The Bulldogs (43-23-1) were slated to play the Cardinal (41-23-2) Friday, but showers in the Omaha area forced the postponement of the LSU-North Carolina elimination game on Thursday. The Tigers and Tar Heels will now play today, while the rest of the field will have another off day.
Georgia marked its fourth straight day off on Friday, following its win over Stanford 4-3 on Monday. The Bulldogs are 2-0 in their bracket, while the Cardinal eliminated top-ranked Miami on Wednesday. Georgia needs to win one more game to advance to the national championship best-of-three series, which will still begin Monday. Meanwhile, the Cardinal would need to defeat Georgia on Saturday and Sunday to win the bracket.
"We can't control the weather or the schedule, so we just worry about what we can control and that's playing good baseball," said Georgia coach David Perno. "We've got good leaders, some veterans and they know how to handle it and the young guys look up to them. We've decided to go with Nathan Moreau on Saturday, he needs to get out there and pitch because it's been almost two weeks for him. He has won some big games for us in his career including clinching the SEC title this year at Vanderbilt."
Moreau, a 6-foot-4, 221-pound native of Lilburn, is 18-6 in his career. Earlier this month, Moreau was selected in the 11th round of the MLB draft by the Baltimore Orioles. This season, he is 4-3 with a 5.27 ERA in 15 starts. His last outing came in a start against N.C. State in the Athens Super Regional on June 7. He went 2 2/3 innings and allowed four runs on five hits with two walks and two strikeouts in a 10-6 loss to the Wolfpack. With Georgia's season on the line in this year's NCAA Athens Regional, he beat Lipscomb 14-3, tossing seven innings and scattering three runs on eight hits with no walks and six strikeouts.
"We're starting to feel like the people in 'The Shining' -- we're stuck in the hotel," Bulldog senior third baseman Ryan Peisel joked. "We've played a lot of video games and practiced a lot. We're trying not to watch the clock. We even played some marco-polo in the pool. We're having fun but ready to play a baseball game again."
The Bulldogs started out 2-0 in the CWS for only the second time in six appearances. Prior to this year, the last time Georgia began a CWS 2-0 was the 1990 national championship season. The Bulldogs are now 8-9 all-time at the CWS, including 4-4 under Perno.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/6/210974