Off the cuff: Everything was set up well for Carolina to win - especially having a rested starter and having momentum from two dramatic wins in a row - but things did not go the Heels' way. Pitching has been the key all season and the staff seemed poised to advance. But Adam Warren, a well-rested pitcher, didn't make it out of the second inning with four walks to nine batters. Reliever Colin Bates made a key throwing error on a pick off that led to a run after Carolina had just gotten within a run. Rob Wooten, the team's best reliever and a senior, came on in the fifth and had a rough time - walking two, hitting a batter and giving up a double. Alex White was not expected to be called on again in this game because he would be needed to start against Georgia if the Heels could win. White's arm was not nearly as lively as it had been in relief on Saturday night. He gave up a couple of runs in the sixth that put the game out of reach. Coach Fox said his relief pitchers were fatigued. Being in the loser's bracket mandates more innings and rain delays dictated back-to-back-to-back games. TV announcers coming to the defense of umpires gets really old. It happens every time there is a bad performance by an ump. Yes, it's a tough job but Mitch Mele was pathetic calling balls and strikes during Sunday night's game. A key point in the game came when Mele called Seth Williams out on a pitch that was so inside that it almost hit him. Williams was up with the bases loaded and only one out with the score 2-1 in the fourth. Announcer Barry Larkin, who is articulate and by all accounts a nice guy, is an announcing lightweight and rarely says anything insightful and never says anything provocative. In the sixth after a particularly bad strike call on Kyle Seager, Larkin said something that was so far from the truth that his announcing partner fell silent when he said it. Larkin said, "The one thing you look for is consistency and I can say one thing about Mitch Mele is he's been generous on the outer half but he's been consistent. He established a strike zone and he stayed with the strike zone he established and that's all you can ask for." Huh? The fact is that nearly all his bad calls happened to go against Carolina and he was not consistent about what was a strike. For instance, in the bottom of the third, Fresno State's Tommy Mendonca singled up the middle to drive in two runs after Mele called two strikes as balls. His balls and strikes calls could have changed the outcome of the game. Perhaps the Bulldogs wouldn't have gotten those two runs and perhaps Williams would have driven in a couple. When an ump makes bad calls, it can get in the head of hitters and they swing at bad pitches for fear it will be called a strike. Several Heels swung at bad pitches but who could blame them? One Bulldog hitter was even awarded first base for getting hit by a pitch - when the pitch was a strike! Jeez. While I'm ragging on the TV coverage, I almost got dizzy from all the flashbacks ESPN showed. Sometimes, especially because they use original crowd noise, you are confused for a split second as to whether a flashback is actually the game you are watching. Once I even thought they were showing a flashback and it was live game action. In the fourth inning, ESPN thought it was more important to show a flashback frm Georgia's 1990 national championship than a single by the Bulldogs. We totally missed the hit - never saw it, even on replay. Earlier, when Colin Bates came in to pitch for the Heels, he threw three pitches before TV viewers were introduced to him. That's because ESPN thought it was more important to show a live interview with Georgia's coach. Was this a Carolina game or a Georgia game? ESPN's decision to air the game on ESPN Classic indicates the lack of importance they saw in the game. ESPN Classic, which used to be Classic Sports Network before ESPN bought it several years ago, is supposed to be a channel for classic games from the past, not present-day games. They use it sometimes as overflow but to bump a College World Series game off ESPN2 because they wanted to show a repeat of the World Series of Poker from 2007 is ridiculous. Poker in high definition makes much more sense than baseball in hi-def I guess. |
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