So Texas is a football state, eh? Well yeah, we all know it is, but baseball may be “pitching” for its stake of the state’s college sports landscape bragging rights. You see the University of Texas, Texas Tech and TCU are all heading to Omaha, Nebraska for the College World Series starting Saturday. We’re now down to the final 8 teams of the college baseball season after this past weekend’s Super Regionals, and that the state of Texas (and the Big 12) have three teams still standing is nothing to sneeze at.
For those not overly familiar with the college baseball set-up, those 8 remaining squads will be playing in a week-long double elimination (lose two games you’re done) tournament leading up to a best two-out-of-three Finals starting on Monday the 23rd. Texas will be making a record 35th appearance in Omaha (they have more appearances then the other 7 schools combined) and will kick it off against UC Irvine (2nd trip) on Saturday, while second-timer TCU will square off against the first-time Red Raiders on Sunday. Vanderbilt (2nd trip), Louisville (3rd trip), Virginia (3rd trip) and Ole Miss (5th trip) round out the competitors.
Of the eight national seeds that started the 64-team tournament two weeks ago, only No. 3 Virginia and No. 7 TCU are still standing. That’s the fewest to advance to the CWS since the tournament went to its current format in 1999.
