Omaha, Neb.
With national seeds falling the way they have been at the College World Series, why not, indeed?
The Gauchos knocked No. 3 Miami out of the CWS with a 5-3 victory on Monday, getting strong pitching from Noah Davis and Kyle Nelson and the tiebreaking hit from a pinch hitter, Ryan Cumberland, who had just 21 previous at-bats and was sick to his stomach all day.
So, yes, a Gauchos team making its first appearance in Omaha did revel in its win a bit more than usual for a team that had survived an elimination game.
“It’s hard to act like you’ve done it before when you’ve never done it before,” coach Andrew Checketts said. “First program World Series win, and it sure looked like it.”
National seeds Florida, Miami and Texas Tech have gone a combined 0-4 so far in Omaha.
The Hurricanes (50-14) went 0-2 for only the second time in their 25 CWS appearances. Their other two-and-out was in 1979.
“We didn’t play as well as we could play,” Miami coach Jim Morris said. “If we played as well as we could play and lost I would understand more. We didn’t swing the bat the way I know we can swing it. We didn’t get the big hits we’ve been getting all year.”
Santa Barbara (43-19-1) struck for four runs after a 62-minute rain delay in the sixth inning. Cumberland, who laid down in the clubhouse during the delay, made it 3-1 with his one-out, bases-loaded smash down the first-base line.
“That’s something special,” Cumberland said. “I obviously don’t get an opportunity without the guys getting on in front of me. Right before I went up to hit, Checketts said, ‘See something up,’ and I got something up in the zone that I could hit well and happened to find a hole.”
The Gauchos added two more big runs before the inning was over on back-to-back squeeze plays.
Miami opened the scoring on Zack Collins’ 16th homer of the season in the first inning off Davis (7-4), and the Gauchos’ JJ Muno singled in the tying run in the bottom half off Danny Garcia (9-5).
The offenses went quiet until after the rain in the sixth inning.
Garcia went back to the mound and got a flyout before Muno doubled into the right-field corner. Frankie Bartow relieved and issued a walk, and Cumberland, pinch hitting for Kyle Plantier, followed with the biggest hit of his career.
Billy Fredrick and Ryan Clark, the Nos. 8 and 9 batters, laid down the squeeze bunts.
Miami tried to come back against Nelson, stringing together four straight hits in the eighth, with Randy Batista and Collins singling in runs. Davis got out of it when he froze Ruiz with a slider to strand runners on first and third.
Jacob Heyward’s hard liner off third baseman Ryan Clark’s glove gave Miami hope with one out in the ninth, but Christopher Barr’s comebacker to Nelson started a game-ending double play.
Collins said Miami’s season shouldn’t be defined by what happened at the CWS.
“We made it to Omaha, so we’re one of the top eight teams in college baseball. We had a great season,” he said. “Winning 50 games in a season is a huge goal for us. We played hard and just didn’t get it done.”
———
Maybe not since Southern California ruled college baseball in the 1970s or LSU in the 1990s has a team come to the College World Series as a heavier favorite than Florida this year.
Seven Gators are among the top 108 draft picks, Kevin O’Sullivan has assembled the best pitching staff in the country and there’s been a feeling since last year that the program is due to win its first national championship and put the list of CWS disappointments behind it.
Suddenly, after a 2-1 loss to Coastal Carolina on Sunday, the Gators are in scramble mode in Omaha again. They need to win against Texas Tech on Tuesday night and then three more times to reach next week’s championship finals. One loss sends them home.
“Compete our tail off and hope for the best,” Jeremy Vasquez said, describing Florida’s strategy.
Florida (52-14) started the season at the top of the national polls and stayed there almost every week. The NCAA Tournament selection committee made the Gators the No. 1 national seed, and they appeared to have what it takes to become the first since Miami in 1999 to win the title.
They still might. Oregon State in 2006 and South Carolina in 2010 bounced back from opening losses to win championships.
History hasn’t been kind to Florida in Omaha, though. The Gators are 14-20 in 10 CWS appearances. They were swept in the two finals they made, by Texas in 2005 and South Carolina in 2011.
In 2012, with national player of the year Mike Zunino among nine draft picks, the Gators went two and out with a loss to first-time CWS participant Kent State eliminating them.
Last year, they won three games here by a combined 35-10 but lost a pair of one-run games to eventual national champion Virginia, denying them a trip to the finals.
This year the Gators lost their Southeastern Conference tournament opener and reached the finals. They also lost their first game in super regionals to Florida State but won the next two 5-0 and 7-0 to make the CWS.
Florida this time will try to bounce back against Texas Tech with sophomore star Alex Faedo (13-2) pitching.
“We’ve got Alex on the mound, and we’ll do whatever we need to do Tuesday and hopefully win and move on,” O’Sullivan said. “Just take it one game at a time. That’s all we can do at this point.”
UPSETS MAKE IT FUN
Division I Baseball Committee chairman Joel Erdmann said he wasn’t overly surprised by the eight teams that reached Omaha.
Ten teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference and seven from the Southeastern Conference were in the original 64-team NCAA Tournament field, and only one team from each league made it to the CWS.
“I think that’s something that makes this game more magical every year, that what might be considered power and historical programs that have achieved great things are sometimes overcome by emerging programs that are starting to make their own thumbprint and their own footprint,” Erdmann said.
“Looking at the bracket might raise some eyebrows in how it panned out, but I think another way to look at it is it’s great for the game.”
FOUL BALLS NET $25K
Allstate Insurance’s annual “Good Hands in the Stands” program resulted in a $25,000 donation to Boys Town to support youth sports programs. The famed home for boys and girls is located in Omaha.
Former major leaguer Kevin Millar was in the stands to present a trophy to each fan catching a foul ball during the opening weekend of the CWS. Each caught foul ball was good for a $500 donation to Boys Town.