2009 College World Series Preview

For many baseball purists, the most exciting games don’t take place in October as the Major Leagues decide their champion. Instead, they prefer the warm June air at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, the long time home of the College World Series. Every year is a celebration of the game as fans from all over the country congregate in America’s heartland regardless of whether their team makes it or not. You will find fans of every college from Boston to Seattle there just to enjoy the games and celebrate another great year gone by.

This year’s final eight should prove to be another thriller on college baseball’s biggest stage and each team brings something different to the table. Will we see a repeat of 2008’s Cinderella Championship run by Fresno State? First time participants Southern Mississippi and Virginia certainly hope so. Their presence marks only the 2nd time since 2001 that two first time contenders have made it all the way to Omaha in the same season.

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However, both teams are long shots. The likely theme to this year’s World Series will be the clash of some of the sport’s biggest heavyweights. Half of this year’s final 8 teams (Texas, Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton and LSU) have won National Championships in their school’s history and will be gunning for more. The other two participants include the 2006 and 2007 runners up, North Carolina and SEC power Arkansas. Another sign pointing towards the likely dominance of the heavyweights: The top 5 seeded teams in the tournament all made it through to Omaha.

Here is how the format of the series works: The 8 teams have worked their way through a 64 team field to get here to Omaha. The teams are split into two 4 team brackets and each will play a double elimination mini-tournament to determine the final two participants. Once each bracket has produced a winner then the final pairing will play a best of three series to determine the 2009 College World Series winner. Here is how each bracket breaks down:

2009 CWS - BRACKET ONE

Cal State Fullerton (16th College World Series Appearance)

NCAA Tournament Facts: 2nd Overall Seed, Winners of the Fullerton Super Regional

Teams Defeated: Gonzaga, Utah (twice), Louisville (twice)

Cal State Fullerton is a 4 time CWS champion (1979, 1984, 1995, 2004) and boasts a 47-14 record on the season. During their 5 games in the qualifying stages, the Titans have lived up to their name, boasting a 5-0 record and have outscored their opponents 64-11! Only Gonzaga came within 9 runs! They are a major threat to win the College World Series and will open up play against Arkansas.

Louisiana State Tigers (15th College World Series Appearance)

NCAA Tournament Facts: 3 rd Overall Seed, Winners of the Baton Rouge Super Regional

Teams Defeated: Southern, Baylor, Minnesota, Rice (twice)

Louisiana State is a 5 time CWS champion (1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000) and currently has a 51-16 record on the season. The Tigers are also the SEC tournament champions and are one of only two teams ( North Carolina is the other) to return from the 2008 College World Series. During their 5 games in the qualifying stages, the Tigers are unbeaten and have outscored their opponents 40-19. After surviving some close wins over Baylor and Rice, the Tigers appear battle-tested and will be a top contender in this year’s competition. They open up CWS play against Virginia.

Arkansas Razorbacks (6th College World Series Appearance)

NCAA Tournament Facts: Winners of the Tallahassee Super Regional

Teams Defeated: Washington State, Oklahoma (twice), Florida State (twice)

Arkansas has never won the College World Series, though they were the 1979 runner up. The Razorbacks are the first team listed that made their way to Omaha via upset. In this case, they upset Region favorite and #7 National Seed Oklahoma twice and then defeated Super Regional host Florida State twice! Their record for the season is 39-22 and they are 5-0 in College World Series play. The Razorbacks dominated their way to Omaha, outscoring their opponents 54-19, including two wins over Oklahoma by a combined score of 28-6. The Razorbacks have played a tough schedule all year in the always-good SEC and should definitely not be overlooked. They open up against Cal State Fullerton.

Virginia Cavaliers (1st College World Series Appearance)

NCAA Tournament Facts: Winners of the Oxford Super Regional

Teams Defeated: San Diego State, UC Irvine (twice), Ole Miss (twice)

Virginia shocked their way to the College World Series, upsetting Region favorite and #6 National Seed UC Irvine twice before defeating Super Regional host Ole Miss in a nail-biting 3 game set. The Cavaliers are 48-13-1 on the year, 5-1 in the NCAA Tournament and are the ACC Tournament Champions. Unlike the other teams in their bracket, UVA is not an explosive offensive ballclub, scoring only 23 runs in their 6 tournament games. However, their pitching has been excellent, allowing only 10 runs! The Cavaliers also managed to light up the #1 pick in the MLB draft, San Diego starter Stephen Strasburg, who was the best pitcher in college baseball this year. Don’t expect Virginia to be happy to just be in Omaha but they are definitely the underdog in their bracket as they open up against LSU.

2009 CWS - BRACKET ONE BREAKDOWN

Where to start? From the outside looking in, this bracket looks like it will come down to LSU and Cal State Fullerton. However, Arkansas has been dominant at the plate in the tournament and could easily knock either team off. I think the weakest link in the bracket is clearly Virginia, whose lack of offense in a bracket of mashers makes them most likely to be the first team going home. I know the old adage is that pitching wins championships but when every other team in the bracket has nearly double (or in Cal State’s case, triple) the runs scored in one less game, you’re in trouble.

LSU has the easier draw of the two favorites, opening with Virginia and that makes them my favorite. While this is double elimination, I cannot see Arkansas beating both LSU and Cal State Fullerton, so I think it comes down to LSU and CSF. In the end, I will pick the LSU Tigers to advance to the finals of the College World Series.

MY PICK: Louisiana State

2009 CWS - BRACKET TWO

Texas Longhorns (33rd College World Series Appearance)

NCAA Tournament Facts: 1st Overall Seed, Winners of the Austin Super Regional

Teams Defeated: Boston College , Army (twice), TCU (twice)

Texas is a 6 time College World Series Champion (1949, 1950, 1975, 1983, 2002, 2005) and boasts a 46-14-1 record for the season. They are the Big 12 Tournament Champions and have a 5-1 mark in this year’s tournament. The Longhorns have certainly had the most publicity of any NCAA baseball team up to this point, thanks to their NCAA record 25 inning victory over Boston College. During that game, closer Austin Wood pitched an unfathomable 13 innings, 12 1/3 of which came before his first hit allowed! Despite their status as the #1 overall seed, the Longhorns struggled through qualifying, only outscoring their opponents 37-22. Their Super Regional match with TCU was also very close, requiring the full 3 games to earn their victory. The Longhorns are a very good team but they’ve definitely had to fight their way to Omaha. Can they keep it up when they open up play against upstart Southern Mississippi?

North Carolina Tar Heels (8th College World Series Appearance)

NCAA Tournament Facts: 4th Overall Seed, Winners of the Chapel Hill Super Regional

Teams Defeated: Dartmouth , Coastal Carolina, Kansas, East Carolina (twice)

North Carolina has never won the College World Series but they were back to back runners up in 2006 and 2007. The Tar Heels are 47-16 on the season and 5-0 in the NCAA Tournament. During that run, North Carolina has dominated their opponents by a combined score of 60-12. That certainly isn’t a surprise, as the Tar Heels have a lot of talent and just had two players picked in the top 15 of the Major League Draft. Slugger Dustin Ackley (#2 to the Mariners) and pitcher Alex White (#15 to Cleveland) will be relied upon to help lead this team to their first NCAA Title after being eliminated in the last 3 years by the eventual champion. The Heels open up with a stiff test against Arizona State.

Arizona State Sun Devils (21st College World Series Appearance)

NCAA Tournament Facts: 5th Overall Seed, Winners of the Tempe Super Regional

Teams Defeated: Kent State , Oral Roberts (twice), Clemson (twice)

Arizona State is a 5 time College World Series Champion (1965, 1967, 1969, 1977, 1981) and boasts a 49-12 record for the season, including a 5-0 mark in the NCAA Tournament. They are also the Pac Ten Champions. The Sun Devils rolled to their 5-0 mark with a 44-16 run disparity and no one came closer than 3 runs to catching them. Arizona State has a lot of talent and is a very big threat to win their first CWS since 1981. They open up against North Carolina.

Southern Mississippi (1st College World Series Appearance)

NCAA Tournament Facts: Winners of the Gainesville Super Regional

Teams Defeated: Elon, Georgia Tech (twice), Florida (twice)

Southern Mississippi is probably the most surprising team in the College World Series. They’ve not given up less than 6 runs in a single game in the tournament! Their season record is 40-24 and they’re 5-1 in the tournament. However, these are their scores: 17-15 over Elon, 10-7, 12-8 and a 10-3 loss to Georgia Tech, and 9-7 and 7-6 over Florida. They’ve score 58 runs in 6 games but have allowed 53! With all of the great lineups in the College World Series, they’re going to have to really slug their way to a title if they’re going to win manager Corky Palmer an NCAA Title in his last season. The Eagles will open up against #1 Overall Seed Texas.

2009 CWS BRACKET TWO BREAKDOWN

This appears to be the tougher of the two brackets. Three of the top 5 ranked teams in the tournament make an appearance and Southern Mississippi is hitting the cover off of the ball. However, there is one team that stands out to me and that is North Carolina. The Tar Heels have a tough draw since they’re the only team in the College World Series to open up against a ranked opponent but they have a ton of experience with all of their near-misses in recent years. I like the Tar Heels to edge Texas out to win the bracket and face off against LSU in the College World Series Final.

MY PICK: North Carolina

In the final, you have two very good and talented teams which have run their way through the NCAA Tournament with relative ease. However, I like North Carolina’s experience and I like their top end talent and I think that the Tar Heels with finally end their jinx of losing to the eventual champion by claiming college baseball’s ultimate prize.

YOUR 2009 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES WINNER WILL BE: NORTH CAROLINA OVER LSU IN 3 GAMES

I will be updating the World Series happenings daily here at CollegeSports-fans.com. Please follow along every step of the way until we’ve crowned this year’s champion!

By Matt Baxendell
CollegeSports-fans.com Staff Writer

You can contact Matt Baxendell at Matt.Baxendell@gmail.com with comments, questions and insults at any time.