In addition to the previously announced Thursday Night Baseball SEC Game of the Week slate, six more games will be televised on either ESPN or ESPN2. The SEC Tournament championship game is part of the new package. The Thursday night schedule includes 12 games.

ESPN and the SEC also announced that 18 softball games will be televised this spring. Here’s a look at the schedules.

By Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires

GREENVILLE, N.C. - Pirate fans are encouraged to stay in their seats at halftime of Thursday nights nationally televised football game on ESPN when East Carolina plays host to No. 22 Va. Tech inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, as the 2009 East Carolina baseball team will be honored for their accomplishments.

The Pirates (46-20, 17-7 C-USA), who have made 10 NCAA Regional appearances in the last 11 seasons, claimed the 2009 Conference USA regular season and 2009 Greenville Regional titles before advancing to their third NCAA Super Regional on the way to a 46-20 overall record.

ECU landed the most All C-USA selections with seven, including a league-best five first-teamers in Stephen Batts, Chris Heston, Seth Maness, Kyle Roller and Ryan Wood. Brad Mincey and Trent Whitehead were named second-team All C-USA and Kevin Brandt became the 12th Pirate selected to the All-Freshman squad since 2002.

Head Coach Billy Godwin, who ranks fourth on ECU’s all-time wins list with 161 victories, was named Keith LeClair Coach-of-the-Year after guiding the Pirates to their first regular season C-USA crown since 2004. In four years at the helm of the baseball program, Godwin has led the Pirates to three consecutive NCAA appearances, became the second coach in school history to win 40-plus games in three consecutive seasons (Keith LeClair: 1999-2002) and has had 15 players selected in the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft.

2009 Pirate Honors

Now, two different TV talking heads have taken it upon themselves to go with a different flow. Ryan Burr, who was the ESPN anchor on Monday’s “Road To Omaha Selection Show”, and Greg Amsinger from MLB Network have decided that the “a” in Strasburg is more like an “ouch”.

Burr mispronounced Strasburg’s name throughout Monday’s selection show, and what made it even more comedic is the fact that Kyle Peterson and Will Kimmey were saying Strasburg with the correct “ahh” pronunciation.

Apparently, nobody at ESPN saw a need to correct Burr, because during Thursday WCWS coverage he was going with the same pronunciation while promoting Friday’s San Diego State vs. Virginia Regional match-up on the ESPN family of stations.

I hope I spelled “Burr’s” name correctly. ESPN never put his name up on the screen during the selection show like they did for Peterson and Kimmey.

My biggest point is just that these guys get paid good money to 1. Deliver the facts correctly and 2. Say the players’ names correctly. Is it so much to ask that they do that?

However you say his name, Strasburg had a great game Friday: 15 K and no BB in 7 IP, but his SDSU team lost 5-1 to Virginia in their NCAA Regional opener in Irvine.

It’s no secret that Strasburg will be the number one pick in the soon-arriving MLB draft, so let’s hope Bud Selig says it right.

It’s been a while since my last post, so I thought I would share a few thoughts while I’m watching the Cubs vs. Astros on WGN.

Speaking of baseball on TV, the length of the games on ESPN was one of the hottest topics to come out of the College World Series. The average CWS game time was 3 hours and 40 minutes. That is a bit long, but more commercials are a fact of life when it comes to postseason sports on television. Networks are paying big money for the rights to the games, and packing each break is a necessary evil if they’re going to make money.

An average big league ball game is just under three hours, while a commercial break typically lasts between 90 seconds and two minutes. Compare that to the aforementioned 3:40 game time that is due in part to the three and a half minute breaks ESPN takes every half inning.

Here are some ideas to speed things up next year (and beyond) on ESPN in Omaha:

1. Do away with the mid-game interview with each team’s head coach. I watch Major League Baseball all the time, and it’s never done in the regular season, and yet I still enjoy the game. The mid-game interview is the single most useless interview in TV sports, and ESPN isn’t the only guilty party. Fox does it too during the MLB postseason. They don’t do it during a football game, they wait until halftime (and it’s still mostly useless). It’s not like the interviews are sponsored, so put us all out of our misery and get back to the game quicker rather than make us sit through an extra 30 seconds of dugout banter. However, if ESPN wants to keep the interviews how about a compromise…

2. Inset the interview in a small picture-in-picture type box at the bottom of the screen. This way viewers and ESPN all get to eat their cake and eat it too. The interview goes on at the bottom of the screen while we watch the start of play begin that inning. ESPN holds-up play to get the interviews in, but they could be easily recorded (which I know FOX has done in the past and may still do). I’m sure it won’t kill Orel Hershiser and Mike Patrick if they get 30 seconds less air time. Speaking of which…

3. Do away from the in-game instructional demonstrations in the press box. Bob Brenly’s doing a pretty good job of analyzing the game I’m watching right now, and he hasn’t done one on-camera bit between innings to show me how Kevin Hart grips the ball when he throws his off-speed pitch. I know it’s college baseball, but it’s still baseball. We don’t need the game explained to us like we’re ten years old just because we’re watching college players instead of big leaguers. However, if ESPN really thinks it needs the demonstrations see suggestion #2. Do them at the bottom corner of the screen in a small box while the game is going on. Better yet, ESPN could promote its web site by posting the demonstrations there. IE- Mike Patrick: “To see Orel show you how to throw a curveball go to espn.com, to hear him mispronounce another college player’s name keep it tuned here.”

4. Start the games when they’re supposed to start. If the ticket says game time is 1pm start the game at 1pm and not 1:08pm. This is another network TV commercial related thing, but come on would it really be so hard to at least shoot for an :04 start time? All the chatter before the game is just lettuce on a steak sandwhich.

• So much for Cinderella this year. LSU beats Arkansas 14-5 while Texas edges Arizona State 4-3 to each advance to this year’s CWS Chamionship Series.  That means teams with five and six national championships, respectively, will play for the title.

• LSU’s thumping of the Razorbacks not only keeps it as the only team not to lose during the NCAA Tournament (8-0), but the Tigers have also outscored opponents 72-31 in those games.  They’ve won their three CWS games by a combined 32-11 margin.

• Back to the jungle…the days of “Gorilla Ball” aren’t done for LSU. Seven different Tigers have hit nine home runs in their three College World Series games in the last week.

• The Road to Omaha less traveled…Arkansas pitcher T.J. Forrest actually started his college career at LSU, but transferred to Bossier Parish Community College.  He’s now a junior and pitched for the Razorbacks against LSU Friday.  There’s no mention of his time at LSU in his bio on the Arkanas web site.

• Good career choice…LSU pitching coach Dave “Red” Grewe left his head coaching position at Michigan State after last season to rejoin Paul Mainieri’s staff.  Grewe led the Spartans for three seasons after working for Mainieri for three years at Notre Dame from 2003-2005.

• LSU pitchers did not allow a run in their first 15 innings vs. Arkansas in two College World Series games prior to Brett Eibner’s seventh inning home run Friday.

• Mainieri has a handful of former players and assistants who are now head coaches, including UCF skipper, Terry Rooney, who was his pitching coach last year in Omaha.  Don’t be surprised if LSU assistant Javi Sanchez leads a team to Omaha himself one day.  Sanchez is a natural leader who takes leadership seriously, but at the same time he has an easy way about him that draws players to him.  He also knows the game and teaches it well.

• Ever heard the saying “he’s talking about how the sausage is made”? Orel Hersheiser did a bit of that during the LSU-Arkansas game when he bored viewers with the “difficulty” of his job, because of all the producers and directors talking into his earpiece during a game.  Some of it was tongue and cheek, but Orel should stick to the game, because when he talks it he shows he talks it well.

• A tip of the hat to the Hogs…Arkansas had 17 comeback wins this season, including Wednesday’s dramatic elimination game victory over Virginia.  The Razorback’s magic ran out though with Friday’s loss to LSU. You gotta give it up though for a team that brought a .272 team batting average and 4.50 ERA to Omaha.  Like Virginia, Arkansas had to first win a Regional on the road against a top eight national seed and then go on the road again to win a Super Regional just to get to Omaha.

• Murph’s Milestone…I forgot to mention this in yesterday’s blog. Arizona State head coach Pat Murphy picked-up his 1,000th career win when the Sun Devils beat North Carolina in Thursday’s elimination game.  North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams was there to see it.

• Great to hear Sean McDonough has his voice back.  The ESPN play-by-play man labored earlier this week when his normally dulcet tones were strained by what he said were allergies, but he had the cords back for Friday’s ASU-Texas game.  McDonough kind of gets lost in the shuffle in the myriad of TV sportscasters these days, but I’ve heard he’s one of the nicest guys in the business.  I’ll always remember him for his “Bream to the plate” call as Sid Bream chugged home when Altanta beat Pittsburgh in game seven of the 1992 NLCS. My college roomate, Randy Rosetta, and I were watching that game together in a Lawrence, KS sports bar.  Last week Randy and I sat together covering the College World Series (he covers LSU for the Baton Rouge Advocate) while McDonough sat about 60 feet away in the Rosenblatt press box calling the action for viewers on ESPN.

• Arizona State pitcher Mike Leake gave-up two home runs in 132 IP during the regular season, but the Pac 10 Pitcher of the Year surrendered two long balls in two starts vs. Texas this week in Omaha.

• Rudy, really…Have you heard!?! Arizona State freshman Johnny Ruettiger is the nephew of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger. Oh, of course you have, because ESPN only mentioned the connection every time he stepped to the plate in Omaha.  So, here are a few things they could have mentioned, but didn’t so they could mention “Rudy” one more time, during any of his 17 trips to the plate during his first CWS: Johnny was Joliet Catholic Acadamey’s starting quarterback on the team’s 2007 Illinois State Championship team, he was the captain of both his baseball and football teams during his junior and senior seasons, as a senior in high school Johnny hit .450 and went 11-2 on the mound, he was picked by the Texas Rangers in the 35th round of last year’s MLB draft and his father, John, was a pretty good athlete himself-he wrestled at Nebraska in 1977-’78.

I’ve got a feeling those Jaguars are going to beat Visigoth State sometime soon!

• How important is it to win your first round game in Omaha? Since the CWS began in 1947 just ten teams have lost their first game and gone on to capture the national championship.
• Since 1980 just Oregon St. in 2006, USC in 1998 and the 1980 Arizona teams lost their first round game in Omaha and then claimed national titles.
• Could Southern Mississippi head coach Corky Palmer have picked a better time to retire?  USM can never match what Palmer’s team did with its run to Omaha over the last three weeks, and Palmer would only be chasing a golden carrott if he weren’t retiring.  Just like George Costanza…Corky’s leaving on a high note.
• If you don’t believe how tough it is for a Cinderella to return to Omaha see: Fresno State which went 0-2 in the Irvine Regional this year after winning last year’s title.  There are others: Louisville-2007, Arizona-2004, Southwest Mo. State-2003, Notre Dame-2002, San Jose St.-2000.  Getting to Omaha raises the expectation level of a program, but those expectations are seldom met in most cases.
• Speaking of Southern Mississippi, great shot by ESPN of USM players scooping dirt from behind home plate to take home some Omaha dirt in paper cups and Gatorade bottles after Tuesday’s 11-4 loss (and elimination) to North Carolina.
• When the new CWS stadium is built downtown in two years will Zesto’s bring its ice cream along?
• Also, when the stadium’s downtown will outfield tickets still be sold as general admission seating?  If so, where will fans stand in line to get in? Fans currently stand in lone serpentine lines that go down the hill beyond the Rosenblatt outfield area.  The new stadium will have just a small parking lot and a sidewalk in those same locations.  Will they close off the street beyond right field?
• LSU scored eight of its nine runs in Monday’s win over Arkansas with two outs. Coming into the CWS, the Tigers had just ten 2-out RBIs in five previous NCAA Tournament games.
• After Monday’s win over Arkansas, LSU is now 35-3 this season when a right-hand pitcher starts.
• With its 2-0 start, LSU now waits until Friday afternoonto play either Virginia or LSU.  I know the steaks in Omaha are good, and the pitching will be rested, but three days in between games at the most important time of the year is just too much.