So we are down to 4 teams : 2 SEC, 1 ACC, and 1 Big12. Just what the NCAA & ESPN want. But not what a lot of college baseball fans want - including me. I want an underdog in the mix. The long shot is so much more interesting and fun to root for. Where is Coastal Carolina when you need them. I can’t watch much more of goofy UT pitcher dad trying to high 5 his whole section after every out!
@adbono posted:So we are down to 4 teams : 2 SEC, 1 ACC, and 1 Big12. Just what the NCAA & ESPN want. But not what a lot of college baseball fans want - including me. I want an underdog in the mix. The long shot is so much more interesting and fun to root for. Where is Coastal Carolina when you need them. I can’t watch much more of goofy UT pitcher dad trying to high 5 his whole section after every out!
The days of the underdog are gone. You need plenty of quality arms to win. And that takes money and the same amount of players on each team. Mid D1 programs just don't have that.
I am going with NCState.
NC State has 5 arms and 9 hitters. They have no depth. They are more similar to Coastal than they are a Texas. Unfortunately, it looks like they may have a covid problem and are going to be missing some key players today.
@d-mac posted:NC State has 5 arms and 9 hitters. They have no depth. They are more similar to Coastal than they are a Texas. Unfortunately, it looks like they may have a covid problem and are going to be missing some key players today.
Ruh Roh! Hadn’t heard about that. Somehow the ghost of Augie Garrido has to be involved in this!! Just saying, timing is a little suspect if you ask me.
Looking a lot worse. May have to forfeit
@d-mac posted:Looking a lot worse. May have to forfeit
Wow. Okay, now I’m convinced. The ghosts of Augie Garrido & Cliff Gustafson have somehow paid off Fauci to make this happen. I wonder if NC State had a special team vaccination event recently.
NC St guy on Twitter says they will play with 14 today.
@d-mac posted:NC St guy on Twitter says they will play with 14 today.
I hope you are right but suddenly coming out of the losers bracket doesn’t look like such a daunting task, does it?
Never been a Vandy fan but definitely a NC State fan today. This will be interesting. Only 5 regular starters with 9 fielders and 5 starters.
The college umpires at CWS have been horrible IMO. The foul ball was one of the worst but there have been some bad ones. How are these guys the best that college has to offer? How does two umpires from Texas call a Texas elimination game?
Terrible job by umpires on the call on the ground ball down 3B line. Clearly fair by video evidence but not a reviewable play? Wtf?!? NC State HC deserves a ton of credit for not losing his sh$t I’ve that one.
PitchingFan wrote “how do 2 umpires from Texas call a Texas elimination game?”
Good question! Somehow things like that are common where U of Texas is concerned. They have always played politics with their athletic teams and, like politicians, are usually a step ahead of the general public.
The shortage of players is leading to some interesting scenarios. Highfill (P) playing 1B and getting the "first" hit off Rocker (second). And a third baseman playing SS short hopping Highfill who can't handle the play. Unless you or your son or someone in your family went to Vandy how can you not be rooting for NC State.
Daily covid testing at this point is ridiculous
@Gunner Mack Jr. posted:The shortage of players is leading to some interesting scenarios. Highfill (P) playing 1B and getting the "first" hit off Rocker (second). And a third baseman playing SS short hopping Highfill who can't handle the play. Unless you or your son or someone in your family went to Vandy how can you not be rooting for NC State.
I am!
@d-mac posted:NC St guy on Twitter says they will play with 14 today.
Can't believe that NC State wasn't able to call up guys not on the 27 man roster
How do you get that far and not require/strongly encourage everyone to take vaccination? If you had vaccine you did not get tested.
If you have no symptoms you don't get tested.
@PitchingFan posted:How do you get that far and not require/strongly encourage everyone to take vaccination?
I agree. NCAA should have sent out a notice about being vaxed. Asked son, he said you can't make anyone get the vaccination, but you will suffer the consequences.
Also a question, you mentioned umpires from Texas. It's a mixed crew. I understand most of the crew was from the west coast. Was it a Big 12 umpire?
Just curious.
Why are some of you assuming that those who tested positive didn’t get the vaccine? Vaccination is not a guarantee that you won’t get Covid. Didn’t several Yankees players and staff test positive despite being vaccinated?
ETA: The announcers for the UT vs MSU game just said that protocol is to not test those vaccinated. So yeah, seems dumb not to get vaccinated.
Two tested positive. The rest were removed for contact tracing and have to test negative before they can play. If they had been vaccinated, they would have been able to play without testing. And before someone asks, I have first hand knowledge that at least one of the players who tested positive is symptomatic.
@PTWood posted:Two tested positive. The rest were removed for contact tracing and have to test negative before they can play. If they had been vaccinated, they would have been able to play without testing. And before someone asks, I have first hand knowledge that at least one of the players who tested positive is symptomatic.
Do not question the omnipotent PTWood!
😂
If you have taken the vaccine you do not have to be tested at CWS. Everyone else has to be tested every two days.
@adbono wish someone would tell my kids that. 😂
@PTWood posted:@adbono wish someone would tell my kids that. 😂
Sometime around twenty-seven years old they will figure it out. Or they knew long before and didn’t want to admit it. My son was the former. My daughter was the latter.
When my son was a kid I enjoyed teasing him with the line from Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid where they were cornered on top of a mountain with jumping the only way out …. Do you ever get tired of being wrong?
NC State eliminated. No game tomorrow. What a brutal ending to their season
Per Kendall. 4 vaccinated players tested positives so enough with the “this wouldn’t have happened if they had been vaccinated” talk.
Not a State fan for sure, but the NCAA has screwed them over for Vandy. With all the advantages that they have anyway, having to have a series fixed is pitiful. Tim Corbin as a man and his team should stand up for their fellow college players right to play. If not, they should go home and give it to Texas. I could not as a player look at that ring and be proud as a player and know I won it fair and square. Texas should just forfeit and go home. They will have no chance to beat Vandy due to the NCAA. Vandy is a good program and have talented kids, but this is going to shadow them for a long time. They should have not been there anyway. It started with ECU, that should have been the end for them. To have a Vandy umpire alumni is fair against ECU? Hummmm, and just get a 2 game suspension and a fine? All paid back by Vandy. Hope the rest o f the baseball teams take note and decide not to send alot of chin music their way next year like the Astro's.
@d-mac posted:Per Kendall. 4 vaccinated players tested positives so enough with the “this wouldn’t have happened if they had been vaccinated” talk.
Not quite. According to the same sources that you quote above: Two unvaccinated players tested positive. That prompted the NCAA to test the entire team, and they had more positives come back, all 4 of which were from vaxxed players.
As the NCAA policy clearly states, non-vaccinated players get tested per NCAA protocol, vaccinated ones (or players not showing symptoms) don’t. Entire team is vaccinated = no tests get performed (barring them being symptomatic). And they are playing a full team yesterday and today.
The “this wouldn’t have happened if they had been vaccinated” talk is, in this specific case with the information at our disposal, 100% correct.
With that info that probably is true what is the point of making a big deal about it an political? The fans are not all vaxxed, the NCAA was not protecting them. Are all Vandy's vaxxed? They were exposed to players from state and should be sent home as well. If you can still test positive from being vaxxed, what is the point anyway. It's about the money, all it has ever been. Vandy was in for another ass kicking and did whatever they could to get out of it. Just my opinion.
Did not even mention the different size strike zones they got.
Anyone wanna bet money Vandy don't win?
@d-mac posted:NC State eliminated. No game tomorrow. What a brutal ending to their season
Whole situation is terrible for NC State and sounds to me like little to no effort was made to try to find a way for them to play. Very unfortunate for the NC State players, coaches & fans. I think there is no doubt that the NCAA and ESPN wanted Vandy in the finals so it’s easy to speculate that Covid rules were selectively enforced to create that result. No way to know for sure but it’s a bad look for the NCAA - and I will now root against Vandy in the finals ……….unless they play Texas.
@Senna posted:Not quite. According to the same sources that you quote above: Two unvaccinated players tested positive. That prompted the NCAA to test the entire team, and they had more positives come back, all 4 of which were from vaxxed players.
As the NCAA policy clearly states, non-vaccinated players get tested per NCAA protocol, vaccinated ones (or players not showing symptoms) don’t. Entire team is vaccinated = no tests get performed (barring them being symptomatic). And they are playing a full team yesterday and today.
The “this wouldn’t have happened if they had been vaccinated” talk is, in this specific case with the information at our disposal, 100% correct.
Supposedly Link Jarretts son went home ill on Tuesday. This prompted the tests early. Also more than likely they suspected that those who were vaccinated may have not been through the full course. NCAA had the right to test vaccinated if they suspected they were not compliant.
The first problem here, in my opinion, is that there is a vaccine out for a reason. The team that isn't vaxed plays at a risk.
The second problem is that the NCAA needs to make a clear policy one way or the other. You get the vaccine, you can come to school or and play a sport, you don't, you can't come. That's it.
Period.
Coach Avent from yesterday's post-game press conference:
"On if he got vaccinated himself
I'll tell you what, I'm not going to talk about that. If you want to talk baseball, we can talk baseball. If you want to talk politics or stuff like that, you can go talk to my head of sports medicine, Rob Murphy."
It's too bad that someone didn't pull Coach Avent aside some weeks ago and explain that vaccinations are overwhelmingly about individual and public health. I'm not arguing that he had any responsibility to divulge whether or not he had been vaccinated; but, I do think it unfortunate that he appears to have been confused that the choice to get vaccinated was at least as much a political as a medical one.
In the end, his team could have been protected...from both the virus and elimination...after making one of the gutsiest playoff runs in NCAA DI baseball history. A sad chapter.
100% Prepster^^^, 100%.