The End and The Start

Whit Merrifield had gone 1-for-9 with 1 RBI in the first nineteen innings of the College World Series Finals, this was a guy who had hit over .320 in the regular season and had made himself a ninth round draft pick. For Merrifield and his superstar teammate Jackie Bradley jr the Finals series had been one big struggle that every was becoming more and more frustrating for themselves and their fans. When Merrifield ripped a 2-0 Dan Klein fastball down the right field line to bring home Scott Wingo the teams stuggles with runners in scoring position were all forgotten, by bringing home the winning run Merrifield brought home the Gamecocks first major national championship and gave the magical Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium a fitting send-off after sixty memorable years hosting the College World Series.

The success the Gamecocks encountered at Omaha should not have been as much of a surprise, after all USC came a game away from winning the Southeastern Conference and finished the year ranked between 7 and 10 in the four major polls. Despite their success it never seemed conceivable to most people that the Gamecocks could actually win this thing, especially after looking so vulnerable in losing their first game to Oklahoma and then squeezing by the Sooners in an elimination game. When they did squeeze past the powerful Oklahoma team something happened to South Carolina. They began to believe. Having been carried for a lot of the year by outstanding sophomore Jackie Bradley and the pitching of Sam Dyson and Blake Cooper the rest of the team began performing. Regardless whether that was Brady Thomas’ game winning RBI against the Sooners, Bobby Haney having a brief offensive explosion or even Wingo working the work in the final inning of the season, everybody contributed.

In the Finals nobody contributed more than senior starter Blake Cooper who pitched twice on three days’ rest and seemed to be getting better every time he did it. Having thrown 97 pitches against Oklahoma and allowing only one run in 5.2 innings Cooper expressively asked Coach Ray Tanner for the responsibility of pitching game one in what would be his final college appearance. Cooper saved his very best for his very last. In the 136 dazzling pitches that came out of Coppers right hand only four resulted in a base runner while ten resulted in dominating strikeouts of a very disciplined offensive team. In opposition to the SC senior was UCLA sophomore stud starter Gerrit Cole who struck out 13 in his last start and looks even better than when the New York Yankees drafted him in the first round in 2008. In opposition to a genuine college superstar Cooper gave eight innings of one run ball and gave the Gamecocks the inspirational performance that can define a short series.

Then came the second game of the finals and one of the best games of baseball played in recent memory. It began with more wonderful pitching, first by Michael Roth and the second round draft pick Rob Rasmussen. By the way all three of UCLA’s aces will be big stars in the Major Leagues, Cole, Rasmussen and Trevor Bauer have all given performances of the highest calibre throughout the College World Series and the regular season. USC were given impressive performances from an all reliever group last night, with Roth starting and giving 5 innings or 1 run ball followed by Jose Mata, Tyler Webb and John Taylor not allowing the Bruins onto the scoreboard for 3.1 innings. After that it became a battle of closers, and they were two of the best. Dan Klein gave one of the bravest, toughest performances in the highest pressure situations imaginable. Unfortunately for the UCLA club Klein slowly began wearing out around 50 pitches only to be left in for 23 more and, against the rapidly emerging Matt Price of the ’Cocks didn’t stand a chance.

As Klein tired into the eleventh Wingo worked a walk for the ages with an at-bat of the highest quality, he advanced to second on Steve Rodriguez’s only lapse in concentration of the day for a passed ball and then got to third on Evan Marzilli’s sac bunt. That set up Whit Merrifield to indelibly etch himself into South Carolina and College World Series history. For giving Rosenblatt the send-off it deserved both UCLA and South Carolina should be commended and remembered regardless of whether they make it to the new stadium next year. With the end of the stadiums era comes the dawn of a new time in Gamecock history, and it couldn’t have been any better.

The Usual Suspects?

The SEC is annually the strongest conference in college baseball and 2010 is proving to be no different. Just when there seemed to be some separation last week the waters became more muddied this past weekend with almost every series being a big one. With various RPI and polls there are only two irrelevant teams left in the conference in the two Bulldogs of Georgia and Mississippi State, who could have predicted those two schools would be the also ran’s? Most people seem to think that the SEC will get 9 schools to regional’s this year, that’s one more than will compete in the conference tournament at the end of the month. With Hoover so close I wanted to try and break down who will go and who might win.

Fourteen days ago the obvious choice was the LSU Tigers, the defending national champions who are loaded with Juniors and Seniors who have done all this before. Players like Matt Gaudet, Blake Dean and Micah Gibbs carried the team in hitting while the pitching staff, including top 5 draft prospect Anthony Ranaudo, were projecting to at least compete with Texas to be the best in the country. The last two weeks has seen that all unravel with the Bayou Bengals dropping seven in a row and being swept in two consecutive SEC series. The first to Ole Miss was seen more as a blip than a problem, all good teams lose series and Oxford is a very difficult place to go in any sport but being swept by Florida in Gainesville this weekend has really set the alarm bells ringing for Paul Manieri’s side. What has let the Tigers down is the pitching that they had so much faith in and especially their ace Ranaudo. After sitting the first month of the season with a stress reaction in his shoulder he was expected to come back and carry this team to their second consecutive national title, instead in his seven games back he has gone 2-2 with a 7.30 ERA. More worrying than that have been his performances in big games, first in one of the most hyped NCAA pitching match-ups in recent memory Ranaudo faced Ole Miss stud Drew Pomeranz on national television and got lit up lasting only 1.2 innings and giving up 9 runs on 9 hits. One week later trying to right the ship against the Gators he went only 2 innings giving up 4 runs on 6 hits. I honestly don’t think this team is good enough to win the SEC this year for the simple fact they have no clutch pitching behind Matty Ott (who himself got lit up Sunday) and Georgia has proven this year you don’t win much without pitching.

So if not LSU who? Friday I would have said without hesitation Arkansas was not only the best team in the conference but in the country. They were riding the hot hand pitcher on Fridays in Drew Smyly and have the most explosive offensive many of who have experience of the College World Series last year. Auburn, a really strong team themselves, made all those things look very difficult to justify this weekend. The Razorbacks headed home looking to bounce back after last weekend’s 2-1 series loss to Florida and promptly dropped two games again, even being out-slugged by a powerful Tiger team in the rubber match Sunday. I still think the Hogs are the strongest team in the SEC but they really need a good run down the stretch to get the crucial national seed. If they slip up the team most likely to take advantage are the Ole Miss Rebels who have been quietly taking care of business this year. In Drew Pomeranz they have a pitcher that Keith Law of ESPN thinks is a top 5 draft pick and are beginning to build consistency hitting the ball, their 10 game winning streak reflects this. The winner of this weekend’s series in Oxford could very well have the inside track to winning the SEC West and securing a national seed, but it has far more short-term implications. Friday night could decide who the best pitcher in the West is, Pomeranz or fellow Drew Smyly, and the rest of the weekend will be all about who swings the bats best. The winners of this series I predict will win the College World Series in Omaha, but not the SEC championship.

The two favourites right now have to be the leading teams in the East, those being Florida and the incredibly impressive Gamecocks of South Carolina. These two don’t have the super stud pitching possessed by teams in the West by they both have very solid rotations with USC posting the second best mark in the conference at 3.64 and Florida fourth best with a 4.06 ERA. What is key to the offenses is not their explosiveness, like the Razorbacks, but their timeliness and clutch hitting. With the combined pitching and timely hit the Eastern powers have put together SEC best records of 16-5 and 15-6 respectively, best of all they face each other in the final series of the regular season in Columbia, a series shaping up to be a three game play-off for the SEC regular season crown. If they continue to take care of business in the conference tournament it could be a dress rehearsal for the championship game at the end of the month.