Vanderbilt and Virginia are playing in the College World Series 2014 finals championship series on Monday and the game is live from Omaha at TD Ameritrade Park at 8 pm ET for Game 1 and streaming from the WatchESPN website on ESPN as the Cavaliers and the Commodores matchup for the CWS championship to see who will be the top team in the NCAA tournament.
Both teams have had to win exciting games to get here and now the Cavs and the Commodores will duke it out to see who will win the tourney in a best of three series for the finals. The CWS has a double elimination bracket to get to this point and the teams beat Texas and Ole Miss to make it here and those games were exciting as well.
Vanderbilt has been a strong team this season and they did not lose in the Nashville regional and that had wins over Oregon and Clemson and then the team took the super-regional hosting duties from Indiana and they split with Stanford before taking the next matchup and that allowed the team to advance. The team won against Louisville to continue their heartbreak and then the team beat the UC Irvine Anteaters in the tournament and get the 2-0 start before playing against Texas and getting shocked 4-0 in that game. Vandy bounced back though and backup catcher Tyler Campbell was able to get the winning play home.
The bracket opened up with 64 teams and now there are just two left and the long baseball season now winds down and it will be between Virginia and Vanderbilt to see who will win. The Cavaliers are going for history here and this comes after the team advanced after playing against a tough Mississippi team that had to rally numerous times in this tournament. Scoring and home runs have been down around the college game and in the CWS itself and that puts even more pressure on the pitchers to perform and Virginia is ready, as they nearly shutout Ole Miss in the clinching game of the series to advance.
Virginia did not need the extra game and they were able to beat Mississippi straight up to advance, while Vandy was shutout by Texas and had to win the next game and that was a close one at 4-3. TCU and Mississippi played a tight game and Ole Miss made it through after a great performance from Will Allen and that got them to the game against the Cavaliers and then they lost and now the Cavs are playing for the title over the Rebels. Virginia made it in after winning first over Ole Miss and then beating TCU to get into the winners bracket, while Vandy won over UC Irvine in the same way and then won over Texas. Heading into the CWS, Virginia won over Maryland 2-1 to get in, while Vanderbilt defeated Stanford in three games to advance.
The tournament now finishes up with two teams and Omaha has been the perfect setting, as the weather has been great and now Vandy and Virginia will play to see who will be crowned the CWS champions.
Check here for the Vanderbilt and Virginia live coverage from the College World Series for the championship from ESPN and WatchESPN online