Beyond the Diamond

- Recap of NC State Disaster  - Vanderbilt Highlights on their way to the Championship - Mississippi State Highlights on their way to the Championship - Picks for the Series

Colby and Hunter give their picks for each bracket and the CWS!

Hunter is BACK! Colby and Hunter open up with a UConn sendoff with Hunter giving us a rundown of how special this team was and how great a run they made. We then get into the 8 super regional matchups, starting with the most shocking of events: Arkansas losing to NC State in 3 games. Highlighted by the game 3 decision to start Kopps and leave him in into the 9th by Dave Van Horn. Kevin Kopps is not to blame for this loss at all. The man had one of the most incredible years by a collegiate baseball player and should be praised because Arkansas would not have made it this far without him. Then we recap Texas vs USF series in which Texas was tested in game 1, but rolled to the sweep in game 2. Texas is now undefeated through the super regionals and is entering the CWS 5-0. Tennessee vs LSU was a great environment with Tennessee having a home run derby to sweep the series in game 2, but not before a great send-off to one of the greatest college coaches ever, Paul Mainieri. Vandy vs ECU was the pitching duel in game 1 everyone expected with projected first-round picks Kumar Rocker and Gavin Williams dueling for 8 innings. Unfortunately for ECU, they had to face Jack Leiter in game 2 and did not fare much better. Rocker and Leiter look to be in peak form making Vandy the hardest out now in Omaha. For the national 5 seed, Arizona, they faced a tough team in Ole Miss led by folk hero Tim Elko, but that did not prevent them from having a HR derby of their own in Tuscon. DBU vs UVA was the battle of the two 3 seeds and it definitely was a great series with UVA winning on a Grand Slam in game 3. Mississippi State vs Notre Dame was the series everyone tabbed as much watch and boy did game 1 prove why. State ended up winning in 3 games. And the other shocker of a series, Stanford completely dismantled Texas Tech outscoring them 24-3 over the two games, a complete obliteration highlighted by starters Brenden Beck, Alex Williams, and slugging centerfielder Brock Jones. On Friday we will have another episode for you guys with a rundown of each of the final 8 teams and give our predictions for each bracket in Omaha.

Hunter is out again with UConn playing in the South Bend Regional, so we asked friends of the show, Ryan and Nick, to come and help fill in for him as they both have a vested interest in the CWS with Ryan at TCU and Nick at Fairfield. We began the show talking all about the top 8 national seeds and how each of their first games went last night particularly focusing on the Tennessee walk-off, TCU waking up with Ryan providing some extra commentary on what he has seen from his Horned Frogs thus far, Kevin Koppps, and Kumar Rocker. Then shifted into some UConn highlights from their dominating win last night over Michigan where Austin Pederson went 5.2 with 9K's and Erik Stock went 4-4 with a double and 3 RBIs. Then Nick gave us the recap of the electric Fairfield Arizona State game last night where the Stags lost a heartbreaker. We also highlighted some of the best games from the day yesterday including Florida getting stunned on their home turf by USF and again losing today to Southern Alabama to be the first 1 seed out of the tourney, Tim Elko igniting the greatest home run celebration in college baseball with his grand slam on a torn ACL. And recapping the best game of the early slate in South Carolina vs. Virginia with South Carolina winning 4-3. Then we transitioned to some MLB talk highlighting the great home run race that is going on, MLB cracking down on pitchers using foreign substances, Kevin Gausman for NL CY Young, and much more. You sure don't want to miss another great episode of Beyond the Diamond. Be sure to check us out on Instagram @beyondthediamondpodcast and Twitter @beyondthediapod!!

Hey guys sorry for putting this episode out a little later than usual. Colby got caught up with some editing for my summer internship. This week, Hunter was out at the BIG EAST Championship so our friend Dylan Stiles filled in for him. Colby and Dylan recapped the new power rankings, each conferences' regular-season champ, and all the regular season awards. Then we got into some MLB talk highlighting the great MLB race between the 3 Jr.'s and Garcia as well as Kevin Gausman hopefully getting some national attention soon and how good the NL West and AL East is along with the Astros and White Sox. Thanks, guys for hanging with us this week, this upcoming week we'll try to start getting better with timing. Hunter will be out at the South Bend Regional with UConn scheduled to face Michigan as the #2 seed in that regional so it might be a solo show for Colby but you'll have to tune in to find out.