If I heard the phrase "upset alert" in a college sports discussion, I’d assume I was going to hear something about March Madness.
But not today. On this fine Sunday afternoon, we’re turning our focus to the baseball diamond.
Vanderbilt and Texas were ranked the No. 1 and No. 2 teams heading into the regional round of the college baseball playoffs. To advance to the Super Regional (the round before the College World Series), they would need to avoid doing these two things in their respective regions:
Since both teams got to host every game while facing the two easiest fields of any regional matchup, you’d think it would be a given that they’d make it to the Super Regionals round.
But by the end of Sunday, both teams could be trading their bats and gloves for golf clubs and tee times.
Let’s look at Vanderbilt’s path to getting here. On Friday, they first played Wright State, a school I didn’t know had a baseball team until writing this. The Raiders gave the Commodores all they could handle, eventually losing to the top seed 4-3. Not a great start, but a win is a win.
However, they would be on the wrong side of a one-run game on Saturday, dropping a 3-2 game to the Louisville Cardinals, not the most blue-blood college baseball program in the country.
So to advance, Vanderbilt will have to beat Wright State at 3:00 p.m., and Louisville tonight. Beating two teams that already have your number in the span of about seven hours?
Yikes.
Texas doesn’t have it any easier. The Longhorns won their first game against Houston Christian 7-1 (they should have), but then lost to UTSA last night 9-7 to help the Roadrunners get their first Regional Championship Game ever.
That put them in the same spot Vanderbilt is in: needing to win two games on the same day, one of which will have to be against a team that has already beaten them (UTSA). The Longhorns will have to beat Kansas State (3:00 p.m. first pitch) first, and then handle the Roadrunners.
Both teams are certainly capable of advancing. They are the two best seeded teams in the playoffs. But they’ve got some serious work to do to stay alive.
If they fail, it’s going to be a looooooong offseason.
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