By Michael Elliott
Baby Steps. Well, the Cal Poly Baseball Team is trying to inch its way back into respectability and had a fine road trip up in Corvallis, Ore., recently.
The Mustangs took two of three from the nationally-ranked Beavers and had a shot at a sweep before OSU came from behind to secure the game three win, 4-2. Cal Poly went into the series with a 7-14 overall record.
The two outstanding victories against one of the perennial national championship contenders should provide a ray of hope to a Mustang team that had high hopes going into the season. It was particularly nice to see ace right-hander, Casey Bloomquist, spin a complete-game four hitter in game one of the series.
Bloomquist was nothing short of brilliant last year, but has had a few rocky outings to date this year. Hopefully, these two baby steps taken in Oregon will right the ship and Cal Poly will steer into the clear for a successful second half of the season.
Four on the floor. Nope. Not a racing paragraph. Sorry gearheads! This four-on-the-floor shall be locking heads come Saturday as the NCAA Basketball Tournament has now alighted in Indianapolis with but four teams remaining from the starting field of 68.
Stalwarts Kentucky and Duke will duel and mini-stalwarts Wisconsin and Michigan State, respectively, as they lead up to Monday night’s tilt to decide the champion.
Overall No. 1 seed Kentucky seems to bring its plethora of high school All-Americans at you in droves! They lock you down defensively and possess an inside-out offense that can either take it to the hoop or cut your heart out with the 3-pointer.
Duke has one of the premier big men in the nation in Jahlil Okafor. He is a banger with finesse. Their small forwards and pesky guards disrupt an opponent’s flow and are sharpshooters to boot.
Wisconsin is the veteran team with poise and patience. They like to swing the ball around on offense and take their time in order to get the best look at the basket. True veterans!
And Michigan State is all nuts ‘n’ bolts, with tough interior defense, bruising rebounders, and non-descript offense with no real star. They just gut it out to the end. So who cuts down the nets after Monday’s finale? The wise guys like Kentucky.
Wisconsin’s band of brothers should give Kentucky one heck of a run in their semi-final. The team most adept at hitting its threes should advance. Michigan State is hoping for a street brawl with the Blue Devils, and they’ll probably get one! Whomever wins the battle of the boards should prevail. Hey, what do the wise guys know anyway? I know I’m certainly not one of them. Kentucky cuts the nets.
Nightmares. Switched from CBS to TBS and there they were. Switched from TBS to TNT and there they were. Switched from TNT to TruTV and there they were AGAIN!
Charles Barkley, Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee and Rob Lowe have taken up permanent residence in my head every night as I fall asleep since the basketball tournament began. Charlie, Sammy and Spike are trying to entice me into purchasing yet another credit card, while Robbie is doing his best to coerce me into signing up for a different television system.
It’s gotten so bad that I have begun predicting just whose commercial I am going to see upon the switch of the channels — 80 percent success rate, thank you! It’s gotten so bad that I’ve been imagining seeing their nose hairs and moles and crazy stuff like that after being inundated continuously with those darn commercials.
Come Monday night about 8:30, I’ll be throwing up my hands ala Roberto Duran — “No mas! No mas!”
Responses? Submittals? Contact Michael Elliott at: . Sports Shorts is a regular feature of Tolosa Press.