Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. Ole Miss Rebels: Preview and Game Thread

The College World Series
Location: Ameritrade Park | Omaha, Nebraska
Date: Saturday, June 14th through Wednesday, June 25th
Official Site Notes
Radio: Affiliates

Bracket One
Texas Longhorns: 1-1 (43-20)
UC Irvine Anteaters: 1-1 (41-23)
Vanderbilt Commodores: 2-0 (47-19)
Louisville Cardinals: 0-2 (50-16)

Bracket Two
TCU Horned Frogs: 1-0 (48-16)
Texas Tech Red Raiders: 0-1 (45-20)
Virginia Cavaliers: 1-0 (50-14)
Ole Miss Rebels: 0-1 (46-20)

Game 2: Tuesday, June 17th
First Pitch: 2:00 pm
Television: ESPN2
Texas Tech Starting Pitcher: LHP Ryan Moseley (1-2, 3.32 ERA) 
Ole Miss Starting Pitcher: LHP Christian Trent (9-0, 2.21 ERA)

TEXAS TECH PROBABLE STARTERS:
OUTFIELD:
LF: Tyler Neslony
CF: Stephen Smith
RF: Adam Kirsch
INFIELD:
3B: Ryan Long
SS: Tim Proudfoot
2B: Bryant Burleson
1B: Eric Gutierrez
C: Hunter Redman
DH: Matt Broadbent

OLE MISS PROBABLE STARTERS:
OUTFIELD:
LF: Braxton Lee
CF: Auston Bousfield
RF: J.B. Woodman
INFIELD:
3B: Austin Anderson
SS: Errol Robinson
2B: Preston Overbey
1B: Sikes Orvis
C: Will Allen
DH: Colby Bortles

Moseley and Trent to Start. This is a bit surprising, but Texas Tech will not start Dylan Dusek, but instead start fellow freshman Ryan Moseley.  You can read about Trent here from the Clarion-Ledger, who pitched 8 days ago. The last time that Moseley pitched, it was 6 shutout innings against Miami.

Dusek is a Survivor. This was actually a story that came out over the weekend, it is a terrific story at the LAJ, but then the national press picked it up and now it's famous. I've heard that this sort of thing happens.  In any even, the most likely starting pitcher Dylan Dusek was diagnosed with leukemia and survived and thrived.  ESPN wrote a similar article yesterday.

Smith Returns to Omaha High level of Baseball. Freshman OF Stephen Smith returns to Omaha recalls playing , where he played in the Little League World Series (ED. I totally messed this up, as the LLWS is in Pennsylvania, not Omaha):

"My best memory (at the LLWS) was probably off the field, getting to hang out with other teams," Smith said. "(At the CWS) it is just walking in the building. Legends have been here, and that's pretty neat."

Offenses Struggling. Interesting that both local papers for each team have articles about how each of their respective squads are struggling a bit on offense.  From the Clarion-Ledger, catcher Will Allen knows that their team can hit:

"There have been games where we haven't hit where people start asking those questions. ‘What's going on?'" Allen said. "We're still a really good offense. We have all the confidence in the world that we're going to bounce back."

And from the LAJ, head coach Tim Tadlock has confidence in his group:

"We have all the faith in the world in our hitters," Tadlock said. "They probably need a little more out of me in terms of slowing things down, but then you have someone who is throwing like Morrison was (Sunday), and you probably need more than just your two-strike approach."