Tag: 2022 College World Series

Notre Dame alumnus Ryan Cole makes professional debut with Glacier

Good luck to Ryan.

With his Notre Dame days behind him, [autotag]Ryan Cole[/autotag] was ready to take the next step in his baseball career. Less than two months removed from playing in the College World Series, Cole has found a new team. That team is the Glacier Range Riders of the Pioneer Baseball League.

Cole’s played in his first professional game Tuesday against the Billings Mustangs, starting in left field. It wasn’t the best pro debut in baseball history as he went 0 for 3 with one strikeout. We’ll chalk that up to first-game jitters and just getting used to the next level. After all, this league has been playing its season since late May.

In his final season with the Irish, Cole made Third Team All-ACC and his second straight All-ACC Academic Team. He ended his collegiate career with a slash line of .284/.409/.461 as well as 18 home runs and 76 RBIs. Here’s hoping he can achieve those numbers at the next level soon.

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Notre Dame wins Capital One Trophy for male athletics

This is rather nice.

From a nice football season to a March Madness run to a College World Series berth, Notre Dame’s male programs had a fine 2021-22 campaign. Now, they’re being rewarded for it. For the second time, Notre Dame has won the Capital One Trophy for the men’s side. It’s also the fourth time a school has been awarded the trophy multiple times. The others are Virginia, Stanford and Florida.

Irish athletic director [autotag]Jack Swarbrick[/autotag] took to Twitter to express pride for what the male programs did during the past school year:

The Irish previously won the trophy in 2013-14. In addition to the new hardware, the athletic department will be awarded $250,000 to be used for its student-athlete scholarship fund. One only can imagine the impact that will have over the next few years.

It’s nice to see Notre Dame receive a token of all the success we’ve seen recently. Here’s to an equally successful 2022-23 school year.

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Notre Dame lands Davidson right-handed starter Blake Hely

Like this get for the Irish?

Notre Dame’s run to the College World Series caught the attention of the college baseball world. Some players in the transfer portal had to have seen it as a potential next destination. One person who already was won over was Davidson right-handed starting pitcher [autotag]Blake Hely[/autotag], who informed BlueAndGold.com of his enrollment at the university. This comes right after [autotag]Jack Findlay[/autotag] withdrew his name from the transfer portal.

Hely comes to Notre Dame after four years with the Wildcats. During that time, he compiled a 17-7 record with a 4.09 ERA and 189 strikeouts over 191 2/3 innings. In 2022, he went 9-2, had a 3.80 ERA and struck out 97 hitters over 85 1/3 innings. He also has spent time in the South Florida Collegiate Baseball League.

Hely is the son of Bob Hely, who was drafted out of high school in the fifth round by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1975. Instead of turning professional, he went to Wake Forest, where he saw football game action at quarterback in 1976 and 1977.

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Notre Dame righty Roman Kimball reportedly transfers to South Carolina

Think the Irish will miss him?

Although Notre Dame is coming off a College World Series appearance, not everyone sees a chance to thrive in South Bend. One of them is right-handed reliever [autotag]Roman Kimball[/autotag], who is transferring to South Carolina according to 247Sports. Kimball just completed his freshman season with the Irish, making 17 appearances out of the bullpen. He had a 5.76 ERA and struck out 32 batters over 25 innings. This summer, he is pitching for the Chatham Anglers of the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Kimball, who hails from New Hartford, New York, went past one inning eight times with the Irish. His longest outing was four innings in a 5-1 Irish win over Valparaiso on April 19. He nearly equaled that in his lone game with the Anglers to this point, going three innings.

While this will be a tough loss for the Irish’s bullpen, Kimball obviously thought this decision through, so all we can do is wish him well with the Gamecocks.

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Report: Shawn Stiffler hired as Notre Dame baseball coach

Like the hire?College World Series

With Link Jarrett moving within the ACC to Florida State, Notre Dame needed a new coach to build upon its College World Series berth. Less than three weeks after the end of the 2022 season, the Irish appear to have found their man. According to Matt Fortuna of The Athletic, VCU coach [autotag]Shawn Stiffler[/autotag] has been tabbed as the Irish’s next coach.

Stiffler just completed his 10th season as Rams coach, accumulating a 352-207 record during that time, including a 42-20 record in 2022. Stiffler has led the Rams to the Atlantic 10 Tournament title and the NCAA Tournament in each of the past two years and in 2015. They also won the regular-season title in 2019, and Stiffler was named the conference’ coach of the year.

During Stiffler’s tenure, the Rams produced four All-Americans, five Freshman All-Americans and 43 all-conference players. Here’s hoping that success will carry over against the arguably tougher competition that will come with this new job.

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2022 Women’s College World Series final does better ratings than CWS counterpart

With the Women’s College World Series coming out ahead, both the WCWS and the College World Series saw huge ratings in 2022

Both college softball and college baseball are considered growing entities, but, as of now, one appears to be ahead of the other, and it might not be what you think.

Both the Women’s College World Series and College World Series were broadcast on ESPN. The WCWS produced both a higher peak viewership and a higher average viewership. The WCWS accomplished this while having lower ratings than in 2021.

How streaming figures into this is a bit of a question mark. These are only cable numbers. When including cord-cutters, the numbers are going to be much higher.

This is a very good thing for the future of sports for women’s athletics and college sports in general.

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I’m just going to put this out there: The tournament that had the Oklahoma Sooners win yet another national championship had better ratings. I’m just saying.

After a bit of a down year in 2021, the CWS’ ratings were up 19% to get back to pre-pandemic numbers.

This is definitely something to keep an eye on in the future. Both baseball and softball are going to be getting more interesting at the collegiate level very soon.

More and more high school baseball players are opting to go to college with the MLB draft still shortened following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, in softball, Women’s Professional Fastpitch, a professional softball league is in its first season. The WPF has multiple former Sooners in its ranks, including Collegiate Player of the Year Jocelyn Alo and WCWS Star Hope Trautwein.

ESPN put both the CWS and WCWS on their streaming service ESPN+, making it even easier to follow college sports than ever.

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Peyton Graham, Jake Bennett, Trevin Michael bring home D1Baseball All-American honors

After a tremendous 2022 season, three Oklahoma Sooners were named to D1 Baseball’s All-American teams.

Though the 2022 season didn’t end the way they’d hope, the Oklahoma Sooners were fantastic, going on a two-month run where they were arguably the best team in baseball. That run was halted by Ole Miss in the College World Series championship, but that shouldn’t take away from the tremendous performance they put on in 2022.

And for their efforts this season, three Oklahoma Sooners were awarded All-American honors by D1Baseball. Peyton Graham, who hit .335 with 20 home runs and 71 RBIs was named to the first team. Jake Bennett and Trevin Michael were named second-team All-Americans.

Bennett went 10-3, with a 3.66 ERA, one save, 123 strikeouts, and just 22 walks in 110.2 innings pitched. He also allowed a .236 opponents batting average on the season.

Michael went 4-1 with 10 saves and a 2.66 ERA in 71 innings pitched. He struck out 95 batters, walked 20, and allowed an opponent’s batting average of .206.

Oklahoma was one of two teams to have three All-American selections along with Oregon State. Tennessee led the way with four selections.

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Photos from Oklahoma’s 4-2 loss to Ole Miss in the CWS championship

Take a look back at some of the best photos from Oklahoma’s final game of the season in the College World Series championship.

The dream run for the Oklahoma Sooners became the nightmare scenario on Sunday as Ole Miss won 4-2 to complete the sweep and capture their first College World Series national championship.

Oklahoma played much better on Sunday than they did on Saturday, but a couple of passed balls did them in in the eighth inning and the Ole Miss pitching staff kept the Sooners’ bats at bay the rest of the way to pull off the championship win.

Though there are no moral victories in sports, the Sooners’ magical run should still be appreciated for their effort and their play, which got them to the championship series to begin with. They were arguably the best team in the country heading into the final, combining their excellent offense with some great pitching from their starters Jake Bennett and Cade Horton and reliever Trevin Michael.

It wasn’t the outcome that we expected as the Sooners played fairly clean ball throughout the NCAA tournament and had been great with runners in scoring position and with two outs. It wasn’t to be this weekend as Ole Miss took home their first national championship, but Oklahoma should be proud of the season they had. Could they have played better in the final, absolutely, but that shouldn’t take away from their tremendous run through the postseason.

Cade Horton was electric though. Striking out 13 and allowing just four hits and a hit by pitch. He provided a thrilling performance that had the sports world talking. Though he didn’t end up with the win, he was fantastic and has an incredibly bright future ahead of him.

With the baseball season coming to a close, let’s take a look at some of the best photos from the Sooners final game of 2022.

Sooners Nation reacts to Oklahoma Baseball’s loss in the CWS and their fantastic 2022 season

It didn’t end the way many thought it would, but the Oklahoma Sooners made a remarkable run to the CWS final and Sooner Nation reacted with thanks.

It was a rough way to end the season for a team that had been one of the best in the country over the last two months. Oklahoma rolled off five straight series wins to close the Big 12 regular season, won the Big 12 tournament title, and played great in the NCAA tournament, losing just two games before running into Ole Miss.

Against Ole Miss, the Sooners couldn’t get the bats going and got in their own way at times with costly wild pitches and errors. Their inability to take advantage of runners in scoring position is what was ultimately their downfall as they only earned one run with a bases-loaded one-out situation in the deciding game after getting nothing with the bases loaded and nobody out on Saturday.

While it was an unfortunate end to the season, that shouldn’t take away from the tremendous year that Oklahoma had on the diamond. Sooners Nation was hoping for one more game, but despite the loss, offered their support for the way the ball club fought to get to the championship series.

Let’s take a look at some of the best reactions. There were some thoughts about the interference call, but mostly this is a time to appreciate the moments the Oklahoma Sooners baseball team provided in 2022.

Oklahoma falls 4-2, Ole Miss secures first baseball national championship

The Oklahoma Sooners got a great performance from Cade Horton but it wasn’t enough as the Sooners fell 4-2 to Ole Miss, who secured their first national championship.

It was a pitchers duel through five innings as Oklahoma’s Cade Horton and Ole Miss’ Hunter Elliott dazzled in game two of the College World Series final.

The Sooners looked to take a 1-0 lead in the sixth, but umpires ruled John Spikerman out after interfering with first baseman Tim Elko. The run that scored was returned to third base and Ole Miss was able to get out of the first and third situation unscathed.

The Rebels struck first off of Horton when Jacob Gonzalez homered to right field. The Sooners answered back in the top of the seventh after a double by Jackson Nicklaus scored Jimmy Crooks from second. After loading the bases, Kendall Pettis drew a four-pitch walk to take a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh.

Cade Horton, who pitched well again this postseason, provided a shutdown inning, retiring the Rebels in order to preserve the one-run lead.

Oklahoma was unable to add to their lead in the top of the eighth and after Cade Horton retired the first batter of the inning with his 13th strikeout of the game, the Sooners turned to closer Trevin Michael. Michael had been fantastic in the postseason, but in this appearance, things didn’t go his way.

Entering the game with runners on first and third and just one out, Michael threw two wild pitches, leading to two Ole Miss runs. That was ultimately the ball game as the Sooners struck out in order in the top of the ninth to end the ball game and their season.

Horton was fantastic in this outing, allowing just four hits, striking out 13 and surrendering a hit by pitch.

It was a fantastic run by the Oklahoma Sooners who were playing inconsistent ball two months ago before they began their stretch of five straight series wins to close out the regular season. They added to that a Big 12 tournament title and were great through the NCAA tournament before running into Ole Miss, who secured their first College World Series national championship.

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