College Roundup: Bulldogs Bite Ducks

Three key story lines from around college baseball Saturday.

Strike One: Mississippi Statement

Oregon went into Starkville, Miss., sporting the seventh-best ERA in the entire country, a miniscule 1.61. Suffice to say it won’t be leaving that way.

For the second straight day, 24th-ranked Mississippi State rolled over the Ducks, following Friday’s 10-4 win with a 9-3 drubbing on Saturday that was never close. Talented Ducks sophomore Matt Krook, one of their trio of previously red-hot starters, failed to even make it out of the first inning. MSU put up five runs in that first, helped along by Krook’s handing out four walks and a hit-by-pitch. Against an Oregon offense that thus far hasn’t shown it’s equipped to win shootouts, that 5-0 hole was already too much, and the Bulldogs stretched it out to a 9-0 lead after seven innings before Oregon pushed a few across late.

HOW THE TOP 25 FARED

(1) Florida: swept DH, 9-2 and 3-1, vs. Harvard

(2) Texas A&M: won, 4-3, vs. Fresno State

(3) Oregon State: won, 4-0, vs. San Francisco

(4) Louisville: won, 1-0, vs. Notre Dame

(5) Vanderbilt: won, 14-3, vs. Xavier

(6) Miami: won, 11-6, at Virginia Tech

(7) Louisiana State: won, 9-3, vs. Ball State

(8) Texas Christian: won, 11-10 (10 inn.), vs. Southern California

(9) California: lost, 11-8, vs. Texas Tech

(10) Virginia: won, 7-6, vs. Duke

(11) Oregon: lost, 9-3, at (24) Mississippi State

(12) North Carolina: won, 4-0, vs. Pittsburgh

(13) Mississippi: PPD vs. Grambling State

(14) UCLA: won, 5-4, vs. Texas

(15) Florida State: won, 14-9, vs. (20) Georgia Tech

(16) Louisiana-Lafayette: lost, 4-1, at Troy

(17) North Carolina State: won, 3-2, vs. Boston College

(18) Arkansas: won, 9-3, vs. Western Illinois

(19) Michigan: swept DH, 9-4 and 5-3, at Hawaii

(20) Georgia Tech: lost, 14-9, at (15) Florida State

(21) Houston: won, 3-2, at (23) Alabama

(22) Oklahoma State: won, 16-0, vs. Abilene Christian

(23) Alabama: lost, 3-2, vs. (21) Houston

(24) Mississippi State: won, 9-3, vs. (11) Oregon

(25) East Carolina: lost, 7-2, at Rice

Oregon had allowed just 24 total runs in its first 12 games before giving up 19 in two games in Starkville. On the other side Saturday, Bulldogs starter Austin Sexton struck out a career-high 12 on his way to throwing six scoreless innings.

“We’ve won two games against a team really highly thought of around the country,” Mississippi State coach John Cohen told the Vicksburg Post.

“I thought Austin was just fabulous,” Cohen said. “His changeup was so good, at points he could’ve almost told the hitter what was coming and still been able to get the hitter out. His changeup had that much movement, that much arm speed.”

Even though plenty of baseball remains, it’s a significant series win for Mississippi State as it looks to brand last year’s disappointing year as an anomaly. It’s also the third marquee non-conference series win for the SEC, following Florida over Miami and Mississippi over Louisville.

Strike Two: Frogs Deal Trojans More Heartbreak

Southern California and Texas Christian began the year almost back-to-back in our preseason Top 25, USC at No. 16 and TCU at No. 18. Their paths have gone in opposite directions ever since. While TCU has jetted out to a now 12-2 start, USC fell flat in an opening weekend series loss to North Dakota and is still trying to get its season untracked as the two meet this weekend in Fort Worth.

The Trojans were on the verge of a breakthrough last Sunday before losing to UCLA in extra innings at Dodger Stadium. As difficult as that loss was, Saturday’s might have topped it. USC trailed 10-5 entering the eighth inning on Saturday, only to fight back against TCU’s normally stout pitching and tie the game, keyed by Lars Nootbaar’s two-run double and Timmy Robinson’s game-tying RBI single. A.J. Ramirez’s RBI double in the 10th gave USC an 11-10 lead, but the joy was short-lived.

Evan Skoug led off the bottom of the 10th with a double, followed by four walks from USC’s pitching (one of them intentional). Dane Steinhagen’s bases-loaded walk ended the game.

“I thought we did a good job of not trying to do too much in the 10th inning,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle told gofrogs.com. “There’s a tendency there with those guys to want to be the guy who wins it. You had two pitchers out there that weren’t commanding the strike zone. One of the things we talk about is trust the guy behind you. If you don’t get your pitch, that’s okay, move on to the next pitch.”

The win clinches the series for TCU, which beat USC 8-3 on Friday. With the loss, the Trojans will have had only one winning weekend out of four, while TCU continues to look ever more formidable as it shows it can win games even when its pitching falters.

Strike Three: Florida State Surges Past Georgia Tech

The marquee series on the opening weekend of ACC play has gone decisively one way. Florida State flexed its muscles on Saturday, overcoming a rocky start from Drew Carlton (3.1 IP, 5 ER) that left it in a 5-0 hole to pull away from Georgia Tech in a 14-9 win, clinching the series. FSU’s six-run fifth inning was the turning point, highlighted by Dylan Busby’s two-run homer, and the Seminoles put up more crooked numbers with three runs in the seventh and six in the eighth.

The Seminoles have scored 22 runs through the first two games of the series, having won 8-2 on Friday, to twice take down what was the nation’s last undefeated team entering the weekend. It’s also the 23rd time FSU has won its ACC-opening series since joining the conference in 1992.

“I am very proud of our ball club,” FSU head coach Mike Martin told Seminoles.com. “Down five to a club that is very competitive, obviously well coached, and to not panic and not lose their focus was a good win for us tonight. Every conference win is a big win, but when you’re down five and the other team is playing absolutely beautiful baseball, it just a real credit to our team to get that done today.”

While Georgia Tech looks to avoid getting swept Sunday, elsewhere around the ACC, the opening weekend of league play has produced a trio of rubber matches for the weekend’s final day. No. 6 Miami and No. 17 North Carolina State will try to stave off Virginia Tech and Boston College, respectively, in both cases where the ranked team lost the opener but bounced back Saturday. Lastly, Clemson and Wake Forest will settle what’s been a back-and-forth series in Winston-Salem.

The Lineup

Nine newsmakers from Saturday’s action.

1. Alex Faedo, rhp, Florida: Faedo carried a no-hitter through at least six innings for the second time this year, retiring the first 19 Harvard hitters he faced Saturday before giving up a one-out single in the seventh. He wound up setting career highs for innings (8.1) and strikeouts (13) in Florida’s 3-1 win.

2. Seth Beer, of, Clemson: The Tigers’ star freshman clubbed two home runs, which proved to be the difference in a series-tying 6-5 win at Wake Forest. Beer has three homers this weekend and six already on the young season.

3. Kyle Cedotal, lhp, Southeastern Louisiana: Cedotal was magnificent for the second straight week, carrying a perfect game into the eighth inning against Incarnate Word. He lost the perfecto on a one-out single, but the hitter was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double, so he still ended up facing the minimum over eight shutout innings, during which he fanned 13.

4. Cory Raley, dh, Texas Tech: A senior with just three career homers entering Saturday, Raley went deep twice in Texas Tech’s 11-8 win at No. 9 California, including a game-tying three-run shot in the seventh.

5. Drew Harrington, lhp, Louisville: The junior delivered the longest start of his career with eight shutout innings in Louisville’s 1-0 win against Notre Dame, which completes a three-game sweep. With it, he’s built a 14-inning shutout streak and lowered his ERA for the year to 1.42.

6. Walker Pennington, dh, Texas A&M: Pennington’s walk-off double capped off A&M’s two-run rally in the bottom of the 10th against Fresno State, clinching the series with a 4-3 win. Both runs scored after the Aggies were down to their final out, having fallen behind in the top of the 10th before Ryne Birk’s RBI single tied it and Pennington won it.

“I was looking for the fastball there on the 1-1 count and it paid off,” Pennington told 12thman.com. “You have to give credit to the guys in front of me. I got rewarded with an RBI but it was the guys working those walks and the two-out hits that really gave me the opportunity.”

7. Jimmy Galusky, ss, West Virginia: It doesn’t get much more clutch than what the freshman Galusky did Saturday night against Old Dominion. With his team down 4-3, he tripled to lead off the bottom of the ninth and scored the tying run on a sac fly. After the Mountaineers fell behind again, 5-4, in the 12th, he poked a walk-off, two-run single through the right side to finish a wild 6-5 win.

8. Kort Peterson, dh, UCLA: Continuing the walk-off theme, Peterson launched the second pitch of the bottom of the ninth over the right-field wall for the game-winning homer as UCLA won a back-and-forth game with Texas, 5-4. That sets up a rubber match between the two on Sunday.

9. Lucas Brown, lhp, Troy: Brown (9 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO) threw his second-career complete game as Troy downed Louisiana-Lafayette 4-1. The rubber game between the two teams is worth paying attention to on Sunday, as Troy figures to be one of the Cajuns’ key challengers in the Sun Belt race.