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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