UVA persevered last night (or should I say this morning since the game ended at 1 AM EST ?!) for a 3-2 win over TCU in the College World Series, putting them in the driver's seat in their side of the bracket with a 2-0 record. The game went 15 innings, which set a new record for most innings in a game for the new TD Ameritrade ballpark in Omaha and tied the all-time record going back to the old stadium, Rosenblatt. I remember the game that set the previous record in the new park, a 13 inning game in 2011 that Virginia lost to South Carolina. That one was excruciating, since it seemed like UVA had base runners in scoring position in every darn inning and couldn't get the winning run across. Last night was actually less painful to watch because UVA could do absolutely nothing against TCU's bullpen from the 10th thru the 14th, so you just felt kind of numb.
Watching these games, it becomes obvious how much the combination of the new standards for the aluminum bats and the softer, high-seam baseball make for low scoring pitchers duels. No one can even reach the warning track in this stadium with the equipment that they're using now. I'd rather see it this way than 21-14, which was the score in a final about 5 or 6 years ago, when the bats were just catapulting balls to the farthest reaches of the stadium. However, it seems like there should be a middle ground which might make more people happy with how the games are played. It sounds like next year, they're going with a harder ball (similar to the ball used in the minor leagues) with lower seams, which should fly farther and won't let pitchers get so much break on their pitches. Maybe that will get us to a happy medium of a couple of home runs a game and some 7-4 and 6-3 games along with the 3-2 and 2-1 nail-biters which rule the roost this year.
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