ACC ACC ACC

Yes Chicago Cubs fans there is hope.  There is a chance that one day the Cubs will be more than the team who doesn't have  a fan living that saw their last title they are all dead.  Wednesday night and early Thursday morning the team with the worse record ever to win the College World Series the Virginia Cavaliers 44-24 a member of the ACC beat the defending National Champions  Vanderbilt  4-2!

1955 national baseball power Wake Forest won the title.  Since that time almost 30 teams wearing the ACC Moniker on their sleeve have played in Omaha and everyone of them were better than this year's Virginia team but Yahoo for the Wahoos.  They removed the monkey from the ACC's back.  I would suspect this is the opening of the door for the ACC much like when Duke finally won their first basketball title.  They will now come in bunches for the ACC.

Both games Tuesday and Wednesday were hard to watch as both took near four hours to complete.  Too many batters staring at their bats in the batters box.  The Virginia catcher stared into his dugout looking for the pitch call more than he watched his pitcher.  The pace was mighty slow.  However there was enough spectacular defense to keep you awake by both sides.  If it wasn't for the defense the Championship game may have taken five hours.  Regardless of how tire I am it's worth it to see the ACC win it all.  How good of a year was this for the ACC?  Third in football first in basketball and first in baseball.

Virginia went 15-15 during conference play and at one time was 10-14. Won their play in game and then lost three straight games in bracket play in Durham.  Went west and maybe the weakest regional in the entire tournament and played as a three seed.  Saw two major top eight teams in their bracket lose and hosted the Super Regional after Maryland who was an upset winner  in their bracket never made a bid during the season to host a Super Regional.  Omaha saw the Whoos beat the top seed Florida twice and then knocked off the defending champs twice after being down by losing the first game of championship series.

Virginia was a patsy in baseball until coach Brian Conner arrived.  Conner play his college ball in Omaha for Creighton and pitched in the World Series  in 1991. His home town of Council Bluffs Iowa is just across the state line from Omaha.  Some times the stars just line up right.

Virginia is  a prime example of when coaches tell players never give up.  They got many breaks along the way.  Today They  have come from the dead to be National a Champions.

Moss Sees First Action

Benton Moss just newly signed minor league player for the Tampa Bay Rays went to the hill for the first time Monday night for his summer team the Hudson Valley Renegades.  He threw his first professional pitch out of the bullpen in the sixth inning of game four on the season. One inning he walked one and struck out one batter.

Hudson Valley is a team in the New York Penn League and the season just started last Friday. Playing their home opener after starting with three wins on the road  Moss took over in the sixth inning with his team ahead 1-0.  The next pitchers after Benton gave up six runs in their first loss.

Collins Cuthrell now more than a week into his professional baseball career playing for the Florence Ky Freedom is hitting 387 in his first eight games.  He has 12 hits in 31 at bats and a 387 average would be leading the league in hitting if he had enough at bats to qualify.   A player in the Frontier League needs to bat 2.7 times per game to have enough bats.  They have already played 32 games this season so Collins  would need to have batted almost 80 times.  He has hit a homer and driven in five RBI so far in his young professional career.

Brian Goodwin is on the upswing playing for the Harrisburg Pa Senators.  His low point this season his batting average had dipped to 206 but a hot streak his average is up to 240.  He has hit two home runs and with his speed now has three triples and nine doubles.
Brian started the season in AA coming off shoulder surgery which derailed his season in AAA Syracuse in July last year.  He is listed as the 13th top prospect in theWashington National organization.  If this hot streak continues Brian just might be heading back to Syracuse shortly.

Brian has a new teammate in Harrisburg in the name of Trea Turner former number one draft pick of the San Diego Padres who was acquired by Washington June 15th.  Sine he has been in Harrisburg he has played short stop and is hitting 313.

Finally Hobbs Johnson is now 4-4 pitching in Buloxi Ms.  His era is up to 3.68 and his sixty innings pitched he has walked 25 which is a high number for Hobbs. All during his high school days at Rocky Mount  and college at Carolina his walks per nine inning were under three.  Right now he is near five per nine innings and those extra men on base is keeping him at a five hundred pitcher.

Former Carolina pitcher Matt Harvey us making a nice comeback after having missed all of the 2014 season for the New York Mets after Tommy John surgery.  Harvey is 8-5 with an ERA of 3.18.  Harvey who has been known to toss the ball to the plate some times at 100 miles and hour has hit 100 since his co back.