Thursday, June 13, 2019

Alabama's Drew Williamson will be playing baseball a long way from Brewton this summer


I had several Auburn baseball fans earlier this week ask me about how the College World Series works once teams get past the Super Regional round of the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.

The tournament started out with 64 teams and 16 went on to the Super Regionals. Your eight Super Regional winners advance to the College World Series, which will be played this year June 15-June 25/26 in Omaha, Nebraska. Those teams are split into two, four-team double-elimination brackets and the winners of both brackets advance to the national finals.

The finals are best-of-three, which is why the tournament could end on either June 25 or June 26. Just eyeballing the NCAA bracket online Monday afternoon, it looks like Auburn will be in the same CWS bracket with Vanderbilt, Louisville and Mississippi State. The other bracket looks to feature, Michigan, Texas Tech, Florida State and either Arkansas or Ole Miss.

The national Top 16 seeds were set before the tournament began on May 31 and of the remaining teams, No. 2-seeded Vanderbilt is the highest seed left in the tourney. Arkansas is a No. 5 seed, and Mississippi State is No. 6. Other top-seeded teams include No. 7 Louisville, No. 8 Texas Tech and No. 12 Ole Miss. In other words, Auburn and Florida State are the only two non-seeded teams left in the tournament.

Just out of curiosity, I checked ticket prices on Monday and they weren’t as bad as I would have thought. The cheapest single ticket to Game One on June 15 was $85.50 with the most expensive ranging up to around $400. The cheapest single ticket to Game 2 of the finals on June 25 was $144 with the most expensive costing $895. That’s a lot of money to me, but it’s pretty cheap when you compare it to a ticket to the Super Bowl.

Auburn’s been to the College World Series four times with their last appearance coming in 1997. They also went in 1967, 1976 and 1994, but the Tigers have never won the whole thing. Who knows, maybe this year is their year.

Alabama has been to the CWS five times – 1950, 1983, 1996, 1997 and 1999.

Speaking of Alabama baseball, it was announced on Monday of last week that Drew Williamson of Brewton is one of 17 Alabama players planning to play in collegiate summer leagues across the country. Williamson, who went to T.R. Miller High School, will play for the Mat-Su Miners of the Alaska League.

The Miners are located in Palmer, Alaska and play their home games at Hermon Brothers Field. Other teams in the league include the Anchorage Bucs, the Anchorage Glacier Pilots, the Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks, Peninsula Oilers and Alaska Goldpanners. In order to play in this league, you have to have played one year of college baseball and have at least one year of eligibility left.

This league is most famous for what’s called the Midnight Sun Baseball Classic, an annual game that’s played on the day of the summer solstice in Fairbanks, Alaska. In Alaska this time of year, the sun is out almost 24 hours on the day of the solstice, and this unusual game doesn’t even get started until around 10:30 p.m. I’ve had a trip to this game on my “bucket list” for years, but I doubt that I’ll ever get to go.

Who knows, one day I might win the lottery and go watch the College World Series and the Midnight Sun game all in the same trip. Only time will tell, but I think it’s doubtful given that I haven’t bought a lottery ticket in about 10 years.

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