June 1 at Illinois Field in Champaign, IL
ESPNU
Wright State came into the day as a pretty heavy underdog. Host Illinois is the No. 6 national seed and needed to win just once to advance to its first-ever Super Regional. Meanwhile, the third-seeded Raiders needed to win twice on Monday. So anytime this type of situation presents itself in sports, we'll hear how the underdog team is running out of time & it's almost midnight & various thoughts on glass slippers.
Play-by-play man Jim Barbar, though, was on his own level. I consider him the Cinderella of Talking About Cinderella Baseball Teams.
Barbar talked about Cinderella three times in the pre-game, then as the broadcast headed toward a commercial he said: "we're about to find out if the shoe fits for Wright State", so that's four pre-game mentions.
He continued throughout the game:
"Cinderella hanging tough" (5)
"C (Cinderella) trying to make that glass slipper fit tonight" (6)
"The C Raiders up 2-0" (7)
"C
is right there for the taking" (8) - that's not the way you say that,
Jim. that makes it sound like C is right there in front of you,
ready to be kidnapped.
"Well, if there was any doubt that
C came to the ball just to sit around and do nothing...that
thought has been extinguished today because Wright State has come and
come to win" (9)
"The clock is about to strike midnight on C" (10)
* Fantastic job out of the bullpen by Illini left-hander Tyler Jay, who relieved in the sixth and fired four scoreless innings. Jay, expected to be a high first-round draft pick later this month, continued his remarkable junior season as he picked up his 14th save and lowered his ERA to 0.60 in 60 1/3 innings. Jay fanned five Monday and has 70 strike outs and just seven walks.
"It's something that we've been building up my arm for throughout the season," Jay said to ESPN about the extended outing. "I really look forward to it."
Something tells me not many people look forward to facing Illini pitching. In the three regional wins against Ohio, Notre Dame and the Raiders, Illinois allowed five earned runs in 27 innings pitched (1.66 ERA) and pitched a pair of complete games.
* Lost in all the Barbar/Cinderella nonsense was a solid night of Baseball Phrases from Jerry Kindall:
"Slugfest"
"He's all business"
"A plethora, a cascade of runs"
"The rest is history"
"The obligatory bath"
"The super playoffs....what do you call it? The Super Regionals!"
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