College World Series Open Game Thread, First Round

Today begins the finals for the College World Series. As a reminder for how it works: the final teams are Oregon State, Cal State Fullerton, Louisiana State, Florida State (Bracket One) and TCU, Texas A&M, Florida, and Louisville (Bracket Two). The eight teams are divided into two four-team brackets. which play double elimination until all but one team has lost twice. The top two teams from each bracket then play a best of three series, the winner of which is the national champion. Our friends at Building the Dam, who have been doing an especially excellent job lately, have this preview detailing key players for each of the matchups for Bracket One and this preview for Bracket Two.

Today’s schedule:

Game 1: Cal State Fullerton vs. #1 Oregon State - Noon PT - ESPN

Game 2: #4 LSU vs. Florida State - 5 PM PT - ESPN

Tomorrow’s games:

Game 1: #7 Louisville vs. Texas A&M - 11 AM PT - ESPN

Game 2: #3 Florida vs. #6 TCU - 4 PM PT - ESPN2

The winners of these games will determine who plays who in the next round, which will occur on Monday and Tuesday of next week at times that are annoyingly inconvenient for west coast-based viewers with day jobs.