And the Oregon State Beavers sweep the the North Carolina Tar Heels. I had stated that the baseball gods were demanding more, and the Beavers delivered by beating North Carolina in pretty dominating form, as noted perfectly by Carolina March.
Dawg Sports gives their congratulations to the Beavers but points out the inequity of how the CWS is conducted - specifically the fact that the double-elimination tournament ends with a best-of-three series.
Baseball America offers their congratulations, as does the College Baseball Blog, Rivals,com, and even Deadspin - who seemed to ignore the CWS through most of it - gets in on the action.
I hadn't mentioned this yet, but kudos to Michigan for keeping their head coach, Rich Maloney. It shows a commitment to college baseball by the University of Michigan. Maybe Minnesota could pull their heads out of a dark place and build themselves a decent college baseball stadium, but don't hold your breath on that one.
Nebraska's assistant baseball coach Andy Sawyer left the program without a whole lot of mention. I had asked around Lincoln earlier in the season about who would be the next to leave, and Sawyer's name had come up although I didn't ask for further clarification. Dave Bingham moves to the assistant position, and the Huskers will seek a new pitching coach.
You can take that as Bingham being a very valuable coach - one that we want to keep around - but not necessarily as pitching coach. Five Husker pitchers have already signed professional contracts, yet the Huskers had an inconsistent season when it came to pitching. We'll see what happens.
And so, the 2007 college baseball season is over. It has been a blast covering the season, I have learned quite a bit and had a lot of fun with it.
I am not quite ready to look at the 2007 football season. Like I said earlier, I get a little obsessive-compulsive when it comes to football. I'll ease into it in the next few days. It's a fine line for me between thinking about the upcoming season and stalking it (a little corn humor there).