OMAHA!…OMAHA!!!

Audibilizing the initial CWS audible

Predicting the success of a Florida baseball entity not located in the Miami metropolitan area should be undertaken at one’s own risk. Over a seven-year stretch from 1997–2003, Miami teams claimed four World Series titles, with the Marlins winning professional championships in 1997 and 2003, and the Hurricanes clinching collegiate counterparts in 1999 and 2001. Non-Miami based teams, conversely, are a combined 0–7 in Series competition — the most recent casualties being the Florida Gators, who lost the 2011 CWS to South Carolina, and the Tampa Bay Rays, who dropped the 2008 World Series to Philadelphia. So despite arriving in Omaha having played up to their top overall seed status, it should have come as no surprise to see the ’16 Gators ignominiously swept out of the Series; the first #1 to have been sent home without a victory since…well, the 2012 UF squad. Losing one-half of the previous CWS prognostication will require a certain degree of Now You See Me sleight-of-hand to salvage credibility. The original, that is, not 2.

2016 College World Series…series: Arizona vs. Coastal Carolina

Arizona was so lightly regarded prior to the start of the season that some pundits would have contemplated a 12th-place conference finish for the Wildcats; until they were reminded that Colorado doesn’t play baseball, and the Pac-12 only has 11 participating teams in the sport. The U of A has had to do it the hard way at every stage of the postseason, from clinching Regional and Super Regional series in hostile road environments, to facing the prospect of having to win a pair of CWS games against Oklahoma State, a team that had yet to trail in any of its own postseason contests, to advance to the finals. The ‘Cats made the final step look easy, establishing early four-run leads in both games that they would not relinquish in their sweep of the Cowboys. Arizona will be playing for its fifth Series title, winning in 1976, 1980, 1986 and 2012.

Coastal, by comparison, could easily have been mistaken for a street urchin begging for tuppence in the rarified baseball air of Omaha. The Chanticleers success in their College World Series debut can be attributed in no small part to the non-lethal execution of Gary Gilmore. The 2016 National Coach of the Year, in his 21st season at CCU, has managed to keep his dugout delightfully loose while he and his team have taken care of the nuts-and-bolts business of knocking out national seeds LSU in Baton Rouge, Texas Tech in Omaha, then outscoring TCU 11–6 in a pair of elimination game wins to advance. Coastal will try to take advantage of a distinct power discrepancy (raising its NCAA-leading home run total on Saturday to 95, compared to the U of A’s 26) against a stingy Wildcat pitching staff that has allowed just 1.2 runs and 6.2 hits per game during the Series.

Steve Kerr’s redemptive PICK TO WIN THE PLAQUE: ARIZONA WILDCATS