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The college baseball team I follow (Univ. of Maryland) made it into the NCAA tournament and the regional they got in (East Carolina Univ.) was driveable so I drove down last Sunday to watch them play (5 hours each way). The regionals phase of the tournament is double-elimination. Maryland lost their 1st game to the #2 seed, Charlotte, so immediately they were in the losers' bracket (it's so hard to win a regional from the losers' bracket). They won on Saturday against #4, Norfolk State. That put them into the elimination game on Sunday against Charlotte again.
East Carolina's stadium was a beautiful, modern facility (I wish ours was nearly as good). Maryland's #2 starter broke his hand before the tournament so we were hard-up for a starter now. We went w one of our best relievers (Ryan Ramsey). It was a real pitcher's duel, w the score 1-0 Charlotte after 4 innings, w a solo HR being Charlotte's only hit. Ramsey was pitching very well, but I expected him to come out after 4 IP, since he hadnt thrown more than 4 innings in a game all year. But he kept coming out inning after inning and he ended up throwing 8 innings yielding only 1 R, 3 H, 3 BB while striking out 4. After 7 1/2 innings, Maryland still trailed 1-0. They finally scratched across a run in the 8th on a double play. In the 9th, Charlotte loaded the bases w 1 out. The next hitter hit a screaming liner towards rt-center, but the 2Bman leaped and snagged it and doubled the runner off 2nd to end the inning. In the bottom of the 9th, Maryland singled twice to put runners on the corners w none out. Charlotte brought the infield in to try to prevent the winning run from scoring. Next came a play that I dont ever remember seeing before anywhere. The hitter hit a high, bounding ball towards 1B. When the 1Bman fielded it, he threw home but the runner on 3B was not coming. He looked to be too far away from either the runner or 1B to make the play on the batter at 1B himself and no one covered 1B. So, the runner was safe at 1B and it went as a single. Now, the bases were loaded w no outs. The next hitter hit a fly ball to medium RF, plenty deep enough to score the runner from 3B and they just let it drop for a single to win the game. It was one of the best games I've ever seen Maryland play. That put them into the championship game against East Carolina, scheduled for 6 PM that same day. I thought that no matter what happened in the next game, it was worth the long drive down and back to have seen that 1st game. Ramsey pitched his heart out and he must be a prime candidate to go into the starting rotation next year. Also, there was a moderately large crowd of Maryland fans that came. I was expecting there to be more Charlotte fans, since they're just across the state but Maryland fans were not only more numerous but more boisterous. This was a pleasant surprise, too, because hardly anyone comes to the regular season home games.
The 2nd game was sold out, but someone told me that there'd be people "scalping" tickets prior to the game, so I decided to hang around several hours for the 2nd game. Before the game, I waited around for maybe a half hour before I saw a couple selling some tickets but they had 2 to sell and wanted to sell them as a pair. I didnt know if I'd see someone else selling a single ticket, so I bought both of them, and finally sold the one I didnt need. There had been a 30-minute thunderstorm rt before game time and the game was delayed even more because they had some trouble getting the tarp on to protect the field. They announced that the game wouldnt start until 8:36 PM, over 2 1/2 hours later the the original start time. After things finally started, I saw that the stadium this time was packed w East Carolina fans. I sought out the Maryland cheering section and sat w them even tho my ticket was for elsewhere. The Maryland cheering was even more raucous than in the 1st game, particularly a guy seated right behind me. After a while, I turned to him and asked "why arent all these cheering fans at the regular season games?". He said he doesnt usually come because he's from Massachusetts and actually was the brother of the second baseman, Maryland's best hitter (Matt Shaw, who was named a freshman all-American this week). I remembered East Carolina's starter as the guy who faced Maryland in the regular season in 2019 (Jake Kuchmaner). He threw a perfect game that day, the only perfecto I've ever seen in person at any level. Matt Shaw led off Maryland's half of the 1st inning w a HR and I thought "No perfect game today!". This was another bullpen game for Maryland and nobody was very effective. Maryland had lots of chances to score but kept leaving men on base. It was still a 1-run game going into the 8th inning but Maryland lost it 9-6 to end its season. The game took a long time to play and didnt end until just before 1 AM. I drove back that night and because I stopped to sleep for a few hours and then had a dead battery that it took Triple-A almost 2 hours to come jump start I didnt get back until almost 1 PM the next day.
Another observation: unlike the minor league game I went to last month, I dont think I saw a single fan wearing a mask besides me, even tho the stadium was packed and there were no distance restrictions in seating or anything else. The only other people wearing masks were some of the stadium personnel. Why am I still wearing a mask? Maybe I'll do a post explaining in one of the CV-19 threads.
East Carolina's stadium was a beautiful, modern facility (I wish ours was nearly as good). Maryland's #2 starter broke his hand before the tournament so we were hard-up for a starter now. We went w one of our best relievers (Ryan Ramsey). It was a real pitcher's duel, w the score 1-0 Charlotte after 4 innings, w a solo HR being Charlotte's only hit. Ramsey was pitching very well, but I expected him to come out after 4 IP, since he hadnt thrown more than 4 innings in a game all year. But he kept coming out inning after inning and he ended up throwing 8 innings yielding only 1 R, 3 H, 3 BB while striking out 4. After 7 1/2 innings, Maryland still trailed 1-0. They finally scratched across a run in the 8th on a double play. In the 9th, Charlotte loaded the bases w 1 out. The next hitter hit a screaming liner towards rt-center, but the 2Bman leaped and snagged it and doubled the runner off 2nd to end the inning. In the bottom of the 9th, Maryland singled twice to put runners on the corners w none out. Charlotte brought the infield in to try to prevent the winning run from scoring. Next came a play that I dont ever remember seeing before anywhere. The hitter hit a high, bounding ball towards 1B. When the 1Bman fielded it, he threw home but the runner on 3B was not coming. He looked to be too far away from either the runner or 1B to make the play on the batter at 1B himself and no one covered 1B. So, the runner was safe at 1B and it went as a single. Now, the bases were loaded w no outs. The next hitter hit a fly ball to medium RF, plenty deep enough to score the runner from 3B and they just let it drop for a single to win the game. It was one of the best games I've ever seen Maryland play. That put them into the championship game against East Carolina, scheduled for 6 PM that same day. I thought that no matter what happened in the next game, it was worth the long drive down and back to have seen that 1st game. Ramsey pitched his heart out and he must be a prime candidate to go into the starting rotation next year. Also, there was a moderately large crowd of Maryland fans that came. I was expecting there to be more Charlotte fans, since they're just across the state but Maryland fans were not only more numerous but more boisterous. This was a pleasant surprise, too, because hardly anyone comes to the regular season home games.
The 2nd game was sold out, but someone told me that there'd be people "scalping" tickets prior to the game, so I decided to hang around several hours for the 2nd game. Before the game, I waited around for maybe a half hour before I saw a couple selling some tickets but they had 2 to sell and wanted to sell them as a pair. I didnt know if I'd see someone else selling a single ticket, so I bought both of them, and finally sold the one I didnt need. There had been a 30-minute thunderstorm rt before game time and the game was delayed even more because they had some trouble getting the tarp on to protect the field. They announced that the game wouldnt start until 8:36 PM, over 2 1/2 hours later the the original start time. After things finally started, I saw that the stadium this time was packed w East Carolina fans. I sought out the Maryland cheering section and sat w them even tho my ticket was for elsewhere. The Maryland cheering was even more raucous than in the 1st game, particularly a guy seated right behind me. After a while, I turned to him and asked "why arent all these cheering fans at the regular season games?". He said he doesnt usually come because he's from Massachusetts and actually was the brother of the second baseman, Maryland's best hitter (Matt Shaw, who was named a freshman all-American this week). I remembered East Carolina's starter as the guy who faced Maryland in the regular season in 2019 (Jake Kuchmaner). He threw a perfect game that day, the only perfecto I've ever seen in person at any level. Matt Shaw led off Maryland's half of the 1st inning w a HR and I thought "No perfect game today!". This was another bullpen game for Maryland and nobody was very effective. Maryland had lots of chances to score but kept leaving men on base. It was still a 1-run game going into the 8th inning but Maryland lost it 9-6 to end its season. The game took a long time to play and didnt end until just before 1 AM. I drove back that night and because I stopped to sleep for a few hours and then had a dead battery that it took Triple-A almost 2 hours to come jump start I didnt get back until almost 1 PM the next day.
Another observation: unlike the minor league game I went to last month, I dont think I saw a single fan wearing a mask besides me, even tho the stadium was packed and there were no distance restrictions in seating or anything else. The only other people wearing masks were some of the stadium personnel. Why am I still wearing a mask? Maybe I'll do a post explaining in one of the CV-19 threads.