Connect with us
HS Bball

<

>

  • Mon, Nov 27
    Dorman
    73
    FINAL
    Rock Hill
    36
  • Mon, Nov 27
    R-S Central
    58
    FINAL
    Chesnee
    93
  • Mon, Nov 27
    Blacksburg
    45
    FINAL
    Broome
    72
  • Mon, Nov 27
    Gaffney
    74
    FINAL
    Legacy EC
    103
  • Tue, Nov 28
    Boiling Springs
    68
    FINAL
    JL Mann
    71
  • Tue, Nov 28
    Newberry
    81
    FINAL
    Union
    64
  • Tue, Nov 28
    BHP
    72
    FINAL
    Chapman
    76
  • Tue, Nov 28
    Berea
    52
    FINAL
    Greer
    88
  • Tue, Nov 28
    Byrnes
    85
    FINAL
    Mauldin
    81
  • Tue, Nov 28
    Spartanburg
    58
    FINAL
    TL Hanna
    69
  • Tue, Nov 28
    Chesnee
    78
    FINAL
    Broome
    63
  • Tue, Nov 28
    Blue Ridge
    45
    FINAL
    Landrum
    47
  • Wed, Nov 29
    Chesnee
    60
    FINAL
    Woodruff
    61
  • Wed, Nov 29
    Dorman
    52
    FINAL
    TL Hanna
    45
  • Thr, Nov 30
    Union
    7:30 pm
    Mid-Carolina
  • Thr, Nov 30
    Byrnes
    7:30 pm
    Daniel
  • Thr, Nov 30
    Walhalla
    7:30 pm
    Chapman
  • Fri, Dec 01
    Gaffney
    7:30 pm
    Union
  • Fri, Dec 01
    Blue Ridge
    7:30 pm
    Greer
  • Fri, Dec 01
    Spartanburg
    7:30 pm
    Broome
  • Fri, Dec 01
    Landrum
    7:30 pm
    Greenville
  • Fri, Dec 01
    Chesnee
    7:30 pm
    E Rutherford
  • Fri, Dec 01
    Woodruff
    7:30 pm
    Fort Mill
  • Fri, Dec 01
    Chapman
    7:30 pm
    Palmetto
  • Sat, Dec 02
    Spartanburg
    7:30 pm
    Liberty
  • Sat, Dec 02
    Sumter
    7:30 pm
    Dorman
  • Sat, Dec 02
    Byrnes
    7:30 pm
    Asheville

Clary

My favorite weekend

I have followed college baseball since 1999. I absolutely love this sport…more than most…I get it. But over the last 6 or 7 years, the rest of the country is catching up. College baseball is growing in many parts of the country. It’s always been big in the southeast and the west coast, but it’s really taken off the last decade in the middle of the county and especially in Big Ten country.

This year is a very very strange one. Most years there’s a constant battle between the southeast and the west coast over who has the best teams. This year, it’s never been more simple..the southeast is the only place to find a team that has any hope of winning the College World Series. Nonetheless, this should be a great tournament, and it starts with my favorite weekend of the year…REGIONAL WEEKEND.

16, four team, double elimination tournaments…at the same time. From Friday thru Sunday, games will start at noon and end around 2:00am, and I won’t miss a pitch. Then how many games will we get on Monday is always fun to see (those are the Game 7s.)

The questions are always: Which 2 seeds fall to the elimination games on day 1 (3 seeds win more than you think), which 1 seeds fall opening night, and of course which 1 seeds don’t make it to the Super Regionals. How coaches handle their pitching staffs is always up for debate; do you save your #1 for Saturday, but what if you lose on Friday? Jack Leggett got caught on the wrong end of this once before.

I have loved Regional Weekend since 1999, but not every one has been equal to the others. I absolutely can’t stand it when they put USC and Clemson in the same regional or set up as a possible Super Regional matchup. It’s lazy work by the committee. Bowl games and the NCAA basketball committee will do everything they can to avoid rematches, but the baseball committee cares more about travel concerns which is hilariously hypocritical since they’ll send 4 seeds anywhere and they have much less money in their athletic budgets. Not to mention on multiple occasions they have used “travel” as a reason for a matchup, but if they would’ve matched up 2 other teams who haven’t played each other, it would’ve been less traveling.

The fact is the committee tries their best to set up TV ratings. I understand that when trying to grow the sport but admit it already. Fans, coaches, and the players hate seeing a team before the CWS that they’ve played at least 3 times that same season. It’s time for the committee to seed the 2 seeds as well and set a parameter of not matching up teams in regionals and super regionals that have faced each other 3 times.

We’ve seen USC and Clemson matched up enough earlier this decade. Hopefully it won’t happen again. But nonetheless, I can’t wait for Regional Weekend. So many great college baseball games at the same time. I CAN’T WAIT!!

More in Clary