Baseball Toaster The Griddle
Help
A place where a man can slow down to a walk and live his life full measure, but he has to keep his watch on Pacific Time.
Frozen Toast
Search
Google Search
Web
Toaster
The Griddle
Archives

2009
02  01 

2008
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2007
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2006
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2005
12  10  07 
06  05  04  03 
Suggestions, comments, ring the catcher's interference alarm?

Email me at btimmermann@gmail.com

The stuff I keep track of
Random Game Callbacks

Select a date:

Personal favorites that I wrote
FAQs
The Omaha eight
2008-06-10 09:23
by Bob Timmermann

Fresno State's surprising 12-9 win over #3 Arizona State last night in Tempe completed the field for the College World Series which starts Saturday at Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium. The Bulldogs were a #4 seed in their regional in Long Beach and surprised Long Beach State and San Diego and then handed the Sun Devils just their fourth and fifth losses at home all season. LSU also earned a spot last night with a 21-7 win over UC Irvine. The Anteaters were just three outs from moving on to Omaha on Sunday, but LSU pulled that one out and then it was no contest in the deciding game.

The eight teams are divided into two four-team groups. Each group plays a double-elimination tournament. The survivors of each group then face off in a best of three final series.

The first game will be Saturday at 11 am PT when Stanford takes on #3 seed Florida State.  #8 Georgia will play #1 Miami at 4 pm PT.

On Sunday Fresno State will play #6 Rice at 11 am PT and #7 LSU will play #2 North Carolina at 4 pm PT.

The final series will be played June 23-25.

The final eight has three ACC teams, two from the SEC, and one each from the Pac-10, C-USA, and WAC.

Comments
2008-06-10 12:17:45
1.   Spaceman Spiff
Hi Bob. I don't know if you heard about this, but apparently the ASU team was engaged in an inter-team brawl right before the game started.

This article from AP (www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/
cardinals/story/658ABFB9D86DF8DB86257464003ADB13?
OpenDocument)
claims it was staged, but I heard the overnight host on ESPN/710 AM saying that the fight started when the Arizona State first baseman neglected to catch a throw by the ASU third baseman during the pregame warm-up.

Eventually the entire team piled on (possibly ESPN highlights?), and the radio host said it looked like a victory celebration after a World Series win, except that the game hadn't started yet.

If it were a staged fight, it wasn't enough to lift the Sun Devils to victory in their game.

Bob, have you ever been to the CWS? I was thinking about flying out for one day because my alma mater made it to Omaha, but I couldn't justify the uncertainty about getting good tickets, the airfare, and the flight times.

2008-06-10 12:23:00
2.   Bob Timmermann
ESPN showed footage of the fight and Barry Larkin didn't think the fight was staged, but ASU is sticking to their story.

I would love to go to the CWS, but the hotels there fill up fast and it's a tough ticket.

It is something I would like to go to one day.

2008-06-10 18:51:21
3.   El Lay Dave
2 We know you're just waiting for UCLA's appearance.

Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.