OMAHA, Neb. — Mark this down for future reference. The Men’s College World Series hasn’t matched the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in 24 years, going back to 1999.
But here we have No. 1 Wake Forest 2-0 on one side of the bracket, and No. 2 Florida 2-0 on the other side. Is Omaha about to witness something it hasn’t seen this century?
Depends. LSU could spoil the plot if the Tigers can knock off Wake Forest twice the next two days. LSU was ranked No. 1 much of this season so the Tigers are pretty big fish themselves. Wake Forest must be feeling some pressurized urgency Wednesday night because if the Demon Deacons lose, they could well be looking down the business end of Paul Skenes’ famous fastball on Thursday.
🤔 Contributing factors to Wake Forest's success
No, everyone knows the real gate crashers left in town. Mark this down for future reference, too. TCU has never played in the championship finals. Ever. What it will take to change that narrative is two wins over Florida. That’s asking a lot, but then it’s supposed to be that way here in June.
But is it doable? Recent precedent is not so encouraging to the Horned Frogs. Using the past 15 MCWS as a guide, 30 teams stood where TCU does now, needing to beat a team twice to move on. Only seven of the 30 pulled it off, the most recent Oregon State in 2018.
Then again, in this Men's College World Series anything seems possible. Unexpected twists galore. There’s been a 456-foot home run bouncing around the concession stand in left field, and Skenes topping 100-miles-an-hour 46 times in one game. There have been 13 runs scored in the first two innings, but 25 in the eighth and ninth. LSU sent out a pitcher Tuesday who hadn’t started a game all season — Nate Ackenhausen — and he shutout out Tennessee for six innings. Coach Jay Johnson texted him at 8:56 Tuesday morning to tell him he would be starting. Ackenhausen didn’t send this answer back until after 11 because he was sleeping in: “I’ll give you all I got.”
So Florida has been duly warned of the peril Wednesday afternoon. Just like Wake Forest will take the field later that night keenly aware of Skenes leaning over the rail in the LSU dugout, possibly needing only one more day of rest until he can hurl his 200 strikeouts and 1.81 earned run average at the Demon Deacons. Thursday will give him four days' rest from his Saturday win. Wake Forest will be facing a Tiger pitching staff that has given up only six runs and struck 38 batters in three games in Omaha.
And there has been Oral Roberts. That storybook had to have a last page and it was Tuesday with a 6-1 loss to TCU. “Not obviously how we wanted it to end but if you’re going to play the last game somewhere, it might as well be at Charles Schwab Field,” first baseman Jake McMurray said. “Just ran out of magic at the end.”
It was something of a bizarre final chapter. An Oral Roberts balk was changed to a pitch clock violation for ball four, meaning the TCU runner who was awarded home had to go back to third, and the batter who thought the count was 3-1 could walk to first base. Later, two Horned Frogs were tagged out while both in the vicinity of third base. It was ruled a double play, despite one of the runners being knocked off the bag by a Golden Eagles infielder. And while all that was happening, TCU coach Kirk Saarloos was doing an ESPN interview, so he had to excuse himself, take off his headphones and check with the umpires to find out what the heck was going on out there.
“Just a weird game, a crazy game,” Oral Roberts coach Ryan Folmar said afterward.
Since the Horned Frogs have sent Oral Roberts home, they now assume the upstart role. And yeah, given the theme of intrigue in 2023, anything seems on the table Wednesday — and maybe Thursday — at Charles Schwab Field.
TCU was once 23-20 and had to fight for its life to save its season. The hardened purpose from that experience could be heard in the Horned Frogs voices Tuesday as they pondered the task at hand against Florida.
From centerfielder Elija Nunez: “We’ve had our backs against the wall for a long time now.”
And second baseman Tre Richardson: “That’s how we got here. We got back to playing like that, playing with our hair on fire.”
From pitcher Kole Klecker, who allowed one run in five innings in game 1 and might be Wednesday’s starter against the Gators: “It’s what we’ve been doing all season, so it’s kind of normal to us. We like it.”
And Saarloos: “We’ve been playing kind of this style or this type of game situation for six weeks. It’s just what they’ve been doing. Now that there’s a second deck on the stadium, there’s 23,000 people. I don’t think it’s changed anything.
“I think they got consistent at being consistent...That’s the neat thing about coaching 18 to 22-year old kids; it’s fun when they all grab hold of it together and don’t want it to end. And I think that’s what this group is doing. They’ve got their head down, they haven’t taken a second to look up, and I think they’re enjoying what they’ve been able to do.”
👀 See the full Men's College World Series bracket here
That includes winning 21 of their last 24 and quickly forgetting the shocking way their trip here began — losing to Oral Roberts 6-5 in game 1 when the Golden Eagles scored four runs in the ninth inning. That exploding cigar sentenced TCU to the trials of the loser’s bracket. It’s a hard road, but the Horned Frogs have responded by allowing only four runs and 12 hits in the two wins since over Virginia and Oral Roberts. Florida hasn’t exactly been bashing opponents, eking by with two one-run victories while hitting .215 as a team in Omaha, so there’s another opportunity for the TCU pitchers. Still, beating any SEC team here is hazardous duty and now the Horned Frogs have to do it twice in two days.
But lately, they’ve refused to take no for an answer. They have not trailed by more than two runs in a game since the beginning of May. They have pushed three of the top-16 nationally seeded teams — No. 3 Arkansas, No. 14 Indiana State and No. 7 Virginia — right out of the tournament. Plus Cinderella.
TCU expected to be in the middle of this, too. Saarloos mentioned in jest Tuesday how the team might have been close to its weight limit on the flight here, since everyone packed heavily because “we’re planning on being here a long time.” Bottom line, he said, his guys just love to play baseball.
“Throughout this whole season we’ve probably been in every situation possible,” shortstop Anthony Silva said.
Well, not this one.