The PING! of the Bat Brings Me Back

It only took one night for the sports angel to help me get over the bitterness of the Detroit Pistons' loss to Team LeBron.

Congratulations to the Michigan Wolverines baseball team, who defeated Vanderbilt, 4-3, last night to advance to the Super Regionals of the NCAA Tournament. Their next opponent will be the winner of tonight's Oregon State-Virginia game.

Rich Maloney's squad took the lead when freshman Alan Oaks (who had all of 48 at-bats for the season) crushed a pitch from soon-to-be #1 draft pick David Price over the left-field fence for a pinch-hit home run. The Commodores were the #1 overall seed in the tournament, and the home crowd in Nashville was shocked to see their team go down. Man, that was one hell of a game.

(Price, by the way, pitched of 1 1/3 innings of relief after throwing 130 pitches on Friday night. I bet the Devil Rays are thrilled about that.)

Here's a recap from Big Ten Hardball, who has most definitely fueled my growing interest in college baseball over the past year or so. And here I thought I was already watching all the sports I could take.