Ugh, but did it have to be Notre Dame? Why not a small school? But a stunning Vol loss - some say might be the biggest collapse in NCAA baseball history.
I don’t think it was as much as a collapse as it was ND going out there with their very veteran lineup and kicking that Orange ass
They played like a well prepared team. I have to credit Link Jarrett with that because I am incapable of crediting ND with anything positive. I think I remember LJ saying in his on the field post game interview that they (ND) did a good job of paying attention to the “details” of the game.
F$U fired Meat thinking they were going to make a run at Jarrett after they were eliminated from the Supers by UT. It had all the right story lines to sell. Great season at ND. Won the regional. Lost to a loaded UT team in the Super............... Instead ND is on its way to Omaha and Link's price tag just went WAY UP!!!! ND has money to throw at LJ to keep him. Will F$U be willing / able to spend? Its not like their athletic department is swimming in cash.
Not sure if "collapse" is the best way to describe it, but certainly when you finish the regular season the way that Tennessee did, you have a ridiculously high hope of making it to Omaha. For the first time since the field expanded, we've now had three consecutive tournaments where the #1 seed has not made it to Omaha. ('19 UCLA, '21 Arkansas, '22 Tennessee). Only 14 of the 23 overall #1 seeds have made it to Omaha, and only one ('99 Miami) has won it all. 3 teams didn't make it out of their regional: 2007 - Vanderbilt (SEC Champs - 22-8, and SECT Champs): 3-2 would have hosted CWS-champions-to-be Oregon State for Supers; instead, Oregon State sweeps Michigan at home to advance to Omaha 2014 - Oregon State: 3-2 lost to the Anteaters of UC Irvine who would go on to reach Omaha winning a Super in Stillwater 2015 - UCLA: 3-2 lost to Maryland who would get swept in Supers by Virginia, en route to their first title. 6 other teams lost in Supers: 2022 - Tennessee (1-2 loss to Notre Dame) 2021 - Arkansas (1-2 loss to NC State; Arkansas outscored the Wolfpack 28-11: 21-2, 5-6, 2-3) - also SEC Champs and SECT Champs 2019 - UCLA (1-2 loss to Michigan) 2003 - SWAC (0-2 loss to Texas) 2002 - SWAC (1-2 loss to Notre Dame) - Notre Dame's last visit to Omaha 2000 - South Carolina (1-2 loss to Louisiana-Lafayette) Two schools have been #1 multiple times and made it to Omaha each time: FLORIDA (2012, 2016, 2018) Texas (2004, 2009) Two schools have been #1 multiple times and failed to make it to Omaha each time: SWAC (2002, 2003) UCLA (2015, 2019) Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
Did I hear him also say(or the announcers) that 8 of 9 ND starters were “grad students?” If so, stunning. The closer was a freshman though. Pretty impressive all the way around. hopefully this will keep LJ away from the Nolies but we’ll see. “Wes Chandler was Percy Harvin before Percy Harvin was born.”
What made it better was that it was played at UT in front of all those Vol fans at home. And to add the icing, UT was leading for the first half of the game. Best way to watch a team lose.
Weird....looks like the support facilites (lockers, training , hitting/pitching facility, etc) are pretty decent. But the stadium itself is D2/high school. Odd for a school like ND
I may be wrong....but I think ND is run by the Order of Holy Cross fathers (priests). They are not Jesuit priests who are all into baseball and football etc.
