CWS gets underway
While the majority of college sports fans focus on the relatively new football playoff or the cash cow that is the March Madness basketball tournament, they may actually take a backseat to baseball and softball when it comes to doing the postseason right.
The college football playoff is still in its infancy and only has four teams. Ideally for this fan, it would expand to eight teams, and while expansion is going to happen, it may take several more years to get to that point.
The March Madness tournament sits at 68 teams with four play-in games to get to the 64-team tournament.
Both the college football and college basketball tournaments are single elimination which means that on any given day, teams can be upset and it leads to Cinderella stories, at least in March Madness.
But do baseball and softball have the perfect formula?
Both sports advance 64 teams to their respective tournaments, but they are not single elimination settings.
The baseball tournament gets underway this week with the regional round. In this round, there are 16 sites with four teams at each location.
The four teams are seeded with the regional top seed facing the fourth seed and the second seed facing the third seed.
The best part is that the losing teams are still alive as the round features a double elimination, meaning a team has to lose twice to be eliminated.
The regional winners advance to the Super Regionals next weekend where there will be eight pairs of teams in a best-of-three series.
The eight winning teams advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., with the event beginning June 16 and concluding on June 26, at the earliest.
The World Series begins with the double-elimination format until two teams remain with the final two playing a best-of-three championship series.
I will be in Omaha for a part of the Series and am looking forward to the experience.
All of the baseball games are on the Watch ESPN App with some games being spread across the ESPN family of TV channels at different times.
The softball tournament is already through the Regionals and the Super Regionals with the softball World Series beginning Thursday. All games from here on out are either on ESPN or ESPN2.
The best part about the baseball and softball tournaments is that if a top seed has an off game and loses, it can bounce back.
So if you are a fan of the action on the diamond, sit back and enjoy the action.
Yantko finishes freshman year
When Sophia Yantko graduated a year ago from Belle Vernon and signed with Ohio University, she knew being a part of the track and field team would be a different experience.
She just didn’t know how much of a difference it would be.
“It was my first year competing on a Division I level and I truly did not know what to expect, and of course, I was nervous,” she said with a chuckle. “I trained all year long and learned different techniques.”
Her own toughest critic, Yantko said she will improve on her freshman finish.
“For the season, it was for sure not my best,” said Yantko who is a second-generation javelin thrower at Ohio, following the footsteps of her father. “I had a phenomenal fifth-year javelin thrower to look up to and I will be able to look back at this year as a trial run.”
At the recent MAC championships, Yantko went into the meet qualifying in 17th place with a throw of 35.10 meters and that is where she finished at the championships.
“Even though I did not throw to my upmost ability, I was proud of myself for even making it as far as a freshman to the (MAC) championships,” she said. “That was my ultimate goal.”
Yantko trained all year for the javelin and focusing on one event was something new to her.
“I had never done that before,” she said of focusing on one event. “I practiced hard every day and listened and focused on what I was being taught by my new and awesome coach.
“Everything was new to me, but (moving forward) to next year, I should be prepared and ready to throw to my potential.”
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