Culture
Jones looks to crash BCS bash with new date SMU
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/cusa/2008-06-18-jones-smu_N.htm
They are college football's little guys, outsiders peering in at a celebration for someone else.
Think of the Bowl Championship Series games every January as the biggest party for the hottest fraternities, and these are the dorm guys, commuters maybe, hoping to sneak past the bouncers.
But that doesn't stop them from aspiring to the sport's grandest stage and, in recent years, they're getting there.
SMU: School looks to avoid past spending mistakes
HAWAII: Program tries to rebuild without Jones and Brennan
Boise State of the lightly regarded Western Athletic Conference did it two seasons ago, putting together an undefeated regular season, earning a BCS bid and then stunning Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.
USA Today.com
6/18/08
Dean’s 9th-nning double keeps LSU alive
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/wires/06/17/2060.ap.bbc.cws.rice.lsu.4th.ld.writethru.0909/
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -Blake Dean barely arrived at second base when his joyous LSU teammates mobbed him, starting the kind of celebration usually reserved for a national championship game.
After the hugging and backslapping were over, Dean showed the old been-there-done-that attitude as he talked about his game-winning, three-run double that kept the Tigers alive at the College World Series.
Yes, the LSU has done this before. The Tigers dramatic 6-5 victory over Rice on Tuesday marked the second time in three wins in the national tournament they've come back from a three-run deficit in the ninth inning. In fact, LSU has come from behind in 30 of its wins this season.
But this was different. This was Omaha, a place that hasn't been so kind to the Tigers since they won their last national championship in 2000.
Dean, however wouldn't let on. It was as if his double off the left-field wall against Cole St. Clair was meant to be.
"Believing isn't the issue,'' Dean said. "There's no doubt in our mind that we were going to do it.''
Now LSU (49-18-1) plays Thursday against the loser of Tuesday night's Bracket 2 game between Fresno State and North Carolina.
si.com
6/17/08
Georgia beats Stanford to take control of CWS bracket
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/baseball/recap?gameId=2816800611
OMAHA, Neb. -- Georgia has taken control of its bracket at the College World Series.
What a relief for the Bulldogs.
Actually, what a group of relief pitchers.
Georgia's bullpen turned in a second straight dominating performance at the CWS, this time allowing Stanford one single and four other baserunners in six shutout innings in Monday night's 4-3 victory over the Cardinal.
Matt Cerione produced the winning run with his two-out, bases-loaded single in the seventh inning.
After Stanford scored all its runs in the third inning against starter Nick Montgomery, Stephen Dodson and Alex McRee held things together on the mound while Georgia tried to solve Stanford's Jeffrey Inman and Austin Yount. Once the Bulldogs got the lead, they turned the game over to dependable closer Joshua Fields.
"When you stop a team like that and you give us a chance to get our offense going, we have enough weapons in our lineup that we're eventually going to break through and score," Georgia coach David Perno said. "If they [Stanford] only score in one frame, we're going to have a lot of success."
McRee (7-1) got the win after striking out two in 1 1/3 innings, and Fields earned his 17th save for working the ninth.
Now the Bulldogs (43-23-1) will wait until Friday to play the winner of Wednesday's Miami-Stanford game. A win in that game would send Georgia out of Bracket 1 and into the best-of-three championship round that begins next Monday.
The Bulldogs, who fought off elimination five times in the NCAA tournament, have come from behind in the late innings for its CWS wins over Miami and Stanford.
ESPN.com
6/17/08
