2016 College World Series was fun, by any stretch

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Nice CWS wrap from the Omaha WH:

Column by Jon Nyatawa / World-Herald staff writer

Pitchers ruled the diamond at this year’s College World Series, not really a surprise given the ballpark’s tendencies, the talent on the field and the structure of the event.

But 2016 produced some of the best individual efforts on the mound that the CWS has seen since it moved to TD Ameritrade Park.

The eight teams’ staffs combined for a 2.42 ERA, the lowest in the history of the CWS. They collectively struck out 7.83 batters per nine innings, the event’s best K-rate since 2009. Hitters produced a .232 batting average and lineups hit into 33 double plays (most since 2008). There were just 10 home runs.

Oklahoma State’s Thomas Hatch hurled a complete game shutout to open the CWS. Coastal Carolina’s Andrew Beckwith surrendered just two earned runs over his 232⁄3 innings.

Arizona’s Bobby Dalbec struck out 26 batters in 202⁄3 innings — while his teammate, JC Cloney, pitched 16 scoreless frames.

Pitching, pitching, pitching.

It’s what the downtown ballpark dictates, really — with its spacious outfield capturing fly balls and the wind regularly blowing in to limit sluggers’ power even further.

But the CWS also did feature five teams ranked in the top 35 nationally in team ERA, including the Chanticleers and Wildcats (who played for the title). The flat-seamed baseball does increase the possibility of a long ball, but it doesn’t seem to be enough to prevent pitchers from attacking the upper edge of the strike zone while their outfielders pick their spots to cheat a few steps in to steal a couple of singles per game.

And when you factor in the spaced-out schedule, which gives those gifted arms a few extra days to recover and recharge, it figures that hitters might struggle to string hits together.

Is it an appropriate set of circumstances to determine a championship? That debate will likely never end.

For now, we’ll just cherish the moments that 2016 supplied. The best and worst from this year’s CWS:

» Best dramatic moment: Tying run on third base. Winning run on second. Two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Full count. Crowd on its feet. The victor gets the dog pile and trophy. The loser gets nothing. … Without question, Thursday’s conclusion to Game 3 of the CWS finals was the zenith of this year’s event. Coastal Carolina pitcher Alex Cunningham delivered, striking out backup catcher Ryan Haug to clinch the Chanticleers’ first national title — in any sport.

» Best dramatic moment II: There weren’t many late-innings, edge-of-your-seat situations this year. But an iconic one came on the second day of the CWS. Texas Tech took a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning, seemingly set to advance in the winners bracket. TCU had other ideas, though. Well, mostly just Luken Baker. The freshman phenom crushed a three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning to erase the one-run deficit and put the Horned Frogs ahead 5-3.

» Best homecoming: Ryan Merrill, a former Millard West standout and Iowa Western product, returned to his hometown with TCU. He started all four games at shortstop for the Horned Frogs, picking up three hits in 10 at-bats, scoring once and driving in three runs. He also walked three times. Unfortunately for Merrill and his TCU teammates, the Horned Frogs fell one win short of the CWS finals, losing back-to-back games to Coastal Carolina.

» Best pitching gem: There were lots. But the winner? Arizona’s JC Cloney, who baffled the nation’s best slugging team for nine innings Monday. Cloney was working off just four days rest — yet he came through with 122 masterful pitches in the Wildcats’ 3-0 win over the Chanticleers. It was the first complete-game shutout since the CWS moved to a championship series.

» Best catch: Oklahoma State center fielder Ryan Sluder took extra bases (likely a triple) away from Arizona leadoff man Cody Ramer in the first inning of the teams’ first matchup. Sluder got a great jump and tracked the ball well before diving into the right-center field gap to make the spectacular grab. OSU won that game 1-0, forcing the Wildcats to play an extra elimination game before they battled again Friday and Saturday.

» Worst blunder: Had to be Miami’s Carl Chester, whose hustle forced an errant throw to first on a grounder to short during the Hurricanes’ elimination-game loss to UC Santa Barbara. The baseball bounced far enough away for Chester to sprint for second. He didn’t make it, though. On the way there, the sophomore somehow lost his shoe, tripped over himself in the process and somersaulted forward on the infield dirt. He quickly rose to his feet and ran toward second. But he was tagged out as he slid for the bag.

» Worst call: The umpiring was phenomenal through 17 CWS games. You could probably count the controversial calls on one hand — and a couple ended up getting reversed with a replay review. Strike zones seemed consistent. Games even seemed to have a better overall tempo. … But Arizona’s Ramer was called out as he slid into home during Thursday’s finale. Replays sure seemed to show that the tag missed his forearm and hit him on the chest — after his hand had touched the plate. That would have put the Wildcats up 1-0 in the third inning.

» Best play by a first-round draft pick: Probably Zack Collins’ solo home run in the first inning of the Miami-UCSB game. He pulled a fastball over the right-field wall. Great swing, great result. It’s too bad CWS fans didn’t see more of Collins, who went 10th overall to the Chicago White Sox. The talented Miami catcher had three hits in five at-bats in Omaha, walking three times.

» Worst showing by a first-round draft pick: The No. 6 overall pick, Florida’s A.J. Puk, threw just four pitches in the CWS. He’s a potential-filled left-hander who reportedly signed with Oakland for just more than $4 million this week. But he didn’t make much of an impact for the Gators in Omaha. Puk entered with two runners on base and two outs in the eighth inning, with Florida down 2-1 to CCU. He threw a ball, saw the second offering fouled off and threw another ball. Then he hit the batter. And that was it for Puk.

» Worst idea: A salad stand inside TD Ameritrade Park. Come on. There’s no lettuce in baseball. Right? You come to the ballpark to treat yourself to hot dogs and nachos and ice cream and beer. It’s a nice gesture to provide a healthier option for those concerned about their calorie count — but an unnecessary one. Forget about salad. How about more bacon?

» Best storyline: UC Santa Barbara making its first trip to Omaha was pretty special — particularly the way the Gauchos clinched their berth, with a walk-off grand slam from a reserve catcher to stun No. 2 overall seed Louisville. But what Coastal Carolina accomplished is something those in college baseball circles will talk about for a while. Winning a championship in your first CWS appearance? With a longtime coach who basically built the program from scratch and spent the last decade knocking at the door? Pretty special.

» Best dugout mascot: Rafiki. Hands down. It has to go to the champ. The monkey — purchased at a truck stop somewhere in Georgia at the end of a weekend road trip — supplied the positive vibes necessary for Coastal Carolina to make its remarkable run to the title. Rafiki photobombed midgame interviews. He had his own T-shirt. He went everywhere with the team. You might think it’s just a silly stuffed animal. But baseball players are a superstitious bunch. If something’s working, you don’t mess with it. Rafiki worked.

» Best quote I: “Me and Mike (Morrison) have been joking all week that we’ve been winning (video game) national championships for NCAA football for years. So it’s funny to be competing for one. … And we’re very excited for that opportunity. You can’t write it better than it is right now.” — Coastal Carolina senior outfielder Connor Owings

» Best quote II: “This has been the most incredible experience for my players, my families, all of us involved at Coastal Carolina. Just the sincere love and enthusiasm and passion for the game that they have in this area and here in Omaha is incredible. Whether I ever get back here or not again, I just want to tell them thank you. It’s such a breath of fresh air to come to the ballpark and hear people cheer and they don’t say mean things to you. They actually enjoy watching the game and they pull for you, pull for both teams. It’s the most incredible experience of my life.” — Coastal Carolina coach Gary Gilmore

omaha.com/sports/cws/nyatawa-college-world-series-was-fun-by-any-stretch/article_116aa9f3-434d-5424-891c-b19acd33a465.html

Go Hoosiers!

 

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Coastal Carolina CWS title not as surprising as it seems

Daniel Uthman
@TheFootballFour USA TODAY Sports

Coastal Carolina, a school from the Big South Conference (for one last day) that had never played in the College World Series before this year, seemed like a Cinderella story.

In the context of college football, it would be. But not in other college sports.

The Chanticleers might not have a Power Five conference pedigree, but schools with strong investments and good coaches in sports other than football have shown they can be national powers.

Think Rice in baseball. Villanova in men’s basketball. Wichita State in either sport.

Coastal Carolina has been ranked in every USA TODAY Sports Top 25 Baseball Coaches Poll since April 25, and it entered the NCAA tournament No. 16.

Arizona, the team it beat 4-3 Thursday in the deciding Game 3 of the CWS championship series, didn’t receive a vote in the preseason and entered the postseason unranked.

Coastal Carolina’s coach, Gary Gilmore has won 1,100 games. The Chanticleers have 15 NCAA tournament berths to their credit and made the NCAA super regionals in 2008, 2010 and this year.

Yes, they had to win six elimination games.

They also led college baseball in home runs this season and won a nation’sbest 55 games.

“This program has been a lot better than people give it credit for,” Gilmore told news reporters in Omaha. “They thought we played in a small conference and couldn’t get this done. This bunch wanted to prove everybody wrong.”

Unlike the multitude of high seeds and site hosts from the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference that did not live up to the hype this postseason, Coastal Carolina created it.

But let’s refrain from using one C-word — Cinderella — when it comes to talking about the Chanticleers.

Let’s stick with another — champions.

http://ee.usatoday.com/Subscribers/PrintArticle.aspx?doc=USA%2F2016%2F07%2F01&entity=ar02000

Go Hoosiers!

 

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Interesting op/ed on the CWS:

TD Ameritrade Park Accents College Hitters' Flaws
by John Manuel

OMAHA—Oklahoma State had just become the first team in College World Series history to win consecutive games by a 1-0 score. But the Cowboys also had scored just two runs in two games, and coach Josh Holliday, while ecstatic to be 2-0, sounded like a man who knew it wouldn’t last.

“No question the at-bats need to improve,” Holliday said. “I think we got away from our approach a little bit. Our quality at-bats need to improve, and execution, getting our bunts down, is part of our identity. It’s how we create offense in certain spots in our lineup . . . We need to work and get fundamentally sound.”

Two losses to Arizona later—which included just 11 hits, four runs and 17 strikeouts—Oklahoma State was headed home from Omaha. Bunting is part of the Cowboys’ approach; fellow Big 12 Conference member Texas Christian plays an opposite style. The Horned Frogs, with freshman Luken Baker hitting two of its three homers, also got off to a 2-0 start, with no bunts (and seven all year).

That’s with associate head coach Bill Mosiello, whose coaching career began under Wally Kincaid at Cerritos (Calif.) JC, running the offense.

“Our philosophy is to develop hitters who will play offense better,” Mosiello said. “We’ve evolved 100 percent away from that approach that we had at Cerritos, where Blair Field had kind of shaped his whole system, out of pure simplicity, where coach Kincaid wanted to win the tournament at Blair.”

Shaping The Sport

Long Beach’s Blair Field helped shape California amateur baseball as the home venue for high school and junior-college tournaments, producing the small-ball West Coast style of offensive play. So is spacious TD Ameritrade Park—in conjunction with the muted metal bats that debuted the same year as TDAP (2011)—shaping college baseball the same way Blair Field did in California?

The conclusion seemed to be no from the college coaches I spoke to, all of whom have coached teams in the CWS, in TDAP. What the park has done, with its wind usually blowing in, vast foul territory and outfield dimensions better suited for the old, potent bats, is put a premium on fundamental play.

“We try to find players who can help us win in any park: the athletic guy, plays multiple positions, multiple sports,” said Kevin MacMullen, the associate head coach for 2015 CWS champion Virginia. “And then we try to pitch and play defense. That plays anywhere. The arms there are really good most of the time. To get there and to win there, you have to both pitch and play defense.”

Coaches agreed that with the old bats and at Rosenblatt Stadium, teams could bash their way past mistakes on defense, or walks by their pitchers. A comeback was one good swing away. The consensus appears to be that there wasn’t a need for a great swing, or even a good offensive approach.

The bats often did the work. Now, the lack of hitting fundamentals across amateur baseball is exposed, writ large year after year at TD Ameritrade. It’s the warriors, not the weapons.

“The hardest thing to find is hitters,” Florida assistant coach Brad Weitzel said. “Hitting is a skill. Developing a skill means repetition. Kids are getting better information about hitting today, but for many of them, they do not do the reps.

“I have a sign in the cage: ‘The hitters that hit the most, hit the most.’ ”

Coaches generally panned the approaches of today’s amateur hitters, from lack of bat control to a lack of concern about striking out. Even for teams that use the bunt, such as UC Irvine, the fundamentals of a good approach are crucial to succeeding in Omaha now.

“It’s way easier to teach them to bunt than it is to teach them to hit,” Anteaters recruiting coordinator Ben Orloff said. “But it’s hard to hit in Omaha; that pitching’s pretty good. When we played Vanderbilt out there (in 2014), we went from Tyler Beede to Walker Buehler, first-rounder to first-rounder.

“So especially in that yard . . . the fundamentals are really, really magnified.”

TDAP isn’t going anywhere, and neither are the college bat standards. The flat-seam balls have helped a little bit. But after decades with an offensive identity, college baseball has gone to the other extreme. It’s still a great sport, but at its pinnacle, college baseball does not put its best foot forward.

Read more at http://www.baseballamerica.com/coll...ts-college-hitters-flaws/#IiMxVzt8esg2fbIl.99

Go Hoosiers!