Craig Smith

3 weeks ago | atozsports.com | Craig Smith

One of the great advantages of the NCAA baseball Tournament - as opposed to championship events in some other sports - is the ability of teams who've had the best seasons to earn their run to a championship at home.  With NCAA baseball, that's supposed to be the case. The top 16 teams get to host in their home ballpark in front of their home crowd. It's an advantage that is earned. However, it's not one without a fault that's carried on for years that should be changed going forward.

3 weeks ago | stateoftheu.com | Craig Smith

Photo by Samuel Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images That was just gross. The Miami Hurricanes’ first chance at winning the Hattiesburg regional was over in minutes. Before the end of half an inning. The Golden Eagles put up 9 runs in the top of the first, and it was on to Monday before the Canes even came up to bat. The big blow was a 3-run HR to end the scoring in the first and finally send Tate DeRias to the showers.

3 weeks ago | atozsports.com | Craig Smith

The Vanderbilt Commodores made a very bold proclamation after winning a series over the Tennessee Volunteers earlier this month in Knoxville: "our state". As it turns out, things didn't go to well in that state this weekend. The Commodores fell to Wright State 5-4 in an elimination game in Nashville, ending the NCAA Tournament top overall seeded Commodores' season. The Commodores' failures highlighted two things that have come with earning the tournament's top overall seed.

3 weeks ago | stateoftheu.com | Craig Smith

Photo by Samuel Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Well, that was fun, once again. With less of a cardiac issue this time around. The Miami Hurricanes blew the doors off of 4 seed Columbia on Saturday night 14-1 to reach the Hattiesburg regional final. Griffin Hugus was Huge-us for the Canes on the bump, going the distance on 122 pitches with 1 ER allowed with 9 strikeouts. A masterful effort.

3 weeks ago | atozsports.com | Craig Smith

It's happened to many of us before.  Ol' Fred is up on the tee box on a sleepy Saturday morning. He waggles his club, pauses a second, and takes a big swing. The ball flies majestically before putting on a right turn signal and cutting hard to the right. Thwock! Off the roof of some poor house beyond the rough. Your buddies giggle and snort as you all shuffle quickly to the golf cart and fly up the fairway to play your next shot and get gone before the homeowner comes outside.