OMAHA, Neb. -- When Cameron Warren stepped to the plate in his College World Series debut on Sunday night against Florida ace Brady Singer, some small green matter protruded from between the Texas Tech's first baseman's teeth.
Was it a toothpick? A green piece of chewing gum?
"It's just the [water] bottle cap, the thing under the bottle cap, the little ring," Warren said. "I chew on it a lot."
Say what?
"I don't know, I just started chewing on plastic a long time ago," Warren said. "It's just a habit, I guess."
A nervous habit?
"I'm not really nervous, I do it all the time," Warren said. "Sometimes it's toothpicks. I just always have to chew on something."
So ... you just rip it off the water bottle?
"Yeah, I just use my teeth and pull it off."
As the 6-foot-3, 215-pound junior explained, he fiddled with a water bottle in his hands -- cap and ring still on -- while sitting in the victorious Red Raiders locker room. His team -- which meets Arkansas in a winners' bracket game Wednesday at TD Ameritrade Park (noon ET, ESPN2 and the ESPN App) -- had just upset the Gators, the defending national champs, and succeeded against Singer, the Kansas City Royals' first-round pick and the Dick Howser Trophy winner.
Warren, who had the longest at-bat of the night against the star pitcher, helped kick-start the Texas Tech offense. With Singer cruising along in the fifth inning, having allowed only three baserunners through Texas Tech's first 15 batters, Warren engaged Singer in a 14-pitch showdown that started 0-2 but included nine foul balls by Warren, who worked to a full count before eventually lining out to second base.
Despite failing to reach base, it was still an effective plate appearance. Cody Farhat followed Warren with a single. Braxton Fulford reached on an errant throw by Florida shortstop Deacon Liput. Then Gabe Holt hit a chopper that Florida first baseman JJ Schwarz couldn't quite backhand, resulting in a two-RBI single and a 3-1 Texas Tech lead.
"He had a heck of an at-bat," Singer said of Warren. "Obviously we were battling pretty hard against each other. But he was doing what a hitter should do."
Warren's at-bat, and the subsequent happenings in the fifth inning, became the turning point in the Red Raiders' 6-3 upset of the Gators. Singer's pitch count went from 49 to 63 in the battle. By time the fifth inning had ended, he had thrown 75 pitches and in the sixth, the Red Raiders connected on four consecutive hits, generating two runs and Singer was done after six innings.
"It definitely got [Singer] where he was laboring a little bit throughout the inning," Texas Tech coach Tim Tadlock said. "I think we still had some good fortune. But that guy, if he's fresh, he can make you a three- or four-pitch at-bat pretty fast and send you back to the dugout. When a guy has a 14 pitch at-bat, it's a little bit tougher to execute pitches."
Warren's persistence embodied the approach the Red Raiders brought to Omaha. Tadlock's group is full of quality hitters -- Warren is one of five Red Raiders who have double-digit home runs and at least 50 RBIs this season -- and though they were one of the tournament's underdogs (only Washington had longer betting odds to win the title), they are playing like a team that expects to succeed here.
"I think it just shows that we can compete with anybody," infielder Michael Davis said.
The Red Raiders aren't strangers to the CWS. This is their third appearance in the tournament under Tadlock in the past five years. It's an expectation that's now built into their program, evidenced by their calm, collected attitudes following Sunday's win. There wasn't a lot of noise in the locker room after they took down Singer and the Gators, but rather a business-like atmosphere that signified a team that wasn't surprised by the result.
"We have a bunch of guys who have been here before," sophomore infielder Grant Little said. "It really gives us confidence to go out there and play our style of baseball and come out on top.
"We came here to do a job and when we step in between those lines, it's all business."
Well, not
While he said he's not typically anxious, he did go through three of the bottle cap rings on Sunday night.
"Usually it's less than that," he said. "But I was probably a little more nervous today so I chewed a little harder."
Not everyone is 100 percent clear on when or how it started, but teammates and coaches are used to it now.
"I've asked him why he does it," Holt said. "He'll chew on anything he can get his hands on. But he said it kinda keeps his mind off things."
And it's not exclusive to these tiny rings.
"It's just whatever he finds, really, like a Capri Sun straw, a bottle cap," Little said. "He's done that ever since I've known him."
Regardless of when, how or why, given the position the Red Raiders are in now, there's no sense to mess with the mojo.
"He just likes to chew on stuff," Little said. "I guess whatever works, works. So, he keeps chewing on stuff and we keep winning, so it's fine with me."