College Baseball Update

TD Ameritrade Park has been renamed Charles Schwab Field, but it's still not a very easy place to score runs.  So far, the games in this year's College World Series have been tight and low-scoring, and the traditional huge crowds in Omaha -- they tend to get about 24,000 fans per game -- are really being entertained.  Here's where it stands (check out all the one-run games):

BRACKET ONE:

06/16/2023:  Oral Roberts 6, Texas Christian 5

06/16/2023:  (2) Florida 6, (7) Virginia 5

06/18/2023:  Texas Christian 4, (7) Virginia 3 (Virginia eliminated)

06/18/2023:  (2) Florida 5, Oral Roberts 3

BRACKET TWO:

06/17/2023:  (1) Wake Forest 3, (8) Stanford 2

06/17/2023:  (5) Louisiana St. 6, Tennessee 3

06/19/2023:  Tennessee 6, (8) Stanford 4 (Stanford eliminated)

06/19/2023:  (1) Wake Forest 3, (5) Louisiana St. 2

Tonight's game -- between Wake Forest and LSU -- was an instant classic.  With a huge crowd roaring on almost every pitch, LSU scraped out an early 2-0 lead, in part because the Wake Forest left fielder lost a line drive in the sun.  But Wake fought back to tie the game a few innings later.  Finally, in the 8th, LSU had runners on the corners with no one out.  The next batter hit a slow grounder to third, and the third baseman fielded it and cut down the LSU runner at the plate.  Then Wake brought in their closer, and he got a double play to end the inning.  In the bottom of the 8th, Wake got a double and a single for the game winner, and their closer slammed the door in the 9th.  Great, great stuff.

So tomorrow, we'll get two more elimination games, with Texas Christian facing Oral Roberts and LSU facing Tennessee.  And then the survivors will have to beat Florida or Wake Forest twice in a row, which will not be easy.

We usually get a fair number of upsets in the NCAA Baseball Tournament.  And there have definitely been upsets this year.  But we are still on pace to have the top two seeds meet in the final, and I'm not sure that's ever happened.