US Baseball Pro

In the shadow of a baseball stadium that rose from a mud-caked disaster area after Hurricane Katrina, Tulane’s players and coaches loaded a bus, their hopes of reaching the College World Series still intact.Across town, the University of New Orleans also is harboring dreams of a trip to Omaha. The team finished practice at a ballpark where upper rows offer views of gutted homes near the edge of campus.

“We’re still submerged in the reality of the hurricane,” UNO coach Tom Walter said. “There still aren’t a lot of restaurants open (near campus) and the few that are have limited hours. There’s not a lot of shopping, drug stores, things like that. It’s better than it was a year ago, but it’s still slow.”

There are all sorts of complaints about the pace of recovery since the storm struck more than two years ago, but college baseball is not one of them.