{"id":18077,"date":"2023-06-22T22:32:28","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T02:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=18077"},"modified":"2023-06-22T22:32:28","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T02:32:28","slug":"2023-cws-group-play-recap-and-finals-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=18077","title":{"rendered":"2023 CWS Group Play Recap and Finals preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Skenes-paul-lsu-via-valley-shook.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Skenes-paul-lsu-via-valley-shook-1024x683.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18102\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Skenes-paul-lsu-via-valley-shook-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Skenes-paul-lsu-via-valley-shook-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Skenes-paul-lsu-via-valley-shook-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Skenes-paul-lsu-via-valley-shook.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ve seen the last of Paul Skenes&#8217; college career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;re through to the CWS final in Omaha.  Let&#8217;s recap the group play with some notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In the Top&nbsp;Bracket<\/strong> (#1 Wake Forest, Tennessee, #5 LSU, #8 Stanford)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>In the opening games<\/strong>, Wake Forest survives a strong push from Stanford, winning a game they probably didn&#8217;t deserve to win.  Meanwhile, LSU topped Tennessee behind another show of force from <strong>Paul Skenes<\/strong>, who threw 120+ pitches and pitched into the 8th in a game they had in hand.<\/li><li><strong>In the first elimination game,<\/strong> Tennessee&#8217;s <strong>Chase Dollander<\/strong> got pulled after three innings (not a good sign for his 1st round draft prospects) but sophomore <strong>Chase Burns<\/strong> threw 6 shut-out innings to help eliminate Stanford.<\/li><li><strong>In the winner&#8217;s bracket game<\/strong>, Wake Forest showed some serious mettle to get another come-from-behind win against LSU to advance to the Group final.<\/li><li><strong>In the play-in game<\/strong>, LSU faced off against Tennessee yet again (three times in the regular season, once again a few days ago), and they won again, blanking the Volunteers 5-0 and sending them home.  <\/li><li><strong>In the group final<\/strong>, Wake Forest&#8217;s coach made a crucial, critical error allowing his beleaguered starter to pitch to LSU&#8217;s cleanup masher with 1st base open &#8230; and Cade Beloso delivered with a 3-run homer that stood up.  Wake is forced into a winner-take all game, which means both Wake and LSU burn their #1 starters ahead of the CWS finals.<\/li><li><strong>In the winner take all game<\/strong> &#8230; LSU gets to throw its ace Skenes again, and he goes against Wake&#8217;s ace Rhett Lowder.  What a match-up.  And it lived up to the billing, with the two aces trading zeros for 8 innings.  Amazingly, Wake pulled Lowder as he sat on 88 pitches through 7; why pull him?  He completely out-pitched Skenes on the night and could have probably pitched 9 complete if you gave him 110 pitches.  I don&#8217;t get it.  Meanwhile, Skenes needed 120 pitches to complete 8 ip; 2 hits, 1 walk, 9 Ks on the night.  LSU gets a walk-off from its burly, fluffy haired, gold-chain wearing third baseman <strong>Tommy White<\/strong> to win the game and break Wake&#8217;s heart.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Final Group standings<\/strong>: LSU, Wake Forest, Tennessee, Stanford<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In the Bottom Bracket<\/strong> (#2 Florida, TCU, Oral Roberts, #7 UVA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>In the opening games<\/strong>: fans couldn&#8217;t ask for two better openers in Omaha.  In the first game. Oral Roberts game up 3 in the 8th but then scored 4 in the 9th to shock TCU with a 6-5 win.  In the nightcap, UVA completely blew a game they had under control, giving up 3 runs in the bottom of the ninth as UVA&#8217;s coach let a reliever give up two homers (one a 456-foot rocket from top-5 draft pick <strong>Wyatt Langford<\/strong>, a single, a walk and a HBP to load the bases before finally going with his stopper, who promptly gave up a Sac fly to lose the game.  Just a ridiculous coaching job.<\/li><li><strong>In the first elimination game,<\/strong> UVA capitulated to TCU to become the first team eliminated, as their two big hitters went o-fer in the game. <\/li><li><strong>In the winner&#8217;s bracket game<\/strong>, Florida edged Oral Roberts by the skin of their teeth, getting out of a bases-loaded one-out jam in the bottom of the 9th to move into the group final.  <\/li><li><strong>In the play-in game<\/strong>, Oral Roberts faced TCU again, and couldn&#8217;t repeat their magic one more time.  TCU&#8217;s arms controlled the game and sent the Cinderella ORU home 6-1.<\/li><li><strong>In the group final<\/strong>, Florida faced off against TCU slightly fresher and with their Sunday starter on tap.  And the #2 team delivered, scoring a run in the top of the 9th and making it stick to edge TCU and take the group undefeated.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Final Group standings<\/strong>: Florida, TCU, Oral Roberts, UVA<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>CWS Preview and Prediction: one of the things I hate about the CWS final is that it gives the teams, who have been playing basically every day for a week, just one day off before a Sat-Sun-Mon final.  This badly penalizes teams for getting their pitching stretched, and (for me) may dictate who wins.  But logistically you can&#8217;t keep kids in Omaha for a month, so it is what it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Florida took their regional in 3 straight, so they have their starters lined up exactly as they want.  #1 starter Sproat will have 8 days rest, Waldrep will have 7 days rest, and if needed Caglianone will have 5 days rest.  Meanwhile, they won&#8217;t have to face Skenes again, and have a huge advantage in the final.  LSU will presumably throw their Saturday starter Ty Floyd on 4 days rest, then their #3 starter Ackenhausen on 4 day&#8217;s rest, then the kitchen sink if they make it to Monday.  LSU doesn&#8217;t really have a Sunday starter; they gave starts to 9 other guys besides their top two starters on the season, many of them with ERAs in the 7s.  Advantage Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s who i think these teams will throw as starters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Game 1 Sat 6\/24: Florida&#8217;s Brandon Sproat vs LSU&#8217;s Ty Floyd<\/li><li>Game 2 Sun 6\/25: Florida&#8217;s Hurston Waldrep vs LSU&#8217;s Nate Ackenhausen<\/li><li>Game 3 Mon 6\/26: Florida&#8217;s Jac Caglianone vs LSU&#8217;s bullpen<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prediction<\/strong>: Florida in three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Top Draft Players to watch in the final:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Florida: Wyatt Langford, projected top 5 pick.  Saturday starter Hurston Waldrep as a 1st round projection.  Friday night Brandon Sproat and infielder Josh Rivera are 2nd\/3rd rounders.<\/li><li>LSU: You know the names: Skenes, Crews primarily, but big hitters White and Belosi.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve seen the last of Paul Skenes&#8217; college career. We&#8217;re through to the CWS final in Omaha. Let&#8217;s recap the group play with some notes. In the Top&nbsp;Bracket (#1 Wake Forest, Tennessee, #5 LSU, #8 Stanford) In the opening games, Wake Forest survives a strong push from Stanford, winning a game they probably didn&#8217;t deserve [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natsgeneral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18077"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18103,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18077\/revisions\/18103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}