/When serious baseball turns into a party Diamond Dogs headed back to Omaha

When serious baseball turns into a party Diamond Dogs headed back to Omaha

There is one problem. Lemonis stated that “my coaches and players couldn’t hear me” during the post-game conference. I couldn’t hear their voices. They couldn’t hear each other. It was so loud. It was almost deafening. The raucous crowd, 11,597, roared approval time and again: * Of Jake Mangum’s last Dudy Noble at-bat, naturally a sharply smashed single to left field on his first pitch. * Jordan Westburg’s single left that placed runners at first and third. * Elijah MacNamee’s three-run homer that pushed the final score to 8-1 * Cole Gordon, a graduate student, pitched the final three outs. Two of those were on strikeouts. This was college baseball’s first party. It turned into a wild maroon-and-white celebration. State’s victory Sunday night over Stanford was followed by Saturday’s 6-2 win over Cardinal. Stanford is not to be taken lightly. The Cardinal was ranked No. The Cardinal, ranked as high as No. 2, finished the season with 45-14. Two victories were needed to make it to the 17th College World Series. They have been runners-up three times and won the CWS twice. They have won 18 conference championships. They are able to play baseball. The NCAA Super Regional baseball clinic was held by the Mississippi State Diamond Dogs, now at 51-13. The Bulldogs were no match for Stanford, who saw the Cardinal with a 1-0 lead on both nights and then won the game. The ‘Dogs pitched it well, peppered the Dudy Noble playing surface with timely hit after timely hit and looked every bit a confident, efficient, national championship-contending team. These Bulldogs are hot in post-season baseball. Omaha is next. Mangum was asked by a person to describe the emotions that he felt during that ninth inning. Mangum replied, “If you think that I can put it into words, you are crazy.” “You can’t make it better.” Someone has to try. Perhaps we should allow Lemonis, State’s first year head man, to give his opinion on the Dudy Noble experience. He said, “I wasn’t at the old ballpark but this one is special.” “The atmosphere, the crowd, and the noise… It’s a lively environment but it’s a nice one. Here, there are baseball fans. They love baseball.” As seasoned and proud as Stanford baseball is, visitors were sometimes out of their element in a Pac-12 atmosphere. The Bulldogs were motivated by every increase in crowd volume. We can’t go on without mentioning Dustin Skelton, the State catcher and the undisputed MVP of the Super Regional. He was a great catcher and provided two doubles on Saturday and then a triple, and one on Sunday. The Bulldogs led 4-1 with his three-run triple, which was almost a home run to right field in the third inning. We can’t praise Sunday night starter Peyton Plumlee enough. He was like Skelton from Olive Branch and gave a stunning performance on a large stage. Plumlee, after giving up the leadoff home run in the 1st inning, held the Cardinal scoreless for the 6 and 2/3 innings. The Cardinal then exited to standing ovation. The Bulldogs’ No. Plumlee, the Bulldogs’ No. 3 starter, has replaced J.T. Ginn is still suffering from arm soreness. Ginn, or anyone else, would have struggled to match Plumlee’s efforts this night. The good news is that State has Lemonis who said Ginn would have pitched Monday if a Game 3 was necessary. He anticipates that the Brandon freshman will be fully-go at Omaha. These Bulldogs, particularly seniors like Mangum, MacNamee, and Plumlee, have accomplished so much: they advanced to four Super Regionals and now two College World Series, under four different head coaches. There is one more step. Mangum stated, “I didn’t come back to Omaha just to go there.” “We want to win the National Championship. We are one step closer. “x000D” still has work to do.