College Roundup: Rice’s Graham Wins 1,100th

HOW THE TOP 25 FARED

(1) Miami: lost, 12-5, at Duke

(2) Mississippi State: lost, 10-6, vs. (4) Texas A&M

(3) Florida: won, 8-2, at Arkansas

(4) Texas A&M: won, 10-6, at (2) Mississippi State

(5) South Carolina: lost, 13-4, at Georgia

(6) Florida State: won, 13-8, at Wake Forest

(7) Texas Christian: won, 12-2, and won, 2-0, vs. Oklahoma

(8) Mississippi: lost, 2-0, at Alabama

(9) Louisiana State: won, 9-5, at Missouri

(10) Oregon State: lost, 8-3, at Washington State

(11) Louisville: won, 7-2, vs. Clemson

(12) Vanderbilt: won, 3-2, vs. (16) Kentucky

(13) UC Santa Barbara: won, 5-4, vs. Cal State Northridge

(14) North Carolina: won, 8-1, at Virginia

(15) Texas Tech: won, 10-0, vs. San Diego State

(16) Kentucky: lost, 3-2, at (12) Vanderbilt

(17) California: won, 8-4 (11 inn.), at Arizona State

(18) Long Beach State: won, 8-3, vs. UC Irvine

(19) Rice: won, 5-2, and won, 3-2, vs. Western Kentucky

(20) North Carolina State: won, 15-6, at Georgia Tech

(21) Florida Atlantic: won, 10-2, at Marshall

(22) Michigan: won, 10-6, vs. Nebraska

(23) South Alabama: won, 8-1, at Appalachian State

(24) Tulane: won, 1-0, vs. Cincinnati

(25) Southern Mississippi: lost, 8-7, at Alabama-Birmingham

Strike One: Graham Wins 1,100th

Stubbornness and good players—that’s been the key to Rice head coach Wayne Graham’s success for the last 25 years, or at least that’s what he told the home crowd after a doubleheader sweep of Western Kentucky on Saturday.

It’s hard to argue with him. After all, with the two victories Saturday, Graham reached the 1,100-win plateau with Rice.

“I was happy to get to 1,000, and certainly this is another milestone,” Graham told fans after the game. “And it’s a credit to the players we’ve had consistently over the years.”

The Owls won Saturday’s games, 5-2, and, 3-2, respectively, finishing off a three-game sweep of the Hilltoppers and surging into first place in the Conference USA standings. Under Graham, the Owls have won 20 consecutive conference championships.

Lefthander Blake Fox pitched Rice to victory in the first game, allowing just two runs in eight innings and striking out a career-high nine batters.

Game Two was a tighter affair, but righthander Ricardo Salinas held Western Kentucky in check for 6 1/3 innings, and closer Glenn Otto threw 2 2/3 scoreless innings to finish it off after throwing a scoreless inning in the day’s first game.

Rice has now won 15 of its past 17 games after starting the season 9-9.

Strike Two: Aggies Take Series From Bulldogs

Before this weekend, few teams in the country had been playing as well as Mississippi State. The Bulldogs started SEC play with four impressive series wins against Vanderbilt, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida and, in the process, catapulted to No. 2 in the Top 25.

Texas A&M was clearly not intimidated. At one point the country’s No. 1 team themselves, the Aggies rolled into Starkville, Miss., and clinched the series, winning 10-6 Saturday after winning 10-3 the night before.

In front of 15,078 fans at the famed Dudy Noble Field—the second-largest on-campus crowd in NCAA history—the Aggies used a five-run third inning to jump ahead of the Bulldogs and didn’t look back.

With the win, the Aggies jumped ahead of Mississippi State to grab first place in the SEC West at 9-5.

“Getting the series win in an environment like this is huge,” junior outfielder Joel Davis told 12thman.com after doubling, tripling and driving in two runs.

“To do that here with 15,000 in the stands cheering against us is a big momentum builder.”

The Aggies jumped on Mississippi State righthander Austin Sexton (3 IP, 9 H, 5 ER), but the Bulldogs regained some momentum with a three-run sixth and a solid effort from reliever Daniel Brown, cutting the deficit to 7-6 at one point.

But Texas A&M took momentum back thanks to a three-run eighth and four scoreless innings from junior righthander Mark Ecker out of the bullpen.

Strike Three: Duke Takes Down No. 1 Miami


Duke has made noise at times this year, namely a season-opening series win against California and ACC series wins against Georgia Tech and Clemson on back-to-back weekends. But the Blue Devils might’ve made their biggest statement of the year Saturday with a resounding 12-5 defeat of the top team in the nation.

The Blue Devils snapped the No. 1 Hurricanes’ 12-game winning streak, the longest active streak in the country, and in doing so won their first game against a top-ranked opponent since 2009 against rival North Carolina.

After losing 14-2 in the first game Friday and falling behind 2-0 in the first inning Saturday, the Duke offense retaliated with a three-run first inning and six-run second, chasing Miami lefthander Michael Mediavilla from the contest early.

“That’s how you respond after a night like last night, especially after the top of the first when they scored the two runs and it looks like they’ve captured some momentum,” Duke coach Chris Pollard told goduke.com. “To turn around to have the guts and the toughness to string together the quality at-bats we strung together, then to put the big crooked number on the board in the second, it showed a lot.”

On a day in which the Blue Devil tallied 16 hits, freshman shortstop Zack Kone was the catalyst, going 5-for-5, driving in three runs and finishing a double short of the cycle.

“Kone was really good in all phases,” Pollard said. “He drove a ball down the right-field line. He showed off his speed with the two infield hits. Showed off his power hitting the home run. What a ballgame.”

The Lineup

Beau Jordan, lf, Louisiana State: Saturday was billed as a pitcher’s duel between two electric sophomore righthanders in LSU’s Alex Lange and Missouri’s Tanner Houck. But the game quickly morphed into an offensive battle. Jordan’s grand slam in a five-run eighth inning was the big blow the Tigers need to win, 9-5, and clinch the series.

Ross Massey, lhp, Tulane: Massey went the distance with a three-hit shutout, matching Cincinnati lefty J.T. Perez zero for zero until a walk-off home run from Jeremy Montalbano gave Tulane a 1-0, series-evening win. Just a freshman, Massey has proven himself to be one of Tulane’s most consistent performers. The southpaw improved to 5-2, 1.64 on the season and threw his second consecutive complete game.

“He just keeps doing it,” head coach David Pierce told tulanegreenwave.com. “Back-to-back complete games. Back-to-back shutout complete games. That’s pretty solid. He’s just a special kid. He goes out there and really competes and gives us a chance to win a game.”

Alex Faedo, rhp, Florida: The sophomore righthander notched double-digit strikeouts for the third time this season with 10 in 6 1/3 innings at Arkansas, allowing one run on five hits. Faedo helped lead the Gators to their first sweep of Arkansas since 2001.

Carson Crites, 2b, Southeastern Louisiana: Crites helped the Lions end their three-game skid and even a big in-state series against Louisiana-Lafayette with a 3-for-5, four-RBI game in a 16-5 win.

Bryan Reynolds, cf, Vanderbilt: The Commodores and No. 16 Kentucky were locked in a closely fought battle most of Saturday afternoon. After the Wildcats took a 2-1 lead late, Reynolds responded with a two-run single in the eighth inning to give Vanderbilt the lead and send the ‘Dores on their way to a series win.

J.B. Bukauskas, rhp, North Carolina: The hard-throwing sophomore tallied his fourth double-digit strikeout performance of the season, fanning 11 and allowing one run on four hits in seven innings at Virginia. Bukauskas leads the ACC with his 79 strikeouts in 53 innings and is first in the country with 13.50 strikeouts per nine.

Brian Celsi, rf, and Robbie Tenerowicz, 2b, California: Celsi and Tenerowicz each homered in a four-run 11th inning for the Golden Bears, lifting them over Arizona State, 8-4, to tie the series at one game apiece.

Ako Thomas, 2b, Michigan: The 5-foot-8 freshman had a big day at the plate, driving in a career-high three runs on two hits to help lead the Wolverines to a series win against Big Ten foe Nebraska.

A.J. Balta, lf, Oregon: Balta led the suddenly hot Oregon offense on Saturday in a 12-8 win against Southern California. The redshirt sophomore’s two-run double in the second sparked a seven-run inning, and he added another RBI for good measure. The Ducks have now won back-to-back series against Cal and the Trojans.