The College World Series was delayed for rain, so LSU and North Carolina will now play their elimination game tonight at 7pm.

That means tonight’s originally scheduled games will move to Saturday. And Saturday’s originally scheduled “if necessary” games are pushed to Sunday. That means no off days for teams playing in the CWS championship series.  Looks like Mother Nature was up at bat and hit the baseball schedule way into the outfield.

But the down pour wasn’t all a downer for LSU.

According to rivals.com, “LSU starting pitcher Blake Martin allowed a single to Dustin Ackley to lead off the game. After striking out Kyle Shelton, UNC right fielder Tim Fedroff hit an RBI double. Catcher Tim Federowicz was then hit by pitch while third baseman Chad Flack walked to bring in the second run of the first inning.
With bases loaded, just one out and a 0-1 count on UNC designated hitter Garrett Gore, the skies opened up and play was halted.”

Now’s your chance to get back into the action too:
Friday
LSU vs. North Carolina, 7 p.m.
Saturday
Georgia vs. Stanford, 2 p.m.
Fresno State vs. Friday winner, 7 p.m.
Sunday
Georgia vs. Stanford, 2 or 7 p.m.*
Fresno State vs. Friday winner, 7 p.m.*
*—If necessary

A recent graduate and baseball player at Boston College, Scott Bradley steps up to the plate to tell you about playing baseball in College. Scott majored in Marketing and played as a pitcher for the team in his freshman year. CampusCompare brings him up at bat to tell you how to hit a homerun in applying and succeeding incollege as a student athlete.

CC: What division does Boston’s baseball team play for?
SB: Boston College is NCAA, Div I.

CC: Are the Eagles considered a good team?
SB: Boston College’s Baseball team is better than average but this year they didn’t do so hot. Their biggest struggle is attracting top quality players to play in the northeast. The only leverage they have is having 11.7 scholarships to give.

CC:Why’s that?
SB: It is cold!

CC:Baseball is considered more of a warm weathered sport?!
SB: Oh yes. The big baseball schools are primarily in warm climates, in states such as CA, AZ, TX, and FL.

CC: Was it hard to balance playing sports and doing your school work?
SB: Well, I only played during my freshmen year…and during that time it was a struggle to balance everything. Thankfully I was a good time manager and was able to get it all done. Due to my back injury that I was struggling with throughout my freshmen year, I never traveled with the team on trips to other schools…but I am sure that those guys even had more of a struggle balancing everything. Playing baseball at any school is really like a full time job. After my freshmen year was up I had back surgery and decided to move on from the game.

CC: What did you do more specifically to balance the two?
SB: Well I took classes early in the morning (8AM) and made sure that I was done with school by 12PM everyday. I would work on homework during Saturday mornings because of the practice and/or game schedules on the weekends. And would also work on homework after practice. I had very little free time to enjoy my college experience.

CC: Does the sports team hang out together off the field?
SB: Yes. All of the people on the team are friends. Because you really spend a lot of time with them on and off the field.

CC:How did the other guys study and take exams when they were on the road?
SB: From what they told me, the coach would administer the appropriate exams when appropriate.

CC:Did they need to get certain grades to be able to play?
SB: Yes.  You had to at least get a passing average to play or you would be put on academic probation for a semester.

CC: What exactly is academic probation?
SB: It is where the athlete has a semester to get his “academic act together” or he could possibly be suspended from the team.

CC: Are the school rules stricter or less strict for athletes?
SB: No Comment. But what I can tell you is I would have never been able to get into BC by just being a “normal student” due to my SAT score being far below the average of the students at BC…Even though I had a 4.2 GPA with many hours of community service, I still wouldn’t have been able to get in if it weren’t for baseball.

CC: What did you have to do differently in your application process because you wanted to play sports at college?
SB: Well….I went through the recruiting process starting at the beginning of my sophomore year in college. It is all a game that I know how to play. And at the end of the game, Boston College was the right fit for what I wanted in a school.

CC: And why did you think Boston college was the right fit for what you wanted to do?
SB: Boston college was the right fit for me because when I was looking for schools my first priority was to find a good academic institution with a good brand name. They had a good business school and as I first saw the campus I just knew it was for me. And Boston College fits both of those bills to the T.

CC: How does the recruitment process work?
SB: Well…That is a pretty loaded question…In simple terms, coaches build relationships with players that they may want to recruit, and when it comes time to sign a national letter of intent the coach offers a scholarship, or position on the roster for next year. It is up to the athlete to take it or not.

CC:Who grants athletic scholarships? The coaches or the financial aid office?
SB: The coaches are the ones who decide who gets how much, but on top of that the financial aid office determines if the student athlete gets more on top of his scholarship. The coaches at Boston College have to split up 11.7 scholarships on the team.

CC: What if you are recruited by the coaches but you are not admitted to the college?
SB: If you are recruited by the coaches, they make sure they can get you in before you sign the letter of intent by asking you what qualifications you have.

CC: Can the coaches push for you to get admitted to the college?
SB: I can’t really say, because I don’t know all the information. But like I said above, I would never have been able to get in as a normal student applying if it weren’t for baseball.

CC: What’s a typical day like for someone who is playing sports?
SB: Well for baseball,  it is split up into 3 distinct routines at BC. The first phase is the fall schedule. In the fall schedule from when I was playing (may be different now), we had Mondays off. We would try and lift in the gym 3 times per week (on our own time)…and then have practice from Tuesday until Friday starting around 2ish. On the weekends we would have practice at 7 or 8 AM all the way until 2pm somtimes. This goes on all the way until first 2 weeks of October.

Then the Winter Schedule kicks in. During the winter schedule I think I remember lifts every morning at 6:30AM with practice sprinkled in there during the week as well.

We all go home for break. and then…come back and that is where spring time comes. Spring time it is all out everyday with Mondays being the off days. The spring schedule goes until the end of school.

CC: Insane
SB: Yes…insane is right….if you are an athlete…your sport is your life….There is really no other time for anything else.

CC: Would you recommend it for someone who knows they aren’t going to go pro?
SB: Yes. And at the same time, you get to earn a college degree. It gives you the freedom to have a backup plan if baseball doesn’t work out…because in the end you will have a degree in your hand after all is said and done. You don’t want to put your eggs all in one basket.

If you would like to know more about Scott Bradley you can check out his page at NetworkingEffectively.

The NCAA has changed the baseball rules and we think that some students are going to strike out as a result.

The NCAA decided that all college baseball would start on Feburary 22nd, so that the warm-weathered teams don’t have an advantage over cold weathered colleges–by having the chance to play a longer season.

But what does that mean?

The change is good for cold weathered colleges because it increases fairness in the sport. But what about warm-weathered colleges?

Well, the condensed schedule means that these teams have to play a series of back to back games—not to mention fly from state to state— and that keeps students away from their classes for long periods of time.

It looks like the NCAA Board of Directors wanted a fair balance between teams on the field—but instead created a new unfair balance off the field.

The NCAA stressed that players are students first—but their actions seem to say something else. It’s hard to understand their intentions with a move that puts tutors and studying on airplanes and in hotel rooms. The message the NCAA has sent out, is that we would rather see you hit a .350 than get a 3.5 GPA.

So the question does a college baseball player really come out the winner—even if he wins the College World Series?