College World Series June 16: Shutouts and Eliminations
The College World Series on June 16 featured two shutouts from Georgia and West Virginia. The Georgia win was over Texas and eliminated them. The West Virginia win eliminated the tournament’s Cinderella in Omaha. It had to end at some point.
These shutouts in elimination games were an emphatic statement moving forward. If Georgia can pitch like this, with their star-studded batting order, they are in good shape. They do have the most talented roster in the tournament. However, do not sleep on West Virginia. They had a resounding win and are powered by a great home-field advantage. Did you think these elimination games would be shutouts?
College World Series Summary June 17
The College World Series on June 17 featured two shutouts, and the top-ranked team remaining in the tournament staved off elimination. Also, West Virginia won via a shutout over a much less talented team. Here is how the games played out.
The third-ranked Georgia Bulldogs, the highest-ranked team left in the tournament, escaped elimination by beating Texas 2-0 in the College World Series. Georgia scored runs in the fifth and seventh innings to get the win. They also got great pitching performances. Starter Dylan Vigue struck out eight over four scoreless innings. Justin Byrd relieved him well with five shutout innings, giving up only two hits and striking out four. That completed the shutout.
As far as scoring in this game went, Georgia scored its first run in the fifth inning to break a scoreless tie. They got a double from Trey Phelps, which scored Bennen Hudson. In the seventh inning, Rylan Lugo hit a pop fly to shortstop, and the shortstop and leftfielder ran into each other with a runner on third base. Ryan Black tagged and scored. That was all the scoring there was; Georgia won 2-0 and moved on.
The other game in the College World Series on June 16 was not as close. West Virginia destroyed Troy 12-0. The sung, ‘Take me home, Country Roads‘ after the win. This game was only 2-0 in the fifth inning. West Virginia broke open the game with four runs in the sixth inning. They scored one in the seventh inning and tacked on five in the ninth, en route to their resounding victory. The four-run outburst in the sixth inning was powered by a three-run home run from Gavan Kelly.
West Virginia used pitchers to get the shutout. The most important was Reese Bassinger, who got out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning with nobody out. He did that by recording two strikeouts, including the last out of the inning, where he ran off the mound, pumping his fists. In all, he struck out five batters in two innings.
Today in the College World Series, North Carolina plays that team for West Virginia. This is a matchup of ranked teams and will take place at 2 pm. Oklahoma takes on Georgia at 7 pm. Both of these games are double-elimination games. It will be interesting to see if both of these teams will be able to leverage their shutouts from June 16 to win their first semifinal game.
Conclusion
North Carolina, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Georgia will play again on Thursday, and thenagain, if necessary, on Friday. It would be necessary if different teams win the first two games. The final series of the College World Series will take place over the weekend, with things wrapping up on Sunday or Monday, depending on whether the series goes two or three games. It would be better in the final series if there were only two games and wrapped up on Father’s Day.
