Ribbie Reporter -- College World Series and some good news from Royals land

College World Series update
I turned away from the MLB’s interleague play for an evening to watch the NBA Finals and UNC vs. Fresno State in Omaha.[1] After I heard ABC using songs from the band Boston when heading towards commercial, I focused even more heavily on the baseball game.[2]
Fresno State started as the 4th seed in their regional, making them equivalent to a 13th or 14th seed in the NCAA tournament that reaches the elite eight. En route they’ve knocked out Long Beach State and Arizona State on the road before beating Rice – a long-time baseball powerhouse – in the opening game of the College World Series. Their coach likes to play up the image that they’re a team of scrappers that “does the little things.” But in the 3rd through 7th inning the team left nine men on base. In the 5th they loaded the bases with no outs but could only muster a two run single before UNC pitcher Ryan Wooten coaxed a strike out and ground out. With men on second and third and one out, Tommy Mendonca should have been doing whatever he could to put the ball in play. Even a slow ground ball might have done the job. In the 6th they loaded the bases again but got nothing. Nada. Zilch. Gavin Hedstrom struck out looking – a major no-no with nobody out and the bases loaded. Then Erik Wetzel popped up and in foul territory and a quick groundout ended the threat.
And finally, Fresno State put men on first and second before a strikeout and two groundouts left them with nothing to show for it.
But kudos to Wetzel for a clutch RBI single in the 8th, and even bigger props to Danny Muno for a great slide around the tag. Had he gone straight down the line he would have been out by a hair, but he managed to slide through the catchers box and slap the plate with his hand as he went by.
In the end it didn’t matter, as Fresno State got five shutout innings from their bullpen and moved to 2-0 on the tournament.

Because I can’t resist, a brief Royals note
Kyle Davies, who is 2-0 and would be 3-0 had the bullpen not blown a 5-1 lead last week,[3] has emerged as something of a stopper since being called up from AAA about three weeks ago. Tuesday night against St. Louis he ran a classic scattering operation, walking three, giving up five hits but letting only one run score. He allowed a base runner in all but one inning, but the Cards were unable to deliver anything resembling clutch hitting, scoring their only run on a double play. Thankfully, Ron Mahay and Joakim Soria were also able to get the last six outs without too much difficulty, saving me from more stomach trouble.

Tony “$1.50” Peña update
The winning run came from a homer by Mike Aviles, a 27-year-old the Royals called up a few weeks to play shortstop. After going 0-3 in his debut, Aviles spent the next four games getting splinters in his butt. But once Manager Trey Hillman gave him another go, Aviles took off, hitting .333 through his first 45 at bats and even hitting second last night. He already has three homers, or as many as the rest of the people who’ve played short this year combined.[4] Nobody expects Aviles, who has now played in twelve MLB games, to hit .333 this year. But even if he hits .250 with 10 homers on the year he’l be an indescribable improvement over Peña, who’s been reduced to duty as a defensive replacement.[5]

Up next week
The Ribbie Reporter sees if the Royals continue to dominate the National League before returning to their status as American League whipping boys.

[1] Though not before wondering yet again why the Royals didn’t take advantage of the chance to switch to the National League 10 years ago. In limited action they’re 4-2 vs. the NL and 24-40 vs. the AL. They’ve gone 10-8 during Interleague play the last two years, even though they’ve never even come close to sniffing .500 those two years and lost 100 games in 2006, suffering through 11, 13 and 8 game losing streaks that year.
[2] Really? Really! I know the game is in Boston, but did you have to go with such a terribly clichéd option?
[3] See my anguished post last week for more about that game.
[4] Peña, Esteban German and Alberto Callapso.
[5] I always thought Tony Peña, Sr. was an all glove, no hit player as well. But he managed to hit .301 in 1983 and – until the final years of his career – regularly turned in averages between .260 and .280. His career average is .261. Not bad for a catcher, and certainly far better than his son..