South Carolina

June 26, 2004

By Eric Sorenson
Special to CollegeSports.com

Well my time in Omaha has finally come to an end just as we reach the championship round. Yes, I'm bummed I have to go home at this time, of all times. Call me an idiot. But it has been a great week, or as my nephew says, it's been a bangin' time.

So since I've had so much time to take in all the sights, sounds and stories of the College World Series, I've come up with a "best of" list. All the things about the Rosenblatt Stadium experience that are great, bad and different. There will also be notable performances on the field as well. So let's get to it.

Best game: It depends
There never was a tight, white-knuckler finish to this year's series (so far). In fact, the only two one-run games ended unspectacularly with a three-up, three-down. So in lieu of that, the best game simply comes down to any win by whatever team it is you're cheering for. Because there's been some great performances by individual players all over the place.

Team that overachieved: Cal State Fullerton
This is a team that hit just .223 on its way to the championship round but had a team ERA of 2.00. Most impressively, they beat the number two national seed, both times by shutout and also beat the number three seed as well. And remember, the Titans began the NCAA playoffs as a No. 2 seed in their regional.

Team that underachieved: Arkansas
First off let's cut Dave Van Horn some slack. Too much has been made of his 0-6 record in the CWS. At Nebraska, he lost four College World Series games by a combined five runs. But we must point out that this year, his Hogs, the No. 8 national seed, were blown out twice. So despite being the SEC co-champions, they didn't really show up.

Best pitching performance: Jason Windsor, Cal State Fullerton (vs. South Carolina)
It was 145 pitches of brilliance by Windsor. As mentioned before, the first complete game shutout in the CWS since 1994. And with 14 strikeouts too? This was a no-brainer.

Best hitting performance: Curtis Thigpen, Texas (vs. Arkansas)
The Longhorn first baseman went 4-for-5 with three singles and a triple and four runs scored. For the series, Thigpen is currently batting .700 through his three games. He trails only fellow Horn Dooley Prince who is hitting .733 (11-for-15).

Most interesting trend: Greater emergence of small ball
Through the first 13 games of the series, there have been only 16 home runs hit. As you've noticed, the two teams that have emerged to make the championship round are making their living off of legendary pitching performances.

Most fortuitous coaching move: Fullerton's Horton going with Scott Sarver in game 13
It would've been easy for George Horton to send monster ace Jason Windsor out on the bump, even after 145 pitches on Saturday, but he went with a lefty that throws good off-speed stuff, even if he had only two starts all year. Now Windsor can go on Sunday in the title round.

Hard luck player award: South Carolina's Steve Pearce
Pearce got gunned down twice on the basepaths when it looked like he was a shoe-in to score a run in the 4-0 loss to Fullerton. The second of which was particularly damaging, considering if he had been held up at third, SC would've had the bases loaded.

Worst post-game question: "Do you have any explanation why you are 0-6 at the College World Series?"
A writer was brave enough to ask Dave Van Horn that question after his team went two-and-out in the CWS. Van Horn shot back with, "We've been outscored. Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer."

Second worst post-game question: "Are we seeing the decline of LSU?"
A writer asked Carolina coach Ray Tanner that question after the Gamecocks eliminated LSU on Monday. Come on people.

Most over-used phrase since "Y2K": 2 and a Bar-b-que
I've read this phrase more times I care to the last four weeks. Can't we all just leave that phrase alone now?

Favorite cliché for players to use after a loss: "We've been in this situation before"
That one is usually followed by "we've had our backs against the wall all season" and "we've responded every time."

Quirkiest ritual: Landon Powell vs. chalk
Before the start of each game, South Carolina Catcher Landon Powell erased the chalk-line around the catcher's box with his cleats until you couldn't see the chalk anymore. He nearly did it to the batter's box everytime at the dish too. Landon doesn't like chalk.

Best stadium improvement: The new sound system
Unless you were trying to use a cell phone of course.

Best concession: Omaha Steaks' steak sandwich
Last year, if you ordered six of them, you got a free Omaha Steaks bag. That's what I used for my laptop while traveling this year.

Best between innings music: Organist Lambert Bartek
He's still the original and still the best. It just feels like a ballpark with Lambert tickling the ivories. Nice "Lambert-cam" too guys.

Best between innings music besides Lambert: The Police's "So Lonely" and "Next to You"
Those two early Police gems were played on the P.A. system on the first day of games.

Best uniforms: Miami's Nike "Walk Off" Jersey
With the intense south Florida heat, every advantage helps. These unis were made by Nike and feature mesh underarms and side panels. Nice idea. They wore them for the first time in Omaha, though it wasn't as hot as the last few years up here.

Worst uniforms: Miami's
That whole tight-fitting, tuck-the-pants-into-the-cleats look is just bad.

Biggest media guide: Texas, 308 pages
Hey, if I ever want to know what Huston Street's favorite vegetable is, thanks to the voluminous Texas media guide, by golly, I'll know. By contrast, Arizona's media guide was 86 pages long.

Zesto's malt flavor you've got to try: Butterscotch.
In a word, yum.

Most welcomed change from past years: the weather
For the first time in a number of years there were no sweat-fest scorchers in Omaha this year. The highest temperature of the first seven days was 83 degrees. Granted, the cooler days were pretty chilly, but the best part is that you can always put on another layer to keep warm.

Best strike pose by an umpire: Bob Homolka
On a simple strike call he turns sideways, pauses, then looks like an old west villain pulling his gun out of his holster and pulls the trigger. That is only topped by his jump-back, arm-crank rung up when he catches the batter looking at strike three. Hope Bob umps one of the two or three championship games.

Best added feature: The fan fest area outside of the stadium
When I was a kid, the only interactive activity we had at Rosenblatt was our games of "cup baseball" under the right field bleachers where we used a wadded up paper stadium cup as the "ball" and our arm as a "bat." Now you can play games of all sorts, from basketball, to hockey, to baseball, to rowing for crying out loud. Nice interactive area.

Okay, that's that. Enjoy the championship games this weekend and make sure to support college baseball next season twice as much as you did this season. Oh and tell two friends about it.