SHOWTIME! Stony Brook’s Travis Jankowski answers questions from a throng of reporters before today’s matchup against UCLA in the College World Series. (
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OMAHA, Neb. — Los Angeles has never seemed so small.
UCLA baseball coach John Savage barely had a chance to discuss his second-ranked team in the nation at yesterday’s College World Series Opening Day practice, as the Stony Brook Seawolves, the Bruins’ opponents today in the first game of the tournament, dominated the discussions, overshadowing the seven teams also fighting for a national championship.
After being asked another question about the darlings of college baseball, Savage once again lauded the talents of the team before pausing and looking at Stony Brook coach Matt Senk:
“You guys are the Yankees, right?” Savage said jokingly.
More like the Beatles.
The loveable Long Islanders invaded TD Ameritrade Park yesterday morning and may as well have planted a flag in the middle of center field and claimed it as a satellite campus.
As the second team to take the field, Stony Brook saw the biggest crowd and cheers of the day. The overwhelming fan favorites looked at a stadium that felt more like home than home, filled with “Shock the World” signs and Stony Brook shirts and hats.
“I think we had more fans at our practice than we had at our stadium all season,” said senior pitcher Tyler Johnson, today’s starter. “It’s amazing. This is just unbelievable.”
That was nothing. About an hour later, the team walked up to the concourse to participate in an autograph session, but the half-hour allotted wasn’t nearly enough. Sitting together at several long tables, the Seawolves met with hundreds of fans, doubling and tripling the turnouts for every other team.
The players stayed for an extra half-hour, with some leaving the line to sign for fans at the end of the line, but hundreds were still eventually turned away. It was Florida State’s turn next, an act no team could follow.
“The reaction was absolutely phenomenal, beyond my wildest expectations,” said Senk, in his 22nd-year as coach. “The autograph session was just blowing our minds. It was absolutely insane. I was told the way the city has embraced us to this point is not anything they’ve seen in a long time. It was pretty special and probably not anything we’ll ever forget.”
Stony Brook Director of Athletics Jim Fiore was floored with the turnout. He said he couldn’t even fathom what it would be like to see a sea of red at the 25,000 seat stadium today, with Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle telling him yesterday, “If there are 18,000 Stony Brook fans here, that’s going to be an understatement.”
Cole Julius will be one of them, representing Stony Brook’s new South Dakota fan base.
“I’m on the bandwagon,” said the 16-year-old, who never had heard of the school before last week but was brandishing a bright red Seawolves shirt. “Everyone likes a Cinderella story. It’s a team that everyone likes and everyone wants to cheer for and see them go all the way.”
UCLA sophomore Adam Plutko, today’s starting pitcher, said even he was captivated by the Seawolves story and after seeing them beat LSU in the Super Regional, he said they are as good as any team in the country. They are only underdogs to the uninformed, and Stony Brook’s ace is well aware of their potential.
“I think we got a great chance,” Johnson said of the team’s title hopes. “We want to shock the world. We want to win a national championship. … If we won it, I don’t think I could imagine what that would be like. With all these people, this is going to be a lot of fun.”
Is this heaven? No, it’s Omaha.
But in two weeks, Stony Brook may not be able to tell the difference.