Puk-Lange Matchup Got Lost In Late-Night Lore

HOOVER, Ala.—Before Florida and Louisiana State’s showdown morphed from Wednesday’s closing act at the Southeastern Conference Tournament into Thursday’s opener, before the game was turned over to the respective teams’ nocturnal spirit animals, and long before the seventh-ranked Tigers pulled out a 5-3 victory against the No. 4 Gators in 14 innings, the game featured two of the best pitchers college baseball has to offer.

For seven innings Wednesday, Florida lefthander A.J. Puk dueled with Louisiana State righthander Alex Lange. Both were Preseason All-Americans and are future first-round picks—Puk could be the first overall pick next month, and Lange will enter the 2017 season as one of the best college pitchers in his draft class—and both turned in excellent starts under the bright lights of Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

“You had to enjoy that, two great pitchers like that,” Louisiana State coach Paul Mainieri said. “It was just an amazing performance by both of the starting pitchers.”

Puk was making his second-to-last start before the draft begins June 9, with only next week’s regional left to make an impression on scouts and executives. There were plenty of them on hand Wednesday to see one of his best starts of his career.

Puk came out firing bullets in the first inning, sitting 95-97 mph with his fastball and snapping off biting sliders. He held his velocity into the later innings, occasionally mixing in his changeup as well.

Mainieri, who got to see Puk up close last summer as a coach for USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team, marveled at the lefthander’s arsenal.

“Puk, I don’t know how anybody hits that guy,” Mainieri said. “His stuff is just so great. “

Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said Puk’s stuff was good again Wednesday, as it has been all year. But O’Sullivan said the lefthander’s command was the best it has been this season.

“It was really, really encouraging to see him throw that way because, obviously, if he throws like that the next couple weekends with Logan (Shore), we’re in good shape,” O’Sullivan said.

Puk pitched into the eighth inning for the first time in his career. He had thrown seven scoreless innings, and with LSU’s ninth hitter due to lead off the inning, followed by two lefthanded hitters at the top of the order, O’Sullivan said he felt good about the matchups and didn’t think Puk was tiring.

After Puk got Cole Freeman to fly out to lead off the inning, Antoine Duplantis doubled. Jake Fraley followed with a single, and Duplantis scored on a throwing error by catcher Mike Rivera. With that, Puk’s night was over. He finished with seven strikeouts, and held LSU to two runs on six hits and two walks.

It was another strong start for Puk in Hoover. In his start in the SEC tournament last year against Arkansas, he struck out 11 batters in seven shutout innings against Arkansas. Puk said he enjoys pitching in the SEC Tournament environment, which on Wednesday night provided a raucous crowd of 13,448—the largest at the tournament since 2003.

“I’ve always liked throwing on the big stage,” Puk said. “It’s more fun. Lot of fans, fans are great.”

While Puk was strong from the start before giving up a pair of runs at the end of his outing, Lange had the opposite night. Florida jumped on the righthander for two runs in the first, as Jonathan India and J.J. Schwarz hit back-to-back doubles and Buddy Reed followed with a standup triple. The Gators loaded the bases with a pair of walks, but Lange struck out the next two batters to escape the jam.

After that, Lange settled into the game and the Gators didn’t threaten the rest of his outing. He struck out 11 in seven innings and held Florida to five hits and three walks. He didn’t allow a hit in his final four innings of work and at one point retired 10 straight hitters.

O’Sullivan was impressed by Lange’s ability to bounce back after such a strenuous first inning.

“He made pitches when he needed to, kept grinding it out,” O’Sullivan said. “He just competed and made pitch after pitch when he needed to.”

Lange did a better job of hitting his spots after the first inning, both with his fastball and curveball. But his makeup showed as well, as he was still able to give LSU a quality start after a rough first inning.

“He’s just so mentally tough,” Mainieri said. “He just battled hard, regrouped and then, all of a sudden, he pitches through seven innings and keeps us right there and we’re able to rally.

“It was an amazing performance by both starting pitchers, but particularly, Alex Lange, I thought showed so much courage being able to pitch all the way through seven innings after the start that he had.”

Wednesday’s game will go down in the SEC tournament record book as the longest ever at five hours and seven minutes. But the show Lange and Puk put on is also worthy of being remembered in Hoover’s lore.

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Vandy Freshmen Come Through

The first game of the day was a back-and-forth contest between No. 12 Vanderbilt and No. 1 Texas A&M. After the lead changed hands a few times throughout the game, the Commodores and Aggies entered the ninth inning tied at five.

With the last spot in Vanderbilt’s lineup due up to start the inning, coach Tim Corbin called on little-used outfielder Walker Grisanti to pinch hit. The freshman had not appeared in a game since May 6, when he started at Texas A&M and went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.

The layoff didn’t appear to hamper Grisanti, however. Facing Texas A&M righthander Mark Ecker, who was named an all-SEC reliever on Monday, the lefthanded hitter jumped on the second pitch he saw and drove it over the right field wall for his first career home run.

“I never go up there trying to hit a home run,” Grisanti said. “I was just trying to get a good swing on the ball.”

Vanderbilt held on for a 6-5 victory and advanced into the winners’ bracket, where it will face No. 10 Mississippi on Thursday. Texas A&M will play No. 9 South Carolina in an elimination game.

Grisanti’s home run was Vanderbilt’s second pinch hit homer from a freshman in as many days at the tournament. In Vanderbilt’s 7-0 victory Tuesday against Missouri, Julian Infante came off the bench and belted a two-run shot.

Corbin said he talks with assistant coach Travis Jewett about their pinch hitting options throughout the game, and decided in the middle innings that they would try to get Liam Sabino and Grasanti into the game at some point. Sabino got his chance in the eighth, grounding out to end the inning.

“The ability to talk to with an offensive mind and to get the right guys in the right positions to at least give your team a chance, is very helpful in a game like this,” Corbin.