College World Series 2014 schedule: Vanderbilt, Louisville reheat rivalry in Omaha

While most of the sporting universe fixes its gaze on Brazil, the college baseball world turns its attention to Omaha, Neb., where the 2014 College World Series begins this weekend.

The eight teams have been split into two bracket groups, the first of which will begin play on Saturday.

The early afternoon game pits UC Irvine against Texas. UC Irvine is the surprise of the tournament, having knocked off No. 1 seed Oregon State to escape the Corvallis Regional as a three-seed before scoring another upset victory on the road against Oklahoma State in Stillwater. Also, their mascot is an anteater, which may be the best mascot in sports.

The game marks the 25th meeting between two legendary coaches: Texas’ Augie Garrido and UC Irvine’s Mike Gillespie. Garrido has won 15 of those, including the clinching game of the 1995 national championship (Garrido was coaching Cal State Fullerton at the time; Gillespie was at USC).

In the nightcap, Vanderbilt will face Louisville, the team that knocked them out of their own super regional a year ago. This is actually one of the best budding rivalries in college baseball: it’s the 13th time in since 2009 that the two clubs have met and the eighth time they’ve seen each other in postseason play. Vandy’s lost the last three, including a two-game sweep in the 2013 Nashville Super.

The big news for this game is that Vandy head coach Tim Corbin has announced he’ll throw Carson Fulmer on Saturday instead of Friday night ace Tyler Beede, a first-round MLB draft selection. Neither guy performed all that well in the super regional round -- Beede allowed six runs against Stanford last Friday and Fulmer surrendered a career-high four runs in a no-decision on Saturday -- but Fulmer has won six of his last seven starts.

Here are the game times and tune-in info for Saturday:

Time: 3 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN2
Online streaming: WatchESPN.com

Time: 8 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN2
Online streaming: WatchESPN.com