On To Omaha(College World Series: Irish eliminate Free Shoes U. to qualify)

espn.com ^ | 6/10/02 | espn.com

[Diddle E. Squat]

Monday was a tough day for another Florida school. Notre Dame's Chris Niesel pitched a six-hit gem to lead the Irish to a 3-1 win over top-seeded Florida State and complete the field for the 2002 College World Series. The Seminoles beat the Irish 12-5 on Sunday to force Monday's Game 3. South Carolina stunned defending champion Miami on Sunday with five runs in the 9th inning to eliminate the 'Canes and advance to Omaha. • Horns humble Houston | Tigers take out Razorbacks • Rice, Stanford and Georgia Tech advance on Saturday

[Diddle E. Squat]

Hahahahaha! While I usually prefer to root against Notre Dame, ya gotta love their upset knockout of Florida State in Tallahassee this weekend(one poll had FSU as #1, and the Seminoles were riding a massive win streak) in the qualifying round for the College World Series. Kudo's to the Irish, first trip to the CWS in 45 years, and they certainly earned it. It gets even better, after the mediocre(this year) Miami Hurricanes ousted the Gators in Gainesville during the prelim round, they then got the boot this weekend by South Carolina. So all the Florida teams will sit on the sidelines, and no crying about the regional head to head this year(albeit a very stupid move by the NCAA), everybody was affected. Unanimous top 8 U. Houston would likely also be on the way to Omaha had they not been forced into a qualifier this weekend at #3 Texas(and after having won the prelim's while supposedly 'hosting' at much lower ranked Arizona State's home field(still they beat ASU twice), no excuse from the NCAA on why Houston didn't host somewhere in Texas). California teams were also squeezed by the idiotic NCAA regional clustering. Wouldn't want to seed by merit, since it is academia.

The Stanford Groping Cardinal took out USC(the California one), the Nebraska Cornthuggers took 2 of 3 from Richmond in Lincoln, the Gambling Dreck from Georgia Tech beat Florida Atlantic, the Texas Longhorns stayed one step ahead of the law and ousted U. Houston, the Clemson Tiggers beat Arkansas(Nolan Richards to boycott S. Carolina as a result) and Rice U. swept LSU.

So in one bracket at Omaha we'll have G. Tech, Clemson, S. Carolina, and Nebraska. The other will have Stanford, Notre Dame, Rice, and Texas(so its possible that if Rice and Stanford both win or both lose their first games, then we'll have Condi Rice v. Stanford). Double-elimination within the brackets, but then the brackets winners will then play a single-game championship, instead of the best of 3 series played in every other instance. Supposedly this is the last year for that stupid format that bastardizes the tournament and goes against everything that is baseball. Yeah, I'm STILL bitter over 1-loss Wichita State taking the title over unbeaten Texas many moons ago. Never was a champion that year, since in the end, each team had one loss in the tourney. Damn NCAA sellout to CBS! At least next year they'll get it right, and we'll know the true national champion(unlike college football).