OMAHA, NEB. — Joseph McCaskill and Connor Powers sat side-by-side in red seats Thursday morning at Rosenblatt Stadium, observing and soaking in the sun-drenched spectacle all around them.
The spartan concourses crawled with fans, most of them of the four feet-tall variety, armed with Sharpies and all sorts of things to sign. A cacophony of pings was the backdrop, as the Carolina blue-clad players took their cuts framed in green grass.
In front, a huge Jumbotron. Behind, the famed press box that rises up on old-school steel girders. All around, the sights and smells of college baseball’s most famed venue.
This, after all, is Omaha. And State (38-20) is here, playing North Carolina (53-13) today at 6 p.m. in an opening-round College World Series game.