Deja Vu in Omaha!

OMAHA, NE -- Didn't we just see this a year ago? How did North Carolina bust through the elimination bracket and make it to the NCAA Championship. Better yet, how did Oregon State make it look so easy?

I sat there on selection day and saw Oregon State get shuttled off to the Charlottesville Regional, probably as a courtesy for the defending champion before Jacob Thompson and Sean Doolittle pounded them into submission and sent them back to the northwest with nothing but 5,000 frequent flier miles.

North Carolina, on the other hand, was one ninth inning, two-out single away from getting knocked out of their own regional by an upstart Western Carolina team, seeded No. 4 in Chapel Hill.

The Tarheels got smashed in the second game of the World Series by Rice, but came back and knocked off the Owls twice. The second game was a critical mistake by head coach Wayne Graham when he pulled his starting pitcher in the third inning to bring in middle reliever Bobby Bramhall. Bramhall's numbers are good including the 1.79 ERA he brought into the game, but I was thinking the starting pitcher didn't need to be pulled considering two of the three runs scored via errors.

As it was, North Carolina's Seth Williams annihilated Bramhall's first pitch into the left field bleachers sending Graham into a tirade in the dugout. Somehow, this was amusing to me. Here's Rice, with this pitching staff, of which half were drafted, and Graham can't stop North Carolina. He did have Joe Savery, the 19th overall pick in the MLB first-year player draft standing at first base on four days rest, but that thought never occured to Graham. It was either that, or he figured winning the championship wasn't that important. I mean, hey, Rice won the title a couple years ago, why stress yourself to win another?

Graham screwed up and he knows it. The worst part is, he did it in front of 22,000 fans in Omaha and now the Owls look like they can't handle the pressure of a big time elimination game. They really didn't have to play in one in the first two rounds prior to Omaha.

Now, North Carolina will attempt to break the 51-year jinx in which an ACC team has not won the National Championship in baseball. Considering the baseball-rich south, that concept is hard as ever to contemplate. Miami has won several titles, but none as a member of the ACC. Wake Forest's win in 1955 was the last.

Oregon State probably shouldn't be here. However, the Beavers blew threw their bracket in Omaha like the team that should have come through this side of the bracket. Vanderbilt had everyone expecting them to run through the Nashville Regional, Super Regional and first couple games in Omaha. Maybe they would hit a tough team like Texas or Arizona State on the way in their side of the bracket, but nothing the Commodores or All-American pitcher and first overall pick David Price couldn't handle. That was, until a seldom used pinch-hitter from Michigan hitting .188 stepped to the plate in the 10th inning of an elimination game and walloped a Price pitch over the fence for a game-winning home run.

The Big Ten is not known for its baseball. In fact, Ohio State, Michigan and Minnesota are often the only three teams to have a chance to make the NCAA Tournament on any given year. However, Penn State made the Super Regionals in 2001 and Indiana went to the Wichita Regional before falling to Rice in 1996. Big Ten teams have actually won five College World Series titles (Minnesota won three) since the ACC won its last in 1955.

Honestly, I could care less to see the same two teams play again. I wouldn't mind seeing Florida State or Miami play again. Even an appearance by LSU would be a welcome sight. Yet, I sit back and say, "I'm damn glad Texas isn't there!"

I think a lot of people wanted to see Louisville or UC-Irvine make it to the finals. UC-Irvine had the starting pitching, but once you get in a rut in Omaha, it's tough to break out if you don't have the sticks. Louisville, on the other hand, didn't have the pitching to hold off Rice, which hurt them mightily in the first game.

I'll be pulling for the Beavers to become the first back-to-back champions since LSU in 1996 and 1997. The Pac-10 has owned the College World Series winning a total of 24 titles since 1947, largely in part to Southern California and Arizona State, so what's another trophy for the mantle?

However, the one sight I will always remember is the picture taken from the top of the zoo across the street from Rosenblatt Stadium when UC-Irvine knocked off Arizona State. When the game-winning hit shot through the right side of the infield, the crowd shot you saw was everyone standing up and going crazy for the Anteaters.

That's the underdog winning. That's the crowd associating with a team of college kids they didn't even know existed before this week. That's the thrill. That's Omaha!