Day 2 of the College World Series in Omaha started much like the way Day 1 started: with a Cinderella team struggling to stay with the big conference team.

Kent State was Saturday’s Cinderella, facing Arkansas and ace DJ Baxendale (who was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the MLB draft in the beginning of the month). Baxendale cruised through the Golden Flashes lineup before giving up a single in the 5th inning.

Kent State starter David Starn struggled with his command from the very beginning and the only thing that kept him and his team in the game was the three double plays turned while he was in the game.

Arkansas had a run in and the bases loaded before Starn induced a DP to end the first inning. Jake Wise homered with two outs in the second inning. In the 3rd inning after a leadoff single, Starn induced another DP. In the 5th inning with a run in, Starn induced another inning-ending DP.

Jimmy Rider homered off Baxendale in the 6th inning to get Kent State on the board and cut the deficit to 3-1.

However Arkansas went back to work against Starn, scoring two runs in the bottom of the 6th inning on a Matt Vinson two-run double.

Baxendale was done with two on base in the 7th inning. He allowed one run on three hits and a walk over 6.1 innings. He struck out five. Brandon Moore came in and escaped the jam and finished out the game. He allowed just one hit over 2.2 innings.

» Continue reading “Arkansas, South Carolina Win on Day 2 of CWS”

As I was watching the late night Rivalry Game on ESPN2 last night, I watched the scores scrolling across the bottom line. I was shocked at what I saw in women’s college basketball: many of the highlighted teams (the winning teams) were unranked.

Is parody finally coming to women’s college basketball?

Well, not exactly. The top four teams are still more dominant than anyone else. Take number 4 Stanford’s win over Pac-12 opponent USC. They won 69-52 to extend their home court winning streak to 75 games.

Number 5 Duke survived a road test at Boston College, 71-62. What was shocking about Duke’s struggles was how dominant they were against ACC arch-rival North Carolina and how off they were against a team with zero wins in the conference.

Now onto the losses.

What was most disturbing was how these ranked teams lost. Six top 25 teams lost on Thursday night, five of those losses came by double-digits. Four of those losses came on the road.

Division I college basketball (both men’s and women’s) is down to just one unbeaten team and that would be Number 1 Baylor. Baylor will face 14th ranked Texas A&M on Saturday. Murray State lost to Tennessee State on Thursday night on the men’s side, while Green Bay lost on the women’s side. Green Bay lost to a team, Detroit, that has 11 losses and hadn’t won at Green Bay in 15 years. Detroit dominated on the glass (a 47-32 rebounding edge), got to the free throw line more (35 times to Green Bay’s 13), and held Green Bay to just 29.9% shooting. Two players for Detroit, Shareta Brown and Senee Shearer, scored 20+ points in the win.

» Continue reading “Thursday Night Full of Upsets in Women’s College Basketball”