I think you better turn your ticket in and get your money back at the door

Welcome back to sports friday

The College World Series starts today, probably my favorite week and a half of the year. It's been long enough since i've been to omaha that i can watch it on tv and enjoy it without being painfully depressed about not sweating buckets in the outfield bleachers whilst ingesting a fried onion blossom and a lemonade.

(Unrelated side note: i was originally going to call it a bloomin' onion, but i believe that is a term specific to Outback's version of said culinary masterpiece. trying to think of a fitting generic term reminded me of a scene from a Lifetime Channel movie. These two teenagers are walking down the street when this guy pulls up in a car. "Hey, guys, I just purchased the latest video game console, you should come over and play later.")

(Second unrelated side note: yes, i watch Lifetime movies -- the unintentional comedy is off the charts (see above unrelated side note) and my warped brain just won't let me pass up "She Woke Up Pregnant" or "My Step-son, My Lover" without watching at least a few minutes to get some laughs. But, no, i've never watched one start to finish.)

So, anyway, here's my Sweepingly Generalized and Far From Expert Breakdown of this Year's CWS. I'm not looking any of this up, so if get some stuff wrong, please remember the "far from expert" part.

The teams:
Georgia Tech, Clemson, Georgia, Call State Fullerton, Oregon State, Miami, North Carolina, and for the life of me i can't remember the 8th team. Rice. that's it.

How they got here:
Georgia Tech swept somebody in the Supers, Oral Roberts or College of Charleston.
Clemson swept whoever GT didn;t.
Georgia took the last two from South carolina
Fullerton swept Missouri.
Oregon State swept Stanford.
Miami lost the first game to Ole Miss, but won the next two. (and there was much rejoicing)
North Carolina swept Alabama.
Rice took two of three from Oklahoma.

What i know about them.
Georgia Tech: not much of anything, to tell the truth. One of four acc teams to make the trip (only the SEC has done that in a single year, and it did it twice). Think GT was a national top 8 seed. Didn't see any of their super regional.

Clemson: Believe they are the #1 seed. can hit the ball, but needed some late heroics in their super regional, including a walk-off grandslam in the first game.

Georgia: gave up five straight homers to South Carolina in one inning in game one, but came back to take the next two. hottest team in SEC, perhaps second only to Ole Miss, at the end of the year. Not sure the pitching's there to be a huge factor in Omaha.

Fullerton: They can pitch with the best of them and hit when they need to.

Oregon State: didn't see much of their Super. They demolished a Stanford team (nice to see they lost the "Stunford" uniform) that wasn't even expected to make a super. The only team back from last year's CWS.

Miami: Scored lots of run against average ole miss pitching. Starting pitching/middle relief wasn't exceptionally impressive. but if they're up late, forget about it.

UNC: two of the top pitchers in the country. hit well against BAMA in the Super Regional, but i'm not sure if they've got enough to outscore an opponent in the battle of third or fourth starters.

Rice: Good young bats and neck-and-neck with CSF for the best pitching at the CWS. Only CWS team I've watched in person this year. Scored runs in bunches against Oklahoma, but also got beat fairly handily in game two.

My Generalized Predictions with Some Specific Stuff:

I think Miami goes 2-and-Q. i don't know the other 0-2 team because i have no idea how the bracket is set up.

Oregon State and Georgia Tech play for all the marbles. After one of them claims the marbles, they'll go to a sports bar and watch whoever is playing in CWS championship round.

Again, i don't know how the bracket is set up, by my pick to win it all is Fullerton. Don't know who they'll be playing. I'll check the bracket real quick...OK, i'm going with Rice.

Fullerton over Rice in 3.