"There is no more 'next week,' and that's the thing that becomes a challenge," said Avent, whose third-seeded team plays College of Charleston in the Myrtle Beach regional today at 7 p.m. "You lose and you go home - and you want to do everything for your team to win. But not at the expense of your players."

One problem, said Will Carroll, sports injury expert for Baseball Prospectus, is there's no agreement among college baseball coaches about how many pitches is too many. "We have no system," he said.