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College  | Story  | 6/25/2016

CWS Finals set: Chants vs. Cats

Nick Herfordt     
Photo: Arizona Athletics




2016 College World Series Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7


OMAHA, Neb. – At the beginning of the season the Arizona Wildcats were ranked ninth. Which by itself, seems pretty dang impressive. There are 300 teams in the D-I and to be in the top 10 means you’re among the best of the best — in the top three percent of all college teams. The ‘Cats have had 16 College World Series appearances, four national championships and have produced dozens of future MLB players so the ranking seemed apropos for the perennial power.

Problem was however, the No. 9 ranking wasn’t ninth in the nation, not by any means. It was ninth in the Pac-12 preseason coaches poll; ninth out of 11 teams.

Not much was expected from the cardinal and navy crew and understandably so.  For starters, the Wildcats had failed to reach the postseason tournament for the past three-straight years after winning the National Championship in 2012. Their elite middle infield had been drafted into the professional ranks and they needed a new primary catcher for the first time since 2011. To top things off the entire coaching staff had been refurbished, with touted yet unproven Jay Johnson taking over the helm for the departed Andy Lopez. The outlook was indeed far from brilliant.

Nevertheless, the ‘Cats stunned the entire season and on Saturday found themselves a single win away from heading back to the College World Series Finals. However despite all their overachievements and surprise success, earning those final 27 outs wasn’t going to be easy. They’d be facing Oklahoma State’s ballyhooed Big 12 Pitcher of the Year, Thomas Hatch, who was in the midst of a 25 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings streak and was coming off a glorious complete game shutout in the Cowboy’s CWS-opening, 1-0 win over UCSB.

The Wildcats pounced early and quickly gained control of the pivotal game. In each of the first two frames UA plated a pair of runs to jump to an early 4-0 lead. The aggressive Arizona attack felled Hatch only two batters into the third inning - his earliest ouster of the season. Before Saturday the OSU hurler had only allowed 10 extra-base hits all season; Arizona had four doubles by their 10th batter of the game.

Although the game was never out of hand on the scoreboard, the outcome seemed to be never in question. The dynamic Bobby Dalbec was masterful on the mound as he only allowed a single run in seven innings. It was another brilliant outing for the 6-foot-4 human powerhouse, whose pitching prowess has made him a vital cog in the Wildcats’ run to the championship series.

While it’s no surprise that Dalebc dominated the game, it would be a bit of a shock to anyone who hasn’t checked out an UA boxscore this season.

Dalbec was a preseason All-American, but it was much more due to his hitting ability rather than his pitching. Last spring he hit .319 with a team-leading 58 RBI and 15 home runs during the regular season and followed it up with a successful summer on Team USA and absolute brilliance in the Cape Cod League. In the CCL he hit an additional league-leading 12 home runs and had a .315 batting average, both accomplished numbers in pitching-friendly league.

Despite his past successes his swing had developed a substantial and enigmatic hole in it this season. In 224 at-bats this year Dalbec has 83 strikeouts with only 58 hits – statistically stating he has a .370 strikeout average with only a .259 batting average.

Regardless, of his dramatic offensive decline, Dalbec is still the Wildcats’ MVP. He’s made it to the mound in 28 games this season, with seven of those appearances being starts. In those outings he’s earned the win in 11 and had been awarded a save in seven. Currently he has a fine 2.65 ERA and in 95 innings he has only allowed 78 hits with an 88-to-34 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Dalbec was heaped with praise by Coach Johnson following the Wildcats’ win, who called his performance, “borderline legendary.”

“His ability to finish games in the early part of this season helped the team develop a lot of confidence, and that can be not understated,” Johnson continued later. “And then we kind of talked about once we got to the postseason that that was going to be an X factor of getting him into the rotation … I could talk 30 minutes about it because that's how important he's been to this team.”

Dalbec’s day was finished after the seventh inning, but the Cowboys couldn’t close the gap to less than four runs. The final score was a 5-1 Arizona victory. 

With the win the Wildcats advanced the championship game/series for the eighth time in school history. With a dogpile next week they’d become just the fifth team with five CWS titles.



Chants re-write history with win

It was a battle of purple versus teal on Saturday night, but the decision for once wasn’t what color Katy Perry should color her hair, but rather which team would survive and advance at the College World Series as TCU tangled with Coastal Carolina. The winner would advance to Monday's best-of-three national championship series against Arizona,who had earned their spot in the final two earlier in the day.

College baseball fans in Omaha are very familiar with TCU. The Frog fans have been dotting downtown purple for the last three consecutive seasons and the team was a fan favorite during Rosenblatt’s swan song in 2010. Plus the school has a top-notch football program which is the sport that dominates water color talk in the state of Nebraska 50 of 51 weeks of the year when the CWS isn’t in town.

However aside from the most astute college baseball aficionados, the name of Coastal Carolina was completely foreign to locals. When it was reported that CCU would be making the debut appearance at the series, the local newspaper had an article explaining what a Chanticleer even was. The game was to be a battle between an established favorite and the new cock of the walk.

After the first at-bat fizzle for the Frogs, it was the Chants threatened to jump out to the first lead. In the bottom of the inning CCU quickly filled the bases without an out, but an astute Statue of Liberty-esque play by TCU starter Jared Janczak picked a runner off third to get the first crucial out. He then managed to induce a pair of infield pops to escape unscathed. However Janczak’s luck wouldn’t endure the next inning.

CCU’s second sacker Tyler Chadwick homered to right center to start the scoring for the Big South Conference bullies. While the blast was the only blemish of the inning, it was a foreshadowing of what was to come from the boisterous CCU bats. 

The mighty CCU offense came alive in the third inning when three hits plated two runs. The biggest at bat was a clutch clubbed triple to deep, deep center by designated hitter G.K. Young. A pitching change was made in an effort to quell the Chants’ attack, but the absolute opposite effect occurred. Coastal rapped out five hits and ended the fourth inning with what for all intents and purposes was an insurmountable 7-1 lead … or was it.

TCU steadfastly refused to go gentle into that good Omaha night and continued to chip away at the Chanticleer lead. 7-1 became 7-2 which soon after became 7-4.

Headed into the ninth inning it was apparent the game was far from over. The Chants hadn’t scored since their explosive fourth frame while the Frogs had plated a run in two of the last three. The once overwhelming six-run lead had been cut in half, but it seemed even closer than that. The tension filled the ballpark and for CCU fans the game’s finale was setting up like a stereotypical episode of “Gilligan’s Island” where they come oh-so-close to reaching their goal only to have their plan fall terribly apart at the end.

TCU’s Dane Steinhagen doubled down the left field line and he scored on a single by Ryan Merrill. 7-5. The tying run was now at the plate with only one out.

Most coaches would have instinctively went to their bullpen to get the final outs but Coastal’s Head Coach Gary Gilmore stuck with Bobby Holmes, who had entered the game in the seventh. Ace closer Mike Morrison was ready and warming up in the bullpen, but he was kept a spectator, likely due to the 83 pitches he had thrown two days prior against Texas Tech.

The decision to stay with Holmes proved to be on the mark. He got the next batter to hit a grounder up the middle, which was quickly snatched by the shortstop. He tossed it Chadwick (who nearly hit for the first CWS cycle in 60 years) who gunned it to first. The throw required first baseman Kevin Woodall Jr. to leap to make the catch, but when he fell back to earth he landed atop first base to complete the double play and end the game. The Coastal Carolina Chanticleer were headed to the finals.

With the win CCU became the first team since 1994 to reach the championship in their first year. For Coastal Carolina it was an incredible accomplishment for the university. No team in CCU history had ever played in a national title game. Previous to the Chanticleers baseball team reaching the CWS final four, the school’s best overall finish was a fifth place in golf.

After the game a visibly pleased Coach Gilmore shared his feelings from cloud nine.

“To be very honest with you, none of this has like hit me yet. I think that's why I don't feel like I get all tensed up or whatever. It's just – it's like kind of like I'm in a dream,” Gilmore said, “I'm scared to pinch myself, to be very honest with you. I mean, coming from where I started 21 years ago and where our university was at that point in time and where we're at today, to know that we're on this stage is one of the most incredible things I could have ever imagined. I don't know if I've ever dreamt this far, to be honest with you. Dreamt getting to Omaha. I don't know that I ever dreamt getting to this point.”
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