One of my cousins got a full scholarship to VMI for baseball, he plays first base and bats in the number four spot, and is currently in his third year. So when he called me up and said they were hittin the road for UNC this weekend, and told me he could get free tickets for me and my brother, I drove to CNU after school friday, met my brother at his apartment, and we took off for chapel hill.  

As UNC is ranked number 1 in the nation, nobody was really expecting the Keydets to be able to do much, but they did manage to put up a good fight in the first game. Holding Carolina to a 1 run lead (score was 4 to 3) til the 6th inning, when a pitching change allowed 9 more Carolina runs to score. The second game wasn't much better, however, VMI's starting pitcher Chris Henderson pitched an awesome 6 innings, allowing only 2 Carolina runs to score. But several errors in the outfield and a lack of any offense whatsoever led to a Keydet 6 to 0 loss.  

The highlight of the whole trip was seeing my cousin turn on a split finger fastball in the first game and yank it over the left-center fence, the ball was still rising when it left the park, which means it prob went about 420 feet. It was the first homerun ever hit in Carolina's new stadium and it was off the number one pitcher in the nation  

Super.

Great report and glad to see the VMI guys keep up with UNC for those innings.

There is a statue on the UNC campus of a guy holding a rifle. They call the statue Sam.

Did his gun go off when you walked by???  

Do you know what happens when his gun goes off when you walk by?

And one small correction, LSU is #1 in two of the three polls at this time.  But one poll did have UNC #1 so we will have to double check the polls this week to see where the teams are ranked.

Hopefully you can play baseball for VMI, UNC, UVA, Richmond, JMU, Radford, Tech or another school (excluding Toolame in New Orleans).

Wonderful report and glad you had a fun time.

College baseball is a lot more fun than the majors as the guys are playing for the love of the sport and not money.  

Congrats, basspro. I can understand being proud of your cousin for hitting a homer off of UNC's stud. That's quite a feat.

Sam, what is with LSU? I always hear about how good they are during the season but then they never make it to the televised super regionals -- or at least none that I have seen. I see a lot of Tulane, Ole Miss, Florida, Alabama, but no LSU.

And you are 100% dead on about college ball being better than the majors. I love watching the regionals and super regionals up through the CWS. Much more entertaining than MLB.

Dan,

LSU makes it to the Super Regionals when they win their regionals.

Hopefully the Fighting Tigers will make the Super Regionals and the College World Series again this season.

What makes college baseball so great is that small schools can make it to the College World Series as opposed to the smaller and mid-majors hardly ever making it to the Final Four and never having a chance for the BCS National Championship football game.

Where else can James Madison make it to the Final Four, like George Mason, UCLA, Kentucky North Carolina; and where else can a Davidson have the opportunity to play and upset major teams and advance to the Elite Eight?

It happens in college baseball.

Even Rice, East Carolina, Duke and Toolame can do well in baseball while they are homecoming opponents in football.

LSU has six (6) CWS championships and this year they could add to their total.

Baseball is a funny sport.  Win 60% of your games; get a hit once every four (4) at-bats; and you will be very successful and wealthy.  

Despite it's weird students, UNC has a beautiful campus. I grew up watching and playing against Dustin Ackley from UNC. He is sure to go pro.

I was told that they were having Turtle stew Saturday night snack. ;D