What was the last baseball team to beat South Carolina?
Yep.
Congratulations to the Gamecocks for their back-to-back College World Series titles. It’s tough enough to get their once, but the transient nature of college baseball makes it extremely difficult just to get back to Omaha in consecutive years. They become the first back-to-back champs since Oregon State in 2006-07 and the first SEC team to pull off the back-to-back titles since LSU in 1996-97.
The win gives the SEC three national championships in a row. Had Georgia come through in 2008, we’d be talking about a conference dynasty to rival what’s going on with football.
Watching this week’s championship series I couldn’t help but think back to the SEC Tournament. We knew Georgia had an uphill fight just to inch their overall record above the .500 level. We knew that the three best teams in the SEC stood in the way, and the polls told us that those were three of the top teams in the nation. What we didn’t know was that all three of those teams would be among the last four standing in Omaha.
Looking back, Georgia on consecutive days had to defeat both of the participants in the national championship series. Not bad for a .500 club. There was no question Georgia could compete with the best in the nation. They’re close. The gap between a team like Georgia struggling to get in the tournament and a national champion isn’t huge, but it’s definitely there. It’s a better pitching situation on Sunday. It’s a deeper bullpen and bench. It’s more clutch hitting with runners on base and cleaner fielding. Can Georgia close the gap in some of those areas and be the team to knock South Carolina off its perch next year?
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Thomas Brown
June 29th, 2011
5:21 pm
Excellent. I love the way your words flow. I watched the CWS and loved every minute of it in the new stadium downtown. The SEC East indeed proved how great a division this is, Vanderbilt, Florida and National Champion back-to-back South Carolina.
South Carolina stands out in my mind. Ray Tanner is 1st class. I know baseball, and watching him, one can learn much about this game.
South Carolina, as a team, just gets it. Florida, runner-up, does not. The games were good games, but there is little doubt that what they did in the field, on the mound, at the plate in the clutch, all the backing up and moving runners over, get them on, get them over, get them in, is what made the games this year fantastic as a fan of the game.
LSU too for 3 in a row, as you say, and then there are those in the ACC who think that their record is great playing cupcakes.
They were not ready for a team like Tanner’s. You have to do all those little things in baseball to impress me. Tanner has always done that. Matters not who he has on his team. Take the 8th inning in the championship final game. Tanner left his starter in 130 pitches. Asked him. Took his word for it. Got the lefty on lefty out. Removed him from the game. Put in a guy who gave up a 2-out hit with man on 3rd. Yanked him. I said, yep. Put in his closer and he passed our Maloof with the Save. Good stuff. 95 mph.
Florida pitchers would let the ball go, and not be ready for the ball to be hit to him. Base hit. They would field the ball and barely get a slow runer at 1st bobbling the ball and looking around for it. And, at the plate Florida could not hit the broadside of the barn, no matter what bat they used.
Georgia did a lot better than anyone gives us credit for. Your article here is as well-written and smooth as it can be.
I love SEC college baseball, and always have.
Oh, we beat Georgia tek at Turner Field, again, this season.
Baseball is a strategic game. You have to practice the strategy. It is the strategy that makes the differnce with Tanner’s clubs.
James
June 29th, 2011
7:40 pm
The pitching has to improve from year to year. Plus the sad events involving CV and JT[probably your top two men in the batting order] had to weigh on the staff and players. Courage and valor would not suffice the work these two young men have done since their accident and injury, plus the team. What struck me while watching UF, USC,and Vandy in the CWS was the maturity of their players. Not saying Dawgs are not there, but it is something the coaches need to work on. Perno hopefully has settled his staff after it seemed in flux the past two years. I think the staff is good. Also, I agree with the AD that perhaps a less demanding schedule would help…more so considering the level of play both in the East and West. But it would be good to see more of these players stay, especially the pitchers for the 4 years rather than going up. Pitching and not making mistakes in the box and in the field are keys. In the two games UF had against USC they failed. USC played with confidence and a will to win in every inning and at bat. Fun to watch that in players regardless of their uniform. Think better days are ahead for the twin Ds. They are getting that mindset and grit. Good to see a site talk about the baseball team because UGA with the talent in the state can be in the regionals and CWS on a regular basis. Thanks