The Omaha Adventure - Day 5 - Playoffs and CWS Game 3

Day 5 started innocently enough.  C's team went 1-1 in pool play and was the 6 seed playing early in the morning against the Naperville White Sox.  While not the greatest seed, we did get a bye into the second round.  If we won, this would be the only game we play.  If we lose then we have one more game, but might as well go home because we aren't going to win anything.

The team started on of its top pitchers after C and as a result, we jumped to a 5-0 lead in the second inning.  Naperville proceeds to score a couple of runs in the 4th inning to make it 5-2.  To give him a confidence boost since he got killed in the first game against California, the coach brings in C to get the save.  After two innings of shut out ball, we win 5-2.  Now we are the semifinals playing against the St. Louis Gamers.  A team that had scored a ton of runs, but whose pitching seemed a little suspect.  Unfortunately, we would not be playing again until tomorrow morning so we had the rest of the day off.

After some cajoling, C talks me into going to a lake with a buddy of his while G and I look and see what there is to do around the greater Omaha area.  We settle on going back to the motel and hanging out.  Now we will be doing this for a while so I check to see what the deal is with Game 3 of the College World Series. Coastal Carolina and Arizona are tied up at 1 so this would be the deciding game.

So we head back down to Omaha and do our thing.  We park, and walk to the restaurant.  It's a little earlier in the day so G is not complaining as much about the walk.  He actually a pep in his step.  I figured that we would eat and then see if we can get better seats than the bleacher seats we were given by the Tournament directors.

As we park, I see some activity at the box office so I was hopeful that I would be able to trade in these seats.  Braving the 95 degree sun, I rush over there with my crappy tickets in tow.  Satisfyingly, I was able to change the tickets for pretty good seats along the third base line.  We just have to wait for a little while since we were about 4 hours early for the game.

STRIKE ONE!

As C comes back from his lake excursion, we meet up and head into the fan friendly area which was adjacent to the ball park.  How did I not see this before I thought to myself.  With Wiffle Ball home run derby, radar gun and face painting, this was actually pretty cool. Watching C trying to break 80 mph in his flip flops cracked me up (didn't happen) and watching Gray trying to hit meaningless home runs in wiffle ball just made me shake my head.  At least we were there with friends - friends who liked to drink beer.  We walk around, getting the CCU logo painted on our arms (OK, that was just me, but it was DOPE)

After getting some dinner and finishing up with our wiffle ball, we get into the stadium.  As we walk around, there is a buzz in the air.  There is delay.  Maybe Omaha thunderstorms are different than around here, but I look up int eh sky and see nothing.  I look at the radar and see nothing.  I shrug my shoulders and sit down.  After about 30 minutes of waiting around, the rain starts.  Holy crap was it rainy.  We get drenched looking for a place to hide from the rain.  We settle in seats covered by a overhang.  After about 20 minutes, the rain lets up, but the game appears no closer to being played event though the sun is back out.

Finally, after being in the stadium for about 2 hours, the PA comes on announces that the game has been postponed.  That was not good news, since we were going to be making our way back tomorrow, unable to see the deciding game.   The only way we will be able to see it is if we win the championship and we are staying over anyway.

Crossing my fingers...