Brandon Walker and I Made Our ESPN Debut This Weekend
Good morning Omaha!
Day 2 was another exciting day to be at the College World Series. I want to thank Ameristar Council Bluffs for their hospitality hosting the Barstool Sports crew. The Ameristar Sportsbook still has a few Barstool In Omaha T-Shirts available that you get if you place a $25 CWS parlay. Do not miss out on this if you are in Omaha supporting your school in the CWS as Ameristar is only a short 5 minute drive away.
I met up with Big T for the Virginia/Tennessee early game early Sunday afternoon. Vol Nation showed up strong as I expected for the 1pm first pitch. Big T and I have been covering college baseball for Barstool Sports this season and it was fun to see how excited how he was to se his team play in Omaha for the first time since 2005. I took Over 7.5 runs in this game and had a Tennessee/Mississippi State parlay on the Barstool Sportsbook app.
For the second straight day, I got destroyed in the opening game. It was also hot as heck. From the moment this game started, Tennessee was snake bitten. They had runners on 1st and 3rd in the 1st inning and could not get any home. That was the story the entire game. Virginia Ace Lefty Pitcher Andrew Abbot threw a heckuva game pitching out of several jams. Virginia got a solo homer early and extended the lead the entire game as the Vols went a woeful 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position.
Virginia broke the game open with 4 runs in the 7th to extend the lead to 5-0. Tennessee never got anything going and the final was 6-0 Cavs. I was kind of frustrated to lose this Under bet as there easily could have been 10-12 runs in this game with the village Tennessee stranded on the bases but all in the game. I felt bad for Big T who had a miserable experience seeing his team lose in Omaha.
After the 1st game, I walked around the tailgating lots and checked out the beer garden. Once again I got recognized by a bunch of college baseball fans and it was great to see the support we are getting in Omaha with Barstool and the College World Series. I hung out at the Mississippi State tailgates and was pleasantly surprised by the reception I got considering how much Brandon Walker and I go at it in the Egg Bowl rivalry. A lot of Bulldog fans seem to appreciate me going hard for the “Grow The Game” college baseball motto all season.
I went back into TD Ameritrade early for the Texas/Mississippi State 6pm 1st pitch. For the second night in a row, everything was amazing in the ballpark. The weather was perfect and both fan bases packed the place. I sat in the heart of the Mississippi State section with Brandon Walker and was the butt of the joke in this pregame video.
Dave Portnoy and Big Cat were once again rightfully messing with me for how ice cold the college baseball picks were to start the day. I took Mississippi State +130 on the Barstool Sportsbook app in the night game and assured Dave I was doing this. He went ahead and sent this message congratulating Texas Baseball before the game.
The game was a fantastic pitching dual between Texas Ace and projected high 1st round pick Ty Madden and Miss State Ace Will Bednar. It also was a strikeout fest. The two teams had a combined one hit in the first 3 innings. While Madden pitched a good game for Texas, it was Bednar who stole the show with a whopping 15 Strikeouts in 6 innings pitched! He completely mowed the Longhorns down. As he was leaving the field with a 2-0 lead in the 7th, the entire stadium including Longhorn fans gave him a standing ovation. Bednar threw up the Horns down symbol as he walked off the field.
Mississippi State beast closer Landon Sims entered the game and closed out the 7th and 8th innings. State had a 2-0 lead entering the 9th when things got real dicey. Texas hit a solo homer to start the 9th then got runners on 1st and 3rd. The stadium atmosphere was super charged when Sims forced the final Texas hitter to ground out to 2nd base and the Bulldogs won 2-1 in a pitching dual. Mississippi State moves on to face Virginia Tuesday night at 6pm in the Winners Bracket and Texas will play Tennessee Tue at 1pm in a fascinating loser leaves town matchup.
Brandon Walker and I also were on the ESPN cameras a couple of times in the game and our phones blew up when the cameras caught us.
It was very difficult to find an Uber after the game out of the stadium but after an hour a couple of Mississippi friends of mine and I got one. We then headed to see my buddy and musician Andy Frasco burn the new venue Barnato down. We made it in time to see the last hour of the show and it was freaking insane! Frasco bring so much energy and stage presence to live music. I highly suggest you check him out around the country if you get a chance. I got multiple comments about people seeing my tweet who went to check him out for the first time. They were blown away! He even crowd surfed to the bar to take a Jameson shot then crowd surfed back to the stage in this ridiculous video.
I called the night right after the show and am up fairly early to attack this Monday. We will be doing Picks Central live at DJ’s Dugout Sports Bar at 11am Monday to Friday next to TD Ameritrade. We have a fun crew with Brandon Walker, Marty Mush, Carl, Big T and myself with TJ Hitchings producing. Come see us college baseball fans before you hit the 1pm Stanford/Arizona game!
I like Arizona and their loaded offense in game 1 today. My Barstool Sportsbook Parlay will be Arizona -1.5 runs +135 and Over 12.5 runs. I will also be taking Arizona to win. I have seen enough of this bunch against Ole Miss and Vandy to know I am glad I do not have to cheer against them today! They are one of the best hitting teams I have seen in years. I expect them to score a bunch of runs today.
The 6pm game today is a fascinating matchup in the Winners Bracket between Vandy and North Carolina State. Vandy will be throwing superstar Jack Leiter against the red hot Wolfpack. Vandy is a -175 favorite and I will be staying away from this game to cheer for my Vandy pick to win the CWS. Vandy must win this game with Leiter throwing to have good shot to make the championship series. NC State crushed Stanford 10-4 on Saturday and is the hottest team here. Dave Portnoy has them at a great value of +1500 to win it all too so this will be a battle of our picks. I definitely expect more beaking on Twitter today!