South Carolina Wins 2nd Straight Baseball Championship

It's been a magical season for the South Carolina Gamecocks.  The Gamecocks entered the season as the defending national champions and played like it once the NCAA Tournament began.  As the night began, a SEC rival was the only obstable between South Carolina and their second straight baseball national championship.  Karsten Whitson, Florida's starting pitcher, shut down the first six Gamecock batters before he began to struggle.  Peter Mooney's double to lead off the bottom of the third would be the first Gamecock hit of the game.  Mooney would advance to third on Michael Beary's sacrifice and later score on Scott Wingo's flyout to right. Evan Marzilli, who walked to reach base, would score the second run of the game off Gator Nolan Fontana's error. Brady Thomas' RBI single would drive in Milton Bradley Jr. to put their team up 3-0 heading to the fourth.  The Gators would respond in the top of the fourth with a Mike Zunino lead-off homer to put Florida on the board.  The score wouldn't change until the bottom of the sixth when Mooney led off the inning with a homer to right.  On Twitter, ESPN sideline reporter Jenn Brown described the homer as "a huge bomb" to extend the South Carolina lead to 4-1.  Josh Adams' two-out RBI single in the top of the eighth allowed Zunino to score his second run of the night as the Gators finished off the night with only two runs.    The Gamecocks responded with an insurance run in the bottom of the inning as Wingo had his second RBI of the night.  Gamecock closer Matt Price closed out South Carolina's sweep of the Gators with 1 1/3 innings pitched and a strikeout for his school's second Baseball National Championship.  Gamecock Starting Pitcher Michael Roth won his 14th game of the year and Price ended the year with 20 saves.  They finished the year's tournament undefeated at 10-0 and set the most consecutive NCAA Baseball Tournament wins (16) and College World Series wins (11) going back to last season.  They also became the sixth Division 1 Baseball program to win back-to-back national championships.  South Carolina should be the favorites heading to next season because they are the two-time defending champs.  This night goes to the people of South Carolina.

Texas Teams lose Elimination Game in Back-to-Back Days; Cal's Magical Season Continues

A 8-4 loss to Florida on Saturday set up Texas' sixth elimination game of the year's NCAA Tournament.  Their luck finally ran out as Emanuel and his North Carolina teammates shut out the Horns 3-0 on Monday.  Emmanuel (9-1) struck out five, allowing only four hits and no runs on his way to a complete game.  Although Texas only allowed North Carolina nine hits in the game, two hits made the difference for the Tar Heels.  The first came in the top of the third with no outs.  Texas Starter Cole Green, who pitched in all three games after postseason losses, was only credited with getting six outs in the game.  After not allowing a single run in the first two innings, Green (8-4) finally got in trouble in the top of the third.  Stallings came up to the plate and hit a decisive two run RBI single in the top of the third to give the Tar Heels an early lead that would not dissolve.  The score would not change until the Tar Heels added another in the top of the ninth off Bunting's RBI double to finish off the Longhorns.  North Carolina faces Vanderbilt, who lost 3-1 to Florida on Tuesday morning, in their second consecutive elimination game tonight at 6pm CT.

It's been an amazing story about the California Golden Bears' 2011 Baseball team.  After not knowing if their school would produce a team this season, benefactors came to the rescue right before the season began to keep their long-standing baseball program together.  The team finished with a 31-20 regular season record, finishing sixth in the Pac-10.  After making the NCAA Tournament as a bubble team, the California Golden Bears posted a combined 6-1 record in the Regional and Super-Regional to make it to their first College World Series appearance in 19 seasons.

The Bears opened the College World Series with 4-0 loss to top seeded Virginia, but the double-elimination gave the team another day.  Cal's next opponent featured the highly-talented Texas A&M Aggies, who had won the Big 12 Tournament and were co-champions of the Big 12 Regular Season Championship.  The Aggies, who had scored first in their CWS opener, began the elimination game on a strong note with a solo home run by Smith in the bottom of the fourth.  The Bears were definitely not the favorites heading into the game and they knew that about themselves.  They had played the "Cinderella" all year, so finding themselves down 1-0 with five innings remaining didn't startle the team one bit.  They went on to score six straight runs in the next two innings.  Although the Aggies added two in the bottom of the sixth, Cal's RBI single to centerfield in the top of the seventh ended any chance of an A&M comeback and their 7-3 lead would not evaporate.

With the win over A&M yesterday, Cal improved their record against teams from Texas in the NCAA Tournament to 6-1 and their record in elimination games to 5-0.  Porter pitched six full innings for Cal, allowing only three runs and seven hits, and improved his record on the season to 6-0.  Wacha (9-4) threw 6 2/3 innings in the loss while allowing four runs on nine hits. The other three runs were caused by the two errors by Smith and Bratsen.  After starting the game 1 for 13 in the first four innings with 0 runs and 7 strikeouts, the Golden Bears responded with a 8 for 18 showing at the plate and seven runs in the final five innings.  Cal's magical season continues tomorrow against top-seeded Virginia at 6pm in another elimination game.

Texas Falls to Florida in CWS Opener; Will Meet Tar Heels Monday

As the #7 Longhorns prepared for the College World Series opener, they knew the match-up would be a tough one.  The Florida Gators had a high-powered offense that had scored over 50 more home runs than Texas had all season.  Texas had relied on their small-ball offense during the regular season, but began to struggle in the Big 12 Tournament.  After struggling in both the Regional and Super-Regional, Texas finally advanced to their record 34th trip to Omaha after a remarkable 5-0 record in elimination games.

As tonight's game began, it looked as if Texas would finally play their way through the Winner's Bracket.  They had scored three runs in the top of the third inning with their productive small-ball offense.  In the bottom of the inning, the Gators began to get to Texas Ace Taylor Jungmann, who allowed four runs in the next two innings on the way to his third straight loss in the NCAA Tournament.  Florida went on to win 8-4, sending the Longhorns to yet another loser's bracket.  All the Longhorns can do is take one game at a time as they prepare for yet another elimination game against #3 North Carolina on Monday.   This Texas team has the chance to do what few teams have done in the past, losing the first game of the College World Series on the way to the National Championship.