No one ever said it would be easy. It may be Alabama's first appearance in the College World Series since 1999, but the Crimson Tide are one game away from having to pack their bags and leave Omaha for good. Rob Vaughn's team had no answer for the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday after getting shut out in their first game of the tournament, 9-0. Alabama will now face Texas in a must-win.
The latest betting odds are not giving the Crimson Tide much of a chance to live to fight another day.
According to FanDuel Sportsbook, Alabama is a 1.5-run underdog to the favored Longhorns. The moneylines heading into Monday afternoon's game are Texas -265 and Alabama +200. The over/under comes in at a combined 11.5 runs. We are looking at a potential final score of Texas 6.5, Alabama 5. The Longhorns had their issues with Georgia on Saturday, stumbling 7-1 to the Bulldogs.
To make matters worse, Alabama has the worst odds of winning the College World Series at +6000.
- North Carolina Tar Heels: -110
- Georgia Bulldogs: +175
- Oklahoma Sooners: +1100
- Texas Longhorns: +1300
- West Virginia Mountaineers: +2000
- Troy Trojans: +5000
- Alabama Crimson Tide: +6000
Alabama finds itself behind the Troy Trojans among the seven teams still alive. With Troy eliminating Ole Miss from the tournament on Sunday afternoon, they were the first team from Alabama to get a win in Omaha. Crimson Tide fans can only hope they match what Troy achieved, and not bow out in the minimum number of games like SEC rival Ole Miss did. Rob Vaughn's team is so up against it here.
While the defense was not awful on Saturday, Alabama had no answers for Cord Rager on the mound.
Alabama is on the brink of CWS elimination with Texas on deck in Omaha
The Crimson Tide may have been the No. 7 overall seed coming in, but being placed in the far more challenging of the two College World Series brackets has not gone well thus far. Alabama faced the under-seeded Sooners off the bat and were no match for them. A loss guaranteed them a date with either No. 3 Georgia or No. 6 Texas. The latter will be facing Vaughn's team to keep its season alive.
Right now, Alabama's greatest strength of being so resilient is being put to the test in a major way. Oklahoma is catching everyone by surprise. Texas had been able to shut the door on everyone coming in prior to the Georgia defeat. The Bulldogs are playing with a level of confidence that only the North Carolina Tar Heels in the other bracket can reasonably hope to match. Alabama is battling now.
Read more: The reason Rob Vaughn isn't panicking after Alabama baseball's CWS blowout loss
Overall, Alabama's days in Omaha look to be numbered. While the players and staff may not want to think about it, the rest of the college baseball world realizes this. For the Crimson Tide to even get to a best-of-three national championship series, Vaughn's team will need to win four games in a row. The only way for that to happen is if Alabama eliminates the three other teams in its bracket, one at a time.
Crazier things have happened in college sports before, but it is not looking great for the Tide at all.
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