thread

Arkansas vs CS Fullerton HIT N' RUN