The 2011 College World Series enters its third day as bracket one returns to action in Omaha. Today begins the first of four straight days of guaranteed eliminations. In this double elimination tournament, this begins the cliched time of separating the men from the boys. The games will be on ESPN and ESPN2, but if you don't have access to a TV during the games, you can also enjoy them via ESPN3.com's live online stream.
Thus far the SEC has dominated the postseason as they have sent three teams to the College World Series and got wins from all three in the first round. However, Monday will separate out the pack as Florida and Vanderbilt meet for the fifth time this season. Florida took two of three in their regular season series at Vanderbilt. The Gators followed that up with a 5-0 win over the Commodores in the SEC title game. It's safe to say this matchup will be just a little more important than the previous four. Florida and Vanderbilt will face off at 4:00pm pacific on ESPN2 with the winner advancing to the CWS semifinals.
The day opens with the losers' bracket matchup of the Texas Longhorns and the North Carolina Tarheels. The matchup takes place at 11:00am pacific on ESPN. The loser of this game heads home for the offseason while the winner stays alive for at least one more game. The bracket gets a little funky for the winner as they might get slotted to face the loser of bracket two's winners' matchup. That means the winner of Texas and UNC could face the loser of Virginia and South Carolina. I'm not positive on that because the bracket does bounce around a bit.
Make sure and follow our 2011 College World Series StoryStream over the coming days for CWS results.