Game 148 - Texas A&M vs. TCU

June 8 at Luptin Stadium in Fort Worth, TX
ESPN

What a way to close out the Super Regionals.

The two in-state rivals played for six hours, four minutes and finally, in the bottom of the 16th inning, TCU walked off on a throwing error and won 5-4, becoming the 8th and final team to advance to the College World Series.

The Horned Frogs, who return to the World Series for the second consecutive season, had a number of chances to win, but left two runners on in the 10th, 12th, 13th and 14th. In the 14th, Ryan Hendrix, who didn't allow an earned run in 4 2/3 innings of relief for the Aggies, was hit in the forearm by a scorching line drive off the bat of Evan Skoug. The ball ricocheted right to first baseman G.R. Hinsley, who completed the 1-3-2 out at the plate.

It was that kind of night.

  

12th inning rally cap(s) in the TCU dugout


Hendrix and the visitors from College Station ran out of luck in the 16th. Garrett Crain and Connor Wanhanen drew walks and later, Skoug hit a ground ball to third base and Ronnie Gideon's throw home was in the dirt, scoring Crain with the winning run.

* There were plenty of outstanding pitching performances, though none stood out more than Mitchell Traver. The TCU right-hander came on in relief in the 13th and didn't allow a base-runner until issuing two walks (one intentional) in the top of the 16th. Traver struck out six in four hitless innings to pick up the win.

TCU starter Alex Young struck out a career-high 10 in 6 2/3 innings, helping the host Horned Frogs build a 4-1 lead going into the eighth, but A&M rallied. To open that eighth, Nick Banks ripped a solo home run to make it a two-run game, and down to their final three outs in the ninth the Aggies didn't hit a ball out of the infield, but still scored twice to pull even at 4-4.

Mark Ecker kept it a 4-4 game with four shut out innings out of the A&M bullpen. The Aggies best chance to score in extra innings came in the 11th when a Brian Howard wild pitch chased runners to second and third. Howard struck out Hunter Melton to end A&M's final threat of the season.

* TCU scored its first four runs on RBI hits by Derek Odell and Keaton Jones in the fifth and a two-run home run from Wanhanen in the sixth.

* A&M batters struck out 25 times, which is an unbelievable number even for a 16-inning game.

16 full innings of nonsense

Now that we have the actual details of this thriller out of the way, let's get to all the silliness from the broadcast booth.

* What Dave Neal and Kyle Peterson call fellow broadcaster Chris Burke: "Burkey" (said 14 times)
* What Neal and Burke call Peterson: "K-P" (15)
* Burke said "dude points" three times, which is 11 times too many.
* Peterson said this about TCU center fielder Cody Jones: "this kid's just a baseball player".

And here's the Baseball Phrase top 8:

8. "Wipe-out pitch" (KP)
7. "So often the bat will out-race the body" (CB)
6. "A thick lineup" (KP)
5. "He just rolls out of bed and hits" (KP)
4. "It's a bulldog on the mound" (KP)
3. "Put the program on the map" (DN)
2. "Aggieland" (DN)
1. "Good old country fast ball" (KP)

Game 143 - Cal State Fullerton vs. Louisville

June 6 at Jim Patterson Stadium in Lexington, KY
ESPNU

We spend a lot of time at this site documenting the nonsense said by baseball broadcasters, and Saturday's opener of the Louisville Super Regional was no different.

One day I'll open up my own Silly Baseball Hall of Fame (ridiculous phrases, the sound of Michael Kay's voice saying "Alex ROGG-REE-GIS" heard on loud speakers at all times, absurd nicknames, framed photographs of Sikes Orvis, etc..) and ESPN's Randy Flores will have his own wing. It'll be right up at the front door of the building and when visitors walk through that door and into his wing, they'll be sprayed with applesauce. 

The day didn't start well for Flores. Here's the tail end of a cough before his first pre-game comment:

Then he started speaking.

Flores would start a number of thoughts with a "come on!", as if play-by-play man Roxy Bernstein and the viewers had provided an opposing viewpoint, which they hadn't. I counted six come ons by Flores, including:

#1 right after the cough
#3 before talking about how "hot" were the St. Louis Cardinals
#4 before talking about how "important" was the win for Cal State Fullerton against Arizona State in last weekend's regionals
#6 talking about the University of Louisville's athletic facilities

If you've ever visited this site, you know that Flores wasn't nearly finished making a name for himself. Here's his greatest hits from Saturday's game:

"He's not even a pitcher, he's a surgeon" (said twice)
"And maybe we'll see if his legs start doing more talking"
"Baseball royalty"
"Changing the eye level" (said twice)
"He jolted it" (said twice)
"Solo jack"
"Solo bombs" (said twice)
"That bruise tomorrow could be the mark of a victory"
"Small ball's two outs away from a victory"

One more time:

(when describing a diving catch by the right fielder) "look at that little crocodile squirrel right here"

Titans win

Plenty of complete nonsense from the broadcast booth, but a huge game one victory for Cal State Fullerton. It came on a Timmy Richards' bases loaded, hit by pitch in the 10th inning and the Titans won 3-2.

Fullerton, which shook off a pair of tying solo home runs from the host Cardinals (Brendan McKay in the sixth and Mike White in the ninth), will try and advance to the College World Series with a win in game two on Sunday.

Game 142 - VCU vs. Miami (Fla.)

June 5 at Mark Light Field in Coral Gables, FL
ESPNU

VCU was appearing in its first Super Regional, but the host Hurricanes used a three-run second inning and had just enough to hold off the Rams 3-2 in game one of the best-of-3 series.

Miami has made 23 College World Series appearances in its history, which is second all-time (Texas has 35), yet hasn't been to Omaha since 2008. That probably feels like 1908 to the folks in Coral Gables, but the Hurricanes are one step closer and can wrap up the program's 24th berth Saturday at noon.

In that second, No. 9 hitter Jacob Heyward delivered the big hit, ripping a two-out, two-run single to put Miami up 2-0. Ricky Eusebio followed with a single and it was a 3-0 game.

There was a 90-minute weather delay after that, then VCU got within 3-2 with a run in the sixth. Michael Mediavilla and Bryan Garcia combined for three perfect innings to close out the game one victory.

Anish Shroff/Danny Kanell

The broadcast team had a fine day splashing around in the Baseball Phrases kiddie pool. Let's take a look at their top 7:

7. "A fixture on the postseason front" (Shroff)
6. "A scrappy bunch" (Kanell)
5. "Tweener" (Kanell)
4. "Nibble their way back into this game" (Kanell)

And our VCU Top 3

3. "Darkhorse" (Shroff)
2. "A true Cinderella" (Shroff)
1. "David against Goliath" (Shroff)

Webb Bobo All Stars

We'd like welcome VCU southpaw JoJo Howie to the team. Howie went 6 1/3 innings and allowed the three runs in that second, but none were earned as a normally-strong Rams' defense made three errors Friday.

Nicknames that aren't really nicknames

Mark Light Field - "The Light"

Why it isn't a nickname: Because you just took one of the words in the name of the park and added a "the" to it. Why not just call it The Mark or The Field?

What about just one of the words?

"Welcome to Mark"
"Welcome to Light"
"Welcome to Field"