OMAHA, Neb. - The furious first four days of doubleheaders at the College World Series are over. Virginia and Vanderbilt stand alone as the unbeatens at TD Ameritrade Park, setting up a potential repeat of the championship series for the first time since Oregon State beat North Carolina in 2006 and 2007.
The Cavaliers and Commodores are off until Friday. Miami and Florida, meanwhile, meet for the fifth time this season Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN, and LSU faces TCU on Thursday at 8 ET on ESPN in elimination contests.
Winners from Wednesday and Thursday advance to Friday, at which time they can force winner-take-all bracket championships on Saturday. If Virginia and Vanderbilt win Friday, we get the weekend off. The best-of-three championship series would start Monday.
So take a breath and let's reset the CWS -- minus the departed teams, Arkansas and Cal State Fullerton -- and add a few superlatives as a pair of single-game days arrive:
Team in best position to make the championship series: Vanderbilt. The Commodores, who beat TCU 1-0 Tuesday night on Zander Wiel's seventh-inning home run to break up a no-hit bid from Alex Young, are deep on the mound and about to get two days off. Right-hander Walker Buehler, the Los Angeles Dodgers' No. 1 pick in the recent MLB draft, has yet to pitch. Meanwhile, Virginia, despite an efficient display in using just three pitchers over 18 innings, remains in something of a bind without a healthy Nathan Kirby, the left-handed star who has not pitched since April 17 because of a strained lat muscle. If Virginia loses Friday, it has problems; no such concerns exist for Vanderbilt.
One-loss team in best position to make the championship series: TCU. The pitching-rich Horned Frogs got 14⅔ innings from starters Preston Morrison and Young. With Wednesday off, the bullpen will be rested and ready for LSU. Mitchell Traver (9-2, 1.60 ERA) and Tyler Alexander (6-2, 2.86) have combined to start 27 games this season, and they've yet to take the mound in Omaha. Looking elsewhere, LSU is thin on the mound; Florida has the offense to storm back, but how will the Gators respond to the shutout on Monday after scoring 98 runs in the previous 10 games? Miami needs three wins over Florida and Virginia over the next four days -- teams against which it has lost five of eight games this year.
Best finish to a game (that no one saw): A mostly empty stadium greeted Cal State Fullerton and Vanderbilt upon the restart Monday afternoon in the bottom of the sixth inning of a game that endured a 79-minute delay Sunday. It was suspended until Monday morning, then moved back another three hours. Everyone who went back to work missed out as Vandy scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to win 4-3 on freshman Jeren Kendall's two-run blast off Fullerton closer Tyler Peitzmeier, the first walk-off home run at the CWS since 2009.
Honorable mention: It wasn't quite as sparse as Monday afternoon, but as Monday night faded into Tuesday morning, the ballpark emptied during a pitcher's duel between Florida and Virginia. The Cavs scored in the sixth on Robbie Coman's sacrifice fly. Brandon Waddell silenced the Gators for seven innings before Josh Sborz slammed the door with two perfect frames.
Best hitter: Miami's Jacob Heyward looks like what you might expect from a right-handed version of his 25-year-old brother, Jason, if the St. Louis Cardinals loaned him to a college team. Jacob, the sophomore who broke into the Hurricanes' starting lineup last month, is 5-for-7 in Omaha. His speed and power almost single-handedly beat Arkansas on Monday as he homered and delivered the game-winning hit. Coach Jim Morris was still in awe of Heyward's display after the Canes practiced Tuesday. Wiel of Vanderbilt finishes a close second.
Best pitcher: With nods to Thomas Eshelman -- the hard-luck Fullerton ace whose night was cut short on Sunday after he allowed four hits, struck out eight and walked none in 5⅔ innings -- Waddell and Sborz from Virginia and Vandy's Philip Pfeifer, no one showed more guts than LSU's Alex Lange. After allowing three runs in the first inning Tuesday against Fullerton, he went the distance in a 5-3 win, the 12th without a defeat this year for the freshman right-hander.
Best gimmick: Arkansas tried to win this category by building a fake campfire out of several bats, tape and an empty bucket of gum on Monday afternoon against Miami. No luck. The Hurricanes broke out the rally monkey -- a stuffed white-haired little guy -- late in the same game. And it worked. Expect the monkey to return on Wednesday against the Gators.
Worst uniforms: The best thing about the suspended game on Sunday? We didn't have to watch Vanderbilt play in its all-black, pinstriped look for a full nine innings. When play resumed, the Commodores had changed to a traditional white ensemble. Wiel delivered an RBI double on the first pitch Monday. Obviously the uniforms made a difference.
Best desperation move: Hey, that's what LSU coach Paul Mainieri called his decision to wear a jersey in the dugout Tuesday during the Tigers' elimination-game win over Cal State Fullerton. "Desperate times call for desperate measures," he said. The Tigers rebounded from a poor performance in a loss Sunday to TCU and a bad first inning to beat the Titans 5-3, even going unorthodox with the lineup in elevating recent No. 2 overall draft pick Alex Bregman to the leadoff spot for the third time in his career and the first time in 2015.