Indiana went 2-0 vs Louisville in the regular season and won their series at Florida early in the season. They've been hyped and ranked as a very legit and serious contender all year. They've been getting so much love that Baseball America wrote this piece two months ago not just on how great Indiana is, but on how great ALL the NCAA baseball programs in Indiana are: Purdue, Indiana State, Valpo, etc (note how it says " The Hoosiers and Irish are legitimate College World Series contenders, loaded with physical lineups and quality arms." ... Notre Dame was also hyped and highly ranked all year before they collapsed) http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/hooser-state-enjoying-golden-age/ So while i disagree that they are a "Cinderella" (like Kent State, Stony Brook in CWS last year) I do agree that they could get some love as a media "Darling" because that would be impressive to win it all on your program's first CWS. But LSU (whose players are playing in their 1st CWS ever as well) should be a huge media darling too since we are the most storied program in this CWS and of the whole last generation Also, Nebraska is in the Big Ten and they went to the CWS three times since 2001. As for the Big East, when is the last time they had a team other than Louisville in the CWS? St. John in 1980?
ESPNU @ESPNU #CWS 2 Pac12: UCLA, OregonSt 2 ACC: UNC, NCState 2 SEC: LSU, MissSt 2 NorthernConf: Indiana, Louisville Good mix. Fun field of 8. #GetItOn
I never woulda thought Moo U would get in over Vandy. I understand they had their shot to prove it and blew it, but I think Vandy is a better team than at least half of the field.
Louisville has been competitive with the SEC for a while In the 2007 CWS, Louisville knocked out the only SEC team in Omaha, Miss State 12-4 (Miss State's other loss was 8-5 to UNC...UNC knocked out Louisville 3-1, then Oregon State beat UNC in the final) in 2008, Georgia knocked Louisville out of the NCAAT 9-8, and Georgia and LSU were the only SEC teams in Omaha that year. Georgia made it to the final while LSU got knocked out by UNC 8-4, 7-3 in 2009, Louisville, Vandy, and Indiana were in the Louisville Regional. Both beat Indiana, and Louisville went 2-0 vs Vandy In 2010, Louisville was a national seed and again got Vandy in their regional. Louisville beat Vandy 7-1 before Vandy came out of the losers bracket to win two straight over Louisville 7-0 then 3-2 In 2011, Louisville didn't make the NCAAT In 2012, Louisville didn't face the SEC, and instead got knocked out by National Champs Arizona In 2013, Louisville went 2-0 vs Vandy at the Vanderbilt Super Regional
Think Louisville Slugger, whose tag line is " The #1 name in baseball for 129 years" It's a Louisville company that made the bats used by Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb , Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig ... as well as today by Derek Jeter, Evan Longoria, Josh Hamilton, Joey Votto, Buster Posey, Curtis Granderson, etc Hell, growing up, the first bats my dad bought us was a pile of Louisville Slugger bats Outside their museum and factory in Louisville, they have a huge giant colossal bat called the "Largest Bat in the World"
I got to see that bat on my way to Charlotte, NC several years back heading in to the North end of Louisville from Indy... thing is a sight to see for sure, huuuge bat. If I wasn't on a schedule and heading in to rush hour traffic I would've stopped and snapped a pic.
Wonderful story on how special college baseball is, particularly in the SEC http://hailstatebeat.wordpress.com/...orth-the-wait-for-mississippi-state-baseball/
And here comes Miss State winning an epic battle vs Oregon State in game one of the CWS What a game. I'll add a few notes in a bit on how epic this game was
Indiana advances to 3-0 vs Louisville for the season, face Miss St next for pole position in bracket one More notes to come, i got taken on an unexpected wild crazy (but very good so far) adventure tonite RL
