June 17, 2007

College World Series

OMAHA, Neb. -- Only one Big West team will be standing after Monday's elimination game between conference rivals Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine. "We don't have to look at the tape and we don't have to look at the scouting reports," said Fullerton coach George Horton. ". . . One of us has to fly the Big West flag, but whoever gets it done will represent us well." Horton has mixed emotions since good friend Dave Serrano will be in the Irvine dugout coaching the Anteaters in their first appearance here. Serrano pitched two years for Horton at Cerritos CC in the mid-1980s before pitching for Fullerton in 1986. He served as pitching coach for Horton at both Cerritos and Fullerton. Serrano was hired at Irvine two weeks after Fullerton won the 2004 national championship. "It is bittersweet," said Horton. "I was just reflecting on that, actually. One of the two of us is going home."

WIND BENEATH THEIR SWINGS - Louisville's offense doesn't need any help in the home run department -- the Cardinals' 70 homers were more than any of the other seven teams coming in -- but got some anyway in Sunday's elimination game against Mississippi. Wind gusted up to 25 mph, whipping the team flags into a frenzy out beyond center field. Louisville blasted four homers in its 12-4 win. "If the wind is blowing, it definitely helps your offense," said Louisville coach Dan McDonnell, whose team has piled up runs with or without the wind. The Cardinals have scored 99 runs in 10 postseason games. Logan Johnson got things started in the first inning against Mississippi State with a drive that initially appeared catchable for Bulldogs center fielder Jeffrey Rea. But the ball got up in the jet stream, cleared the 408-foot wall in center and carried over the 22-foot batter's eye behind it.

MR. JUNE - Louisville third baseman Chris Dominguez hit seven home runs in the Cardinals' 54 regular season games. Dominguez, a redshirt freshman from Miami, homered twice Sunday against Mississippi State to give him eight homers in Louisville's 10 postseason games. "I was trying to find a swing that would help me throughout the season, but it didn't work out," said Dominguez. "I'm finding it now in the postseason, and I guess that's the best time."

THIS AND THAT - Louisville's victory was the first by a team making its first CWS appearance since Tulane in 2001 . . . The powerful SEC has gone 0-2 two straight years now -- by Mississippi State this year and Georgia last year -- and is 0-6 counting Florida's two losses to Texas in the 2005 Championship Series . . . Monday night's Oregon State-Arizona State game will be the first CWS meeting between Pac-10 teams since USC defeated Arizona State 21-14 for the 1998 national championship.

-- KIRK KENNEY