College Roundup: Bulldogs Hammer Duplantier, Rice

Strike One: Bulldogs Make A Little History

Louisiana Tech reached one milestone on Thursday. Now it has another within reach.

The Bulldogs trounced perennial Conference USA power Rice 12-2 in their series opener in Ruston. The win was Louisiana Tech’s 17th in conference play, setting a new school record, and the Bulldogs are halfway to the marquee series win that could send them to their first NCAA tournament since 1987. They moved up to No. 44—solid at-large territory—in the RPI on WarrenNolan.com with the win, and they’ve won five of their last six series, the kind of strong finish the selection committee likes to see.

HOW THE TOP 25 FARED

(1) Florida: PPD at (8) Louisiana State

(2) Texas A&M: won, 6-1, vs. (6) Mississippi

(3) Mississippi State: won, 7-0, vs. Arkansas

(4) Miami: won, 4-2, at (14) Florida State

(5) Texas Tech: won, 2-1, vs. West Virginia

(6) Mississippi: lost, 6-1, at (2) Texas A&M

(7) Louisville: won, 3-1, at Wake Forest

(8) Louisiana State: PPD vs. (1) Florida

(9) Virginia: won, 8-3, vs. Virginia Tech

(10) South Carolina: won, 6-4, at Alabama

(11) Tulane: PPD at Houston

(12) Vanderbilt: swept DH, 9-3 and 5-2, vs. Auburn

(13) Southern Mississippi: lost, 6-5, at Florida International

(14) Florida State: lost, 4-2, vs. (4) Miami

(15) Texas Christian: won, 3-2, vs. Kansas State

(16) Rice: lost, 12-2, at Louisiana Tech

(17) Florida Atlantic: won, 4-3, vs. Western Kentucky

(18) Cal State Fullerton: off

(19) North Carolina State: won, 6-4, vs. North Carolina

(20) Oklahoma State: PPD vs. Kansas

(21) Minnesota: lost, 3-2, vs. Ohio State

(22) Coastal Carolina: won, 9-1, vs. Campbell

(23) Clemson: won, 2-1, at Notre Dame

(24) Bryant: swept DH, 6-0 and 8-0, at Mount St. Mary’s

(25) Long Beach State: off

Perhaps most impressive was they way they did it. Louisiana Tech is a solid offensive team, but Owls are built on pitching, and they sent ace Jon Duplantier to the mound, the owner of a 2.14 ERA entering the game and the premier arm in the conference. Yet in one night, Duplantier’s ERA nearly doubled.

“(Assistant coach Jake) Wells did a great job with our offense and getting our hitters prepared to face one of the best guys in the league,” Bulldogs head coach Greg Goff told latechsports.com. “I thought our guys really executed tonight. We had some great at-bats and battled with two strikes. We didn’t give in. Our guys really competed against a big time arm.”

Duplantier hadn’t given up a home run all season until Chase Lunceford launched a first-pitch offering over the scoreboard in right field, a shot that opened the scoring in the bottom of the second. The onslaught began from there, as Louisiana Tech scored in five straight innings and hit two more home runs—one of them an inside-the-park job after two Rice outfielders collided. In all, Duplantier was charged with nine runs, all earned, in just 4 1/3 innings, his ERA jumping all the way to 4.17, and the 12 runs were the most the Owls had allowed in a conference game all year.

Rice is certainly still alive in the C-USA title race, as it remains a half game behind league leader Southern Mississippi, which lost to Florida International. But the other big development Thursday was Marshall’s win against Old Dominion which, in conjunction with USM losing, allowed the Thundering Herd pull into a tie for first place at 20-8 in the conference. At No. 64 in the RPI, Marshall is only a fringe at-large team, but it would be a possible game changer if it can pull out the regular-season title, both for its own resume as well as the conference’s chances of landing a regional host, where both USM and Rice had been well positioned.

Strike Two: Big Ten Race Tightens

No conference promises to have a more fascinating final two days than the Big Ten, where the top five teams in the standings are separated by just two games after Thursday. With it playing just eight conference series in a 13-team league, the Big Ten’s schedule has had many of its best teams miss playing each other. But it has produced a fantastic final weekend where the top four teams are all going head-to-head, as first-place Minnesota hosts Ohio State and second-place Indiana visits Nebraska, with NU and OSU entering tied for third.

Thursday’s drama began in Minneapolis, where Ohio State scored the winning run in the top of the ninth to win 3-2. Second baseman Troy Kuhn’s infield single with two outs in the inning brought home the go-ahead run, breaking a stalemate that had seen both teams unable to get timely hits. There were a total of 22 hits in the game, but then the two teams combined to go 3-for-27 with runners in scoring position. The Gophers left runners in scoring position in three straight innings from the third to the fifth against OSU starter Tanner Tully, then saw their scoring chances dry up late as OSU relievers Seth Kinker and Michael Horejsei combined for three no-hit innings.

“We were able to find some holes in the ninth inning and sneak out with a run to take the lead and finish it with our pitching staff,” OSU head coach Greg Beals told ohiostatebuckeyes.com. “It’s a good win but we need to be ready to go tomorrow night.”

Over in Lincoln, the Cornhuskers got a dominant start from junior righthander Derek Burkamper in a 4-1 win. Burkamper carried a no-hitter into the sixth before giving up a two-out single, and he went on to pitch into the eighth, limiting IU to just two hits over 7 1/3 shutout innings. Nebraska’s offense didn’t generate much against IU’s Kyle Hart, either, but it got the one big swing when it needed it, as Scott Schreiber’s three-run shot in the bottom of the sixth broke a scoreless tie and proved the difference. Schreiber is as hot as any hitter out there, now having gone 11-for-14 with five home runs in his last three games.

Add in fifth-place Michigan’s 1-0 win over Cody Sedlock at Illinois, and the top of the Big Ten has gotten as tight as it can. Minnesota still controls its destiny to win the regular-season title, but it’s also down to 48 in the WarrenNolan RPI, which would make it a bubble team if it stays there. Michigan, despite being at the back of the line in terms of the standings, remains in the best shape for an NCAA berth with its No. 33 RPI, while Nebraska jumped to 43 with Thursday’s win. Ohio State is trying to play its way into the mix, having reached No. 69, but still has a considerable amount of work to do. IU, mired at 94, will be in all-or-nothing mode in the Big Ten tournament.

Strike Three: Wolfpack Hangs Tough Against Tar Heels

RALEIGH, N.C.—North Carolina had a chance at an early knockout against rival North Carolina State, but the Tar Heels let the Wolfpack hang around and eventually paid for it, as NCSU scored a 6-4 win in their Thursday night opener.

UNC took a 2-0 lead after the first two innings but failed to land a decisive blow, stranding the bases loaded in both frames. Wolfpack starter Cory Wilder couldn’t keep the ball in the strike zone in the top of the first inning, giving up a walk and a hit-by-pitch to the first two hitters, followed by an RBI single by Logan Warmoth. After another HBP later in the inning loaded the bases, and that was it, as Wilder was pulled after recording just two outs. Submarining righthander Chris Williams was able to end the inning by fanning No. 7 hitter Adam Pate.

A similar story played out in the second. Warmoth—who finished the night 4-for-5—had another RBI single, but UNC left three runners out there again as senior lefty Travis Orwig whiffed Zack Gahagan to end it.

“This time of year, you can’t give the leniency you’d like to,” Wolfpack head coach Elliott Avent said. “Cory would’ve settled back in, but especially with (UNC starter) Zac Gallen—he’s one of the top pitchers in this league and always has been—you can’t get down but so far. When we got out of those first two innings at 2-0, I thought we were very fortunate and I thought Orwig and Chris Williams did a great job.”

Gallen came into Thursday on the heels of throwing eight shutout innings in his last start against Notre Dame, and the Wolfpack barely touched him in the first half of this game as well. Through the first five innings, the Pack had just two hits—both infield singles—and Gallen had a stretch in which he retired 12 of 13 from the second inning through the first hitter of the sixth. Then he started on his third trip through the order.

Gallen’s stretch of 12 of 13 retired was broken when Pack leadoff man Stephen Pitarra hit a two-strike double down the left field line with one out in the sixth. The flood gates opened later in the inning, as three straight two-out hits gave NCSU the lead. The Wolfpack chased Gallen in the seventh, in which it added on three more runs to build a 6-2 lead. Gallen wound up being charged with five runs allowed, matching his season high.

“Our guys just stuck with it like they always have,” Avent said. “We pieced the stuff together in the fifth and sixth. But we had good at-bats all game. That’s as good of at-bats as you can put together off Zac Gallen. He’s that good.”

UNC made things interesting in the ninth, scoring twice and bringing the go-ahead run to the plate, but Wolfpack relief ace Will Gilbert was able to get a couple ground balls to halt the rally. In all, the Wolfpack used six relievers to pitch 8 1/3 innings, in which they allowed three runs on seven hits, most of that damage coming in the ninth. Between the third and the eighth, during which the Wolfpack needed to hold the line to give its offense a chance to figure out Gallen, NCSU’s relievers allowed just two baserunners.

“I thought our relievers were the story of the game,” Avent said.

The win brings the Wolfpack, which had lost six of its last seven Atlantic Coast Conference games, a big step closer to shoring up its place as a regional host, though it still needs to make sure it wins the series. Meanwhile, with Duke’s win against Pittsburgh, the Tar Heels find themselves in 10th place in the ACC, right on the cutline to make the conference tournament, an absolute must for them to get into the NCAAs.

The Lineup

Brigham Hill, rhp, Texas A&M: In back-to-back starts against top 10 opponents, Hill has allowed just one run in 13 innings after he went seven strong against Mississippi on Thursday. The sophomore struck out eight while giving up only one run on four hits as the Aggies won 6-1 to stay tied with Mississippi State atop the SEC West.

Mike Shawaryn, rhp, Maryland: It hasn’t been the smoothest junior season for Shawaryn, but he’s always had a knack for coming through in big games and did so again Thursday, throwing his second career complete game (9 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 6 K) in a 6-3 win at Michigan State as the Terps try to keep their postseason hopes alive.

Peter Zyla, rf, Duke: Pittsburgh ace T.J. Zeuch set a career high with 12 strikeouts against the Blue Devils and was one out away from pitching a 1-0 shutout when Zyla poked a game-tying RBI single through the left side. Zyla’s hit kept Duke alive, and they won it in the 10th to take another big step towards their first NCAA trip since 1961.

Justin Motley, cf, Kennesaw State: The Owls clinched their first regular-season conference title since joining Division I in 2006 with a 7-2 win at Florida Gulf Coast. The senior Motley led the way, hitting his third career home run and finishing just a single short of the cycle as he went 3-for-4 with a career-high four RBIs.

Dakota Hudson, rhp, Mississippi State: Hudson threw his second straight shutout and third complete game of the year as the Bulldogs breezed past Arkansas 7-0. Hudson (9 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 10 K) did have a close call when Arkansas had a runner thrown out at the plate in the seventh, but he’s nonetheless allowed only one earned run in his last 26 1/3 innings of work.

Ethan Paul, 1b, Vanderbilt: Paul had a ho-hum 2-for-7 line in Vanderbilt’s doubleheader sweep of Auburn, but his day was far more memorable than that would indicate. In the seventh inning of the opener, Paul led the way on a triple steal, dashing for home plate as Auburn’s Justin Camp threw from the windup with the bases loaded. It was the third time Vandy’s pulled off a triple steal since 2012.

Anthony Kay, lhp, Connecticut: The Huskies’ junior ace broke the program’s career strikeouts record, whiffing seven over seven innings against South Florida to move past 2011 first-round pick Matt Barnes with 249 for his career. He also improved to 7-2, 2.47 as he allowed just two runs on four hits in UConn’s 11-2 win.

Brett Adcock, lhp, Michigan: Adcock won the night’s best pitchers’ duel, as he and the Wolverines topped Illinois and ace Cody Sedlock 1-0. The junior Adcock (8.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 9 K) turned in his longest outing of the season, while Sedlock went the distance, only yielding a solo homer to Johnny Slater in the fifth that made the difference. BA’s Vince Lara was on hand and has a game report on Sedlock.

Matt Thaiss, c, Virginia: The Cavaliers took another step toward a national seed with an 8-3 win against rival Virginia Tech, highlighted by Thaiss’ long two-run homer in the sixth. The blast was his ninth of the season, and the junior finished the night 3-for-4 with four RBIs.