Wait worth it: Texas A&M fans Michael Robbins and cousin Mark Schmidt were assured they would get a front-row general admission ticket by being first in the long general admission line.
They secured their spot two hours before Sunday's afternoon game between Virginia and Cal. They lounged in lawn chairs for more than 5 1/2 hours until the GA line opened for the Texas A&M-South Carolina game. Schmidt said the wait was worth it.
"We emailed all our cousins and said, 'Watch for us. We're going to be in right field, right next to the bullpen,'" he said.
Robbins, from Beaver Dam, Ky., is making his third CWS visit. He stays with Schmidt, who lives in Omaha. Sunday was Robbins' first inside look at the new TD Ameritrade Park, but Schmidt went to one of Saturday's games.
"It's real nice," Schmidt said. "There's positives and there's negatives. You've got all the nostalgia [at Rosenblatt Stadium]. Now we've got to start a new history."
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A habit: South Carolina has had the last three walk-off victories in the CWS. South Carolina's victory also allowed the SEC to go 3-0 in the first round (Florida and Vanderbilt had the other wins). The Big 12 went 0-2 with Texas losing to Florida.
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Big night: South Carolina's Scott Wingo set a career high with four hits and capped his 4-for-4 night with a game-winning single. Wingo, who was 2-for-19 in the CWS last year, has five consecutive multi-hit games. He was also hit by a pitch for the 60th time in his career. He holds the school record.
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Mr. Consistent: Texas A&M starter Ross Stripling has pitched seven or more innings in seven of his last 10 starts dating back to April 17, going 6-0. This was only the fourth time in 24 games (16 starts) that he has allowed more than three runs.
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So we finally meet: South Carolina head coach Ray Tanner was the target of A&M director of athletics Bill Byrne after Mark Johnson was fired following the 2005 season.
Tanner was scheduled to meet with A&M officials on a Tuesday, but former South Carolina president Andrew Sorensen talked to Tanner on a Sunday since the Gamecocks were in a transition at athletics director with Mike McGee being replaced by Eric Hyman who had been hired but wasn't on the job.
"We had a conversation on the phone, and [Sorenson] convinced me I needed to stay put," Tanner said. "That was the end of that."
Tanner agreed to a lucrative seven-year contract. The Aggies also looked at Georgia Tech's Danny Hall, who received a sweet five-year contract. A&M eventually hired pitching coach Rob Childress who has led the Aggies to Omaha in his sixth season.
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History on A&M's side: Six of the past seven winners at the CWS were unseeded. LSU, which was seeded third in 2009, is the only national seed to win.
Top-seeded Virginia, which is in A&M's bracket, is trying to change history.
Since 1999, when the current format was put in place, only one top-seeded team has won -- Miami in 1999.
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All-around success: Five of the current Top 10 athletic programs in the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup have teams in the College World Series -- No. 4 California, No. 5 Florida, No. 6 North Carolina, No. 8 Texas A&M and No. 10 Virginia. Texas, which typically has a Top 10 all-around program, is No. 15 in the next-to-last Sports Directors' Cup that awards points in 10 men's sports and 10 women's sports. Rounding out the programs with teams in the CWS are South Carolina (No. 47) and Vanderbilt (No. 66).
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I've seen him recently: South Carolina's Michael Roth, the starting pitcher against the Aggies, is on one of the billboards in Omaha promoting the CWS.
"Guys are giving me plenty of crap for being plastered all over Omaha right now," Roth said. "It's pretty cool. I'm sure my parents are going to love it. I guess I'll take all the jabs from the guys."
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No rust: South Carolina center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. made his first start since late April. A&M's Adam House, the third batter of the game, singled to center and Bradley made a perfect throw home that A&M's Tyler Naquin just beat, though many in the press box thought Naquin was out.
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Faces in the crowd: New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain, who is on the disabled list and likely will require Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right elbow, was sitting just outside the A&M dugout wearing an Aggie hat. Chamberlain helped the Nebraska Cornhuskers win their first game at the CWS in 2005 when A&M head coach Rob Childress was Nebraska's pitching coach. ... A&M associate athletic director for football Tim Cassidy, who was at the University of Nebraska for 2004-06, watched along with son Austin, a defensive back for the Cornhusker football team.
Austin Cassidy, who was on the 2010 ESPN All-Academic All-American team, graduated in December but has one more year of eligibility. He was wearing Aggie apparel. ... Bryan attorney Kyle Hawthorne, who earned All-Southwest Conference honors as the Aggie first baseman in 1979, also attended. Also watching was former A&M head coach Mark Johnson who just retired from Sam Houston State. Johnson, who was replaced by current A&M head coach Rob Childress, was with retired Arizona head coach Jerry Kindall. Both are active in the American Baseball Coaches Association. Johnson worked for Kindall from 1971-76.
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Drought over: South Carolina ended a seven-game losing streak in CWS openers.
-- Staff and wire reports
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