The UC-Irvine Anteaters have become the darlings of the College World Series with their aggressive no-quit style of baseball. The Anteaters have had their backs to the wall twice, pulling out extra inning wins in their last two outings, a 5-4 win in a marathon 13 inning game against Cal State Fullerton on Monday and Tuesday’s thrilling 8-7, extra inning (10) game where the Anteaters came from behind to send traditional power Arizona State home to Tempe. In the process, the local’s around Husker Nation have adopted the Anteaters, making them home favorites in Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium.
Tonight, UC-Irvine will find its back to the wall again as they face the Beavers of Oregon State University , the defending 2006 CWS Champs. OSU is one of two undefeated teams left from the original eight team field. If the Anteaters can pull out another improbable win they continue on; lose and they go home.
While oddsmakers at most online sportsbooks give Oregon State the edge , it’s only a slight edge installing the Beavers favorites with a -145 chalk while UC-Irvine is getting +145 ml juice as the underdog. There is no doubt, most of the 30,000 or so in attendance pulling for the Anteaters will give them a home crowd type of a boost making +145 a pretty good value.
On Monday, both the Beavers and ASU Sun Devils entered their games undefeated but it didn’t take long for OSU to show its dominance throttling ASU 12-6 in an 18 hit barrage. The ASU loss set up Tuesday’s elimination game between UC-Irvine and ASU.
