Off The Bat: Gators Ride High On Arms

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In Off The Bat, Teddy Cahill wraps up the weekend in college baseball and looks ahead.

Pitching Powers Florida To Sweep

Led by a rotation of righthanders Alex Faedo, Brady Singer and Jackson Kowar, a trio of potential top-10 picks in the next two years, Florida’s pitching staff has the ability to take over any series. This weekend, the Gators’ pitchers did just that.

No. 3 Florida swept its rivalry series against Miami, twice shutting out the Hurricanes and holding them scoreless for the first 21 innings of the weekend. Miami finally broke through for two runs in the finale on a pair of solo home runs from Romy Gonzalez, but Florida finished the sweep with a 6-2 victory.

The Gators (6-1) won the series for the third year in a row and swept the Hurricanes (2-4) for the first time since 2012. The series drew a total 16,807 fans to McKethan Stadium, a ballpark record.

“Any time you get a chance to sweep anybody, it’s important because it’s not easy to do,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.

Florida’s game plan on the mound was simply to pitch to its strengths, O’Sullivan said. The Gators executed the plan well and did a good job of putting themselves in situations to succeed. They issued nine walks all weekend and allowed the Hurricanes’ leadoff batter to reach in just four of 27 innings. Behind them, Florida’s defense made just one error.

“We did a nice job of controlling innings and getting the leadoff hitter,” O’Sullivan said. “We didn’t walk many and we played good, clean baseball.”

Faedo started the weekend strong, picking up where he left off last year against Miami, when he threw 6.1 hitless innings in the rubber game in Coral Gables. The junior started Friday’s game by retiring the first 13 batters he faced and nearly finished a two-hit shutout. But after a two-out error in the ninth was followed by Faedo’s first walk of the night, O’Sullivan turned to righthander Frank Rubio to close out the 1-0 victory.

In four career appearances (three starts) against Miami, Faedo has allowed two runs (one earned) in 21.1 innings. He has struck out 27 batters, walked seven and surrendered seven hits.

“Your Friday night starter has got to set the tone for the whole weekend,” O’Sullivan said. “Brady did the same Saturday and Jackson was solid (Sunday).”

Singer struck out 11 and held Miami to five hits and three walks in 7.2 scoreless innings in a 2-0 victory. Kowar struck out seven and gave up one run on four hits and three walks in 5.2 innings.

While Florida’s pitchers were strong all weekend, O’Sullivan said he was pleased to see the offense improve Sunday. Miami’s staff held Florida to three runs on 11 hits and seven walks in the first two games, with righthander Jesse Lepore (6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 6 K) and lefthander Jeb Bargfeldt (6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 3 K) both delivering quality starts.

But, Sunday, O’Sullivan said the Gators’ approach at the plate improved, and they were rewarded for it.

“We were swinging a little bit too hard,” O’Sullivan said. “It just takes one guy or two guys to get a big hit with a runner in scoring position.”

As Florida gets its offense going, its rotation is more than capable of carrying the load. And having passed a significant early-season test, the Gators are off and rolling this season.

“It was a good weekend,” O’Sullivan said. “We pitched good, played good defense and got some timely hits.”

Illinois-Chicago Shows Resilience, Upsets Vanderbilt

Illinois-Chicago travelled this weekend to Vanderbilt for a series for the fifth time in seven years. Going into Friday’s opener, the Commodores had won all 12 of the games in those series.

But UIC was undaunted by that recent history or by Vanderbilt’s ultra-talented roster, which features first-team Preseason All-Americans Jeren Kendall and Kyle Wright. The Flames started the series by beating Wright and the Commodores, 5-3, in 10 innings Friday. Vanderbilt rebounded to win Saturday’s game, 6-2. The Commodores jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the rubber game Sunday, but the Flames came back for a 5-2 victory in 11 innings for a stunning series victory.

UIC pushed ahead Sunday when Mickey McDonald led off the 11th with a double and came around to score two batters later on Scott Ota’s single. Rob Calabrese hit a two-out, two-run home run to provide key insurance runs for the Flames. Senior righthander Connor Ryan came on to pitch the bottom of the inning and set the Commodores down in order, securing the win.

Coach Mike Dee said the night before the series began, UIC (4-3) talked about the challenges then-No. 9 Vanderbilt (4-3) would present. He knew the Flames would have to be ready to respond to adversity throughout the series.

“We worked very hard on becoming more resilient and staying calm under pressure,” Dee said in a text message. “I thought they managed themselves exceptionally well this weekend. Vanderbilt isn’t going to give you anything.”

The Commodores wasted no time putting pressure on the Flames. Kendall led off Friday’s game with a home run, but senior lefthander Jake Dahlberg responded well for UIC. For five innings, he held Vanderbilt to that lone run, matching Wright (6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 7 K).

Dahlberg’s start was the beginning of a series of solid pitching performances for the Flames. Ryan was especially strong, striking out six batters in a total of 3.1 scoreless innings of relief to win Friday’s game and earn the save Sunday.

Dee said the pitching staff did a good job of attacking hitters and staying ahead in the count. The Flames knew they wouldn’t be able to give away outs and the pitching staff and defense did their part, totaling 14 walks and two errors in the three games.

“We really just preach simple fundamental things like throwing strikes down in the zone, being able to throw three pitches that way in any count, limiting the running game and playing great team defense,” Dee said. “I think we’ve done these things very well thus far.”

UIC started the season 2-2 at the MLB Urban Youth Invitational in New Orleans, including a loss to Prairie View A&M on Opening Day. It now has a chance to build on the momentum it created this weekend, as it travels to Missouri next weekend.

Dee said his biggest takeaway from the weekend at Vanderbilt is the potential of his team.

“We have a chance to be pretty good if we stay focused on what we need to do to improve and don’t see the season as one weekend,” Dee said.

Minnesota Sweeps U.S. Bank Stadium Debut

Minnesota ran into bad weather last weekend when it traveled to UC Irvine to open the season. The series opener was washed out by rain, and the team split the next two games.

Minnesota had no such trouble when it returned home this weekend for a series against Seattle. The Golden Gophers were able to take advantage of U.S. Bank Stadium for the first time ever, and found the new, domed home of the Minnesota Vikings to be friendly environs. Minnesota (4-1) swept the series, finishing with an 11-7 victory Sunday.

Minnesota broke out its bats all weekend, scoring a total of 30 runs in the three games. Outfielder Alex Boxwell and third baseman Micah Coffey, two of Minnesota’s top returners from last year’s Big Ten Conference championship team, have started the season well, but the Gophers got production from throughout their lineup all weekend.

“Even though we lost three of our top four hitters, we’ve grown and matured offensively,” coach John Anderson said.
The Gophers didn’t get to practice in U.S. Bank Stadium before Friday’s opener, Anderson said, leaving lots of unknowns about how the facility would play. But he was pleased with the results and how his team reacted to the experience.

“The players handled that excitement really well,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a great addition for college baseball. Hopefully we can help baseball in the northern part of country.”

Minnesota used to play early-season home games in the Metrodome, but had to make do without an indoor home for the last three seasons while U.S. Bank Stadium was constructed on the Metrodome’s former location.

Minnesota won the Big Ten last season despite playing just 17 home games against Division I opponents. This season, it is scheduled for 32, 13 of which are to be played in U.S. Bank Stadium before the Gophers shift to Siebert Field, their on-campus outdoor home, when the weather warms up.

Just having the opportunity to play more home games will help Minnesota, Anderson said. But U.S. Bank Stadium has other benefits for the Gophers. It should be a prime recruiting tool and will aid in player development, because more home games means more times when the whole team is available for practice, instead of just the travel roster.

U.S. Bank Stadium also enables Minnesota to be more creative with its schedule. Next week, it will host the Dairy Queen Classic, with Hawaii, Iowa and Oral Roberts travelling to Minnesota. But the tournament will grow in stature in the next two years. In 2018 it will be a Big Ten/Pacific-12 Conference challenge, and a Big Ten/Atlantic Coast Conference challenge the following year. Three teams from each conference will appear in the events, playing only inter-conference games.

Anderson said after the first images of the field went online Friday he heard from some coaches in the Southeastern Conference who are interested in playing at U.S. Bank Stadium. That has Anderson thinking about putting together a Big Ten/SEC challenge in 2020.

Interest will likely be high for those tournaments. But Minnesota’s series against Seattle also captured the attention of fans. The Gophers drew a total of 4,609 fans on the weekend, as people were eager to welcome baseball back to the Twin Cities this year.

“People were intrigued by the newness of the facility,” Anderson said. “People want to get out and see baseball. We’re coming off a good year last year when we had quite a bit of support at our ballpark on campus. (Sunday) it was a sunny day and it feel like we were playing outdoors.”

Eight for Omaha

Cal State Fullerton, East Carolina, Florida, Florida State, Louisiana State, Oregon State, South Carolina, Texas Christian

No changes from last week after every team produced a winning weekend. East Carolina bounced back after getting swept on opening weekend with a 4-0 week, but the level of competition will increase again this week with St. John’s and Western Carolina traveling to Greenville for the LeClair Classic. Friday will also produce a potential College World Series preview in Houston, when LSU and TCU square off in the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic at Minute Maid Park.

Eye-Catchers

Five players or programs who stood out this weekend.

Riley Adams, c, San Diego: The first-team Preseason All-American was named MVP of the Tony Gwynn Classic after helping lead the Toreros to the tournament championship. In three games, he went 4-for-12 with six RBIs, including a go-ahead, two-run home run Saturday against Oregon.

Pacific: The Tigers swept Cal Poly for the first time since 1999, which was also the last time they won the series. Pacific (4-2) opened the series with back-to-back shutouts. It threw just one shutout all of last season.

Jared Poche’, lhp, Louisiana State: After throwing a no-hitter in a seven-inning victory against Army on opening weekend, Poche’ nearly repeated the feat Saturday against Maryland. His no-hit bid was broken up with a leadoff single in the ninth, but not before Poche’, the Padres’ 14th-round pick last year, began his senior season with 15 straight hitless innings. LSU defeated Maryland, 14-0, and swept the series.

Brent Rooker, of, Mississippi State: The redshirt junior got off to an incredible weekend, going 8-for-8 with three homers, four doubles, four stolen bases and 14 stolen bases in his first two games against Indiana State and Marist. He was held hitless in the next two games, but is still hitting .394/.535/.818 with three home runs and eight stolen bases in nine games.

Rickey Tyler Thomas, lhp, Fresno State: The junior struck out 15 batters in seven scoreless innings Friday against UC Riverside, though he ended up with a no-decision as the Highlanders won, 4-3, in 11 innings. Two starts into the season, Thomas is 1-0, 0.69 and has a masterful 24-to-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 13 innings.

Looking Ahead

Three weekend tournaments we’re most excited for:

Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic, Houston: This is the 17th year of the event, and this could be its best field yet. Of the six teams headed to Minute Maid Park, only Baylor enters the weekend unranked, and the Bears are 9-0. The other five teams (No. 1 TCU, No. 4 Louisiana State, No. 20 Mississippi, No. 21 Texas Tech, No. 25 Texas A&M) all hosted regionals last season and have the potential to do so again. The tournament is set up as a Southeastern Conference/Big 12 Conference showdown and the teams will play all three teams from the other conference. The schedule is headlined by Friday night’s top-five matchup between TCU and LSU, but the strength of the field means all nine games will be star-studded affairs.

Frisco (Texas) College Baseball Classic: Four hours up I-45 from Houston, the inaugural Frisco College Baseball Classic has also organized an impressive field. No. 19 Arizona and No. 24 Oklahoma State, were both in the College World Series a year ago, and Arkansas and Nebraska fill out the field with two more heavyweights.

Dodgertown College Baseball Classic, Los Angeles: The tournament will again conclude with Southern California taking on UCLA in Dodger Stadium, putting one of college sports’ best rivalries in one of baseball’s iconic stadiums. Michigan and San Diego, champions of this weekend’s Tony Gwynn Classic, round out the field, which begins with games at UCLA and USC the first two days of the weekend.

Two weekend series you shouldn’t miss:

(15) Clemson vs. (5) South Carolina: One of college baseball’s premier rivalries again features two ranked teams. This year the three-game series begins in Clemson on Friday, moves to Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C., on Saturday and concludes Sunday in Columbia. The Tigers (5-2) have won the series in back-to-back years, a streak which the Gamecocks (5-3) will be eager to snap.

(7) Cal State Fullerton at Houston: The Shriners College Classic is just part of the fun this weekend in Houston. The Cougars (5-2) will host the Titans (4-3), who continue their difficult early-season schedule with a trip to Texas. Friday night’s opener will feature a matchup between Houston lefthander Seth Romero and Fullerton righthander Connor Seabold, both of whom are prospects to watch in the draft this year.

One midweek game to keep an eye on:

St. John’s at (13) North Carolina, Wednesday, 3 p.m. ET: The Red Storm (8-0) last started the season this well in 1981, when John Franco and Frank Viola were the team’s stars. The Tar Heels (7-0) are also off to a strong start to the season after sweeping Kentucky and Radford. Both teams brought in strong recruiting classes heavy on pitching this fall, and those freshmen arms could factor into this midweek matchup in a big way.