South Carolina: College World Series Champs

As great as the College World Series is, it unfortunately gets lost in the shuffle of other major sports in the United States. Sure, it gets pretty good publicity with ESPN covering the games, but much of the media's attention is focused on the NBA Draft, NBA free agency, Major League Baseball, and the major Golf and Tennis championships, Heck, even the OTA's (Organized Team Activities) for football seem to attract more attention than College Baseball. 

Regardless of whether the CWS deserves more media attention or not, the South Carolina Gamecocks played a near perfect final series en route to becoming National Champions. South Carolina's pitching and defense was truly remarkable in its two games against the Bruins from UCLA. In 20 innings (Game 2 was 11 innings long), the Gamecocks allowed two runs, 11 hits, and struck out 17 batters. 

While I followed the CWS relatively closely, it is quite hard to know who the stronger players are and what the weaknesses and strengths of a given team are. This is not College Basketball or Football where countless regular season games are televised over the major networks. Rather, College Baseball truly begins from the media perspective during the selection show where 64 teams are placed into a bracket.

There have been many memorable games at the historic Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, NB, but the stadium will close its doors as a new stadium is slated to open for next year's Championship. South Carolina, winning its first National Championship in any sport, can proudly say they were the last team to hoist the Championship trophy and plaque at Rosenblatt.