June 23, 2011

CWS Scores & Schedule

College World Series Notes

By Jimmy Jones

Special to CollegeBaseballInsider.com

(photos by Jimmy Jones)

v  Six pitchers entered the CWS ranked in the Top 10 in the nation in ERA. They include Michael Roth of South Carolina (2nd at 1.02), Taylor Jungmann (right) of Texas (4th at 1.38), Virginia's Danny Hultzen (6th  at 1.49),Will Roberts of Virginia (1.58), John Stillson, Texas A&M (1.68), and Sam Stafford, Texas (1.72).

v  North Carolina's 51 wins are the fourth best in school history.

v  Tar Heel catcher Jacob Stallings is 7 for 16 (.438) with four RBI in six career CWS games.

v  Florida junior Alex Panteliodis (6-2, 3.95) will make his 12th start of the year, 2nd of the season against Vanderbilt on Friday. The encounter will mark the eighth time that the Gators will face a league opponent in the CWS. They are 2-5 (.286) in those outings.

v  18 of the last 21 teams NCAA Champions have started 2-0 in bracket play.

v  John Hicks’ home run in the fourth inning against South Carolina gave him 31 career hits in the NCAA tournament, passing teammate Steven Proscia for most among active Cavaliers.

v  Virginia's 56 wins is the most in school history and that total leads the nation.

v  Vanderbilt had 12 players drafted in the 2011 MLB draft shattering the school record and breaking the SEC record of 11 previously held by Auburn (2010), Ole Miss (2009), and Georgia (2009).

v  The seven triples hit so far in the 2011 CWS are the most since 2008 with eight.

v  The SEC is the first conference in history to have three of the final four teams.

v  Only one top seeded team, since the seeding format began in 1999, has won the College World Series, University of Miami. This year's #1 seed is University of Virginia.

v  The Gamecocks have only trailed in one game during 2011 post season play. They trailed University of Connecticut 2-0 before coming back for an 8-2 win.

v  Six of the last seven CWS winners were not seeded in the Top 8.

v  The last ACC team to win a CWS was Wake Forest in 1955.

v  This is Virginia's second CWS appearance. In 2009 they tied for fifth place.

v  The CWS format is a double-elimination system, with two divisions of four teams each. The winner of each of these sectionals then meets in the championship series, which has been a best-of-three format since 2003. The winner of this series is the NCAA baseball champion.

v  As of 2011, the University of Southern California has won 12 College World Series titles, the most in NCAA history. From 1970 to 1974, USC won five straight national championships, and six of seven from 1968 to 1974.

v  The first-ever College World Series was played at Hyames Field in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1947 and was simply a best-of-three series between California and Yale. Cal swept the series in two games to become the first CWS champion.

v  Two permanent changes occurred in 1950, when the CWS field expanded to eight teams and the location was switched to Omaha. Total attendance at Omaha Municipal Stadium, since renamed Rosenblatt Stadium, was just 17,805, but a tradition was born. Almost sixty years later, the College World Series is still played in Omaha and no other city is more closely identified with hosting a championship event.