The Louisville lineup is real hot as noted the last couple of weeks, but they will be going up against the national freshman pitcher of the year, Ryan Berry for Rice. Berry is 11-2 with a 2.71 ERA in 18 starts this year (21 appearances), and in 116.1 innings he's logged 119 strikeouts and only 32 walks and opponents asre hitting just .240 against him. He went 7.1 innings against Texas A&M in the super regional allowing just two runs.

Rice will have no easy task either this afternoon, as they will face a junior in Zack Pitts. The righty has been one of the best pitchers in the nation, going 10-3 with a 2.23 ERA in 17 starts (19 appearances), and opponents are hitting just .217 against him this season. Last week in the super regionals against Oklahoma State, he went seven innings giving up four hits, no runs, while striking out six as he picked up that tenth win of the year.

The Louisville lineup is one that would put jitters into anybody. They have speed, power, and gritiness to contend with the best, as they have showed throughout this postseason, knocking out Miami, Missouri and Oklahoma State. They face another power today in their first ever CWS game.

As long as they don't feel intimidated by over 20,000 fans, they should certainly be alright.

Rice meanwhile has woken the bats up at the right time. All nine starters are hitting over .300, which is a far cry from when this team was hitting about .250 through the first quarter of the season. Cleanup hitter Joe Savery leads the lineup with a .360 average and will play first in this one.

It's a lineup that lacks a lot of power, as Aaron Luna has 11, that's the most and he's in the seventh slot.

The weather is gorgeous, but it's hot and muggy. The high today is expected to be about 91, and the sunshine is out, with a lot of haze.

I'm looking forward to seeing if Louisville can keep up what this team has done the last two weeks. There's no question in my mind that coach McDonnell will have his team fired up and ready to go.

Should be fun. You can follow along with all the action with Gametracker.

We'll be back with postgame reaction from Omaha.