A Look At The Latest Week’s Action…
Virginia Tech celebrated a pair of weekend walk off wins over Miami (Dave Wolpert photo).
Another wild weekend of college baseball is in the books. The weekend started with seven CB360 Top 50 matchups going to extra innings on Friday and ended with a total of 13 series sweeps (41 total Top 50 series). The only sweep by an underdog came when Southeastern Louisiana took three games from No. 37 Texas State in Southland Conference play.
An interesting MLB milestone with a college connection was reached Sunday when the Arizona Diamondbacks’ John McDonald collected his 500th career hit. McDonald is the last former Providence College player still active in the Major Leagues. Providence cut its baseball program after the 1999.
1,444…Career wins for Stanford head coach Mark Marquess with Sunday’s 4-2 victory over Oregon. The victory ties him with long time Virginia Tech coach Chuck Hartman (1960-2006) for No. 5 all-time among Division-I coaches.
Stephen Piscotty
600…Career Division One victories for Oregon head coach George Horton after Saturday’s 5-0 series clinching win at Stanford. The win not only gave Horton the milestone, it also gave the Ducks their fourth straight Pac-12 Conference series victory and moved them into a tie with Arizona atop the conference standings.
7…RBIs by Stanford’s Stephen Piscotty in Monday’s 19-6 win over rival Cal. It was Piscotty’s second 7-RBI game this season. He also did it in an 18-5 win over Vanderbilt back on February 19. Piscotty leads the Cardinal with 37 RBIs this season.
600…Career wins at Oregon State for head coach Pat Casey after Saturday’s 12-2 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Sunday’s win put him 12 victories away from tying Jack Riley for the most wins in Beaver history.
54…Years since Florida had swept a regular season series from intrastate rival Florida State prior to doing it last week. Just a day after seeing FSU replace them as the No. 1 ranked team in the country, Florida downed the Seminoles 6-3 in Tallahassee. That win, combined with a 9-2 victory on March 13 in Gainesville and a March 27 4-1 win in Jacksonville, gives the Gators their first sweep of the ‘Noles since 1958. It was also Florida’s 100th all-time victory against Florida State.
7…Total losses by Florida State this year – almost half of them (3) have come at the hands of the Gators. The ‘Noles also dropped Sunday’s series finale to Boston College.
19…Consecutive wins by Baylor after sweeping Kansas State over the weekend. The Bears have moved within one victory of the program record consecutive wins set in 1985. They had to overcome deficits of six runs and four runs to win the last two games of the series in Manhattan to improve to 15-0 in Big 12 Conference play. The 15 straight wins to open conference play is eight better than the previous Big 12 record.
9…Years since Virginia had been swept in a home series prior to dropping all three home games over the weekend to North Carolina. The Cavaliers had won 15 straight home games and 16 straight ACC series prior to seeing the Tar Heels win all three games by a total of seven runs.
21…Straight non-conference games Kentucky had won prior to being pounded 12-0 by Bluegrass State rival Louisville Tuesday in Lexington. It’s the largest margin of victory for Louisville in the series with their rival. It also marked the Cardinal’s first win over a No. 1 ranked team (Collegiate Baseball Poll) since 2005.
16…Years since a team had swept a doubleheader from Arkansas prior to Kentucky taking two from the Razorbacks on Saturday to clinch the series win against their SEC rival. The 5-4 and 2-1 victories also marked the Wildcats’ first series win in Arkansas’ Baum stadium since 2002 and just their second series win there in program history. Arkansas had won nine consecutive home series prior to the losses.
Lance Breedlove
408…Career wins by Purdue head coach Doug Schreiber after a weekend sweep of defending Big Ten champion Illinois. The wins continue the Boilermakers (28-5, 10-2 Big Ten) on one of the best seasons in program history, while also giving Schreiber the program wins record that was previously held by Dave Alexander – for whom Schreiber played from 1983-86.
25…Consecutive shutout innings pitched at home by Purdue pitcher Lance Breedlove after tossing 7 2/3 scoreless frames in the Boiler’s game two win over the Illini. The senior from Long Beach, Ca, who was primarily a reliever last year, has not allowed a run at Lambert Field dating back to May 2011. Breedlove is 6-2 with a 2.23 ERA this season, with a microscopic 0.55 ERA in Big Ten play.
5…Runs that scored with two outs in Francis Marion’s 5-4 upset win over No. 13 South Carolina. The win came on Wednesday night in Florence, SC at the dedication of the Division II school’s Cormell Field at Sparrow Stadium. South Carolina beat Francis Marian 5-3 in 1974 at the dedication of the “old” Cormell Field.
46…Consecutive games Alabama’s Taylor Dugas had reached base prior to having that streak snapped with an 0-for-4 day in Saturday’s 7-1 loss at LSU. The Lafayette, La native is still batting .336 with 18 walks and has been hit by pitch 13 times this season.
1…Complete game this season by the Cal pitching staff. It came courtesy of Matt Flemer, who held Washington to two runs and four hits in Saturday’s 5-2 win. Flemer, a senior, also earned the first complete game of his career in what his 73rd career appearance and 17th start. The victory clinched Cal’s first Pac-12 Conference series win this season.
7…SEC wins by Tennessee this season after Saturday’s 5-4 upset of Florida. The seven conference victories under first year head coach Dave Serrano matches their total from a year ago.
.184…Opponent batting average by the UCLA bullpen in 109 2/3 innings this season. The Bruin pen has a 1.97 ERA in 2012 (3.40 overall team ERA), and came-up big over the weekend in helping the Bruins hand Arizona its first series loss
Ronnie Richardson
of season. David Berg, Zack Ortiz, Grant Watson, Ryan Deeter, and Scott Griggs combined to allow just an unearned run on four hits with four strikeouts and a walk 8 1/3 innings in the series in Tucson. The unearned run was the difference in Friday’s 4-3 loss. UCLA (24-8, 10-5) is in third place in the Pac-12 behind Arizona and Oregon.
23…Times hit by pitch this season by Central Florida’s Ronnie Richardson. The UCF centerfielder now holds the program’s single season record after being plunked in back to back trips to the plate in Sunday’s 12-3 win over Southern Mississippi. The junior has 53 career HBP to his credit. Combined with 26 BB and 39 hits he has a team best .492 OBP in 2012.
4…Consecutive Conference USA series wins by UCF to open the season after taking two of three games from Southern Mississippi over the weekend. Terry Rooney’s Knights had never won even two straight series to open conference play prior to this year. UCF (30-8, 9-3) is also one of five DI teams to win 30 games this year.
.179…Batting average of LSU outfielder Arby Fields entering Tuesday’s game against Alcorn State. Fields has gone on a tear hitting .455 (10-for-22) in his last six games with a double, a triple, six RBI, seven runs, two steals and a .480 on-base percentage, while raising his overall average to .295. Fields is in his first season at LSU. He played football and baseball at Northwestern in 2009 and ’10 before transferring to a California junior college last year. He has primarily been a reserve outfielder this season.
13…Come from behind wins when trailing after the 5th inning for Virginia Tech. The Hokies plated two runs in the bottom of the 9th on Sunday to walk off with a 3-2 win over Miami. It was the second straight day they won in their last at-bat to take two of three games from the No. 8 Hurricanes. Pete Hughes’ Hokies (25-11, 7-11) are just the third VT team since 2000 to get to 25 wins before its 40th game of the season.
18…Nation-leading saves this season by San Diego’s Michael Wagner. The sophomore saved all four Torero wins last week to tie the West Coast Conference single season saves record and move within five saves of the all-time Division One season record. Wagner had a pair of 2.0 inning saves against rival San Diego State and LaSalle and then worked an inning in each of the last two games against the Explorers to cap the weekend sweep. He has 31 strikeouts and nine walks in 22 appearances and 35.0 IP this season.
29…Of 39 games to start the season played on the road by Missouri Valley Conference leader Indiana State. The No. 35 Sycamores (28-9, 8-4 MVC) took two of three games at Bradley over the weekend for their fourth straight series win to open conference play. It’s their best MVC start since winning five straight series to open the 1998 season. Rick Heller’s squad needs just one win to match last year’s total. They play their next 12 and 15 of their last 20 games at home.