Top College Baseball Moments Of 2009 #16
#1 Arkansas Beats #1 Arizona State
(With the end of the year fast approaching, we’re counting down some of the top moments from the 2009 college baseball season. We’ll have one a day through New Year’s Eve.)
It was unique enough just to have Arizona State (22-5) playing at Arkansas (22-6) in a pair of mid-week games, but the two teams’ rankings made the match-up even more special. Arizona State was ranked #1 in the nation in three polls: Baseball America, NCBWA and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll. Arkansas was number one in the Collegiate Baseball Poll.
The games were just the second regular season meetings between the two teams after ASU had swept two games in Tempe in 2008. The Tuesday/Wednesday April 7 & 8 games also represented the first ever #1 vs. #1 match-up in the history of Arkansas’ Baum Stadium.
Arizona State scored first in game one when Zack MacPhee stole home in the 3rd inning and then Kole Calhoun singled-in Carlos Ramirez an inning later to make it 2-0 ASU. Arkansas got on the board with a run in the 4th inning, but Ramirez blasted his 11th home run of the year in the top of the 6th to put the Sun Devils up 3-1.
The Razorbacks would erupt for five runs in the 7th inning, capped by a pinch-hit Scott Lyons 2-run single to right-centerfield to put Arkansas up 6-3. The Hogs added a run in the 8th inning for a 7-3 win in front of a crowd of 8,342.
A record crowd of 11,434 packed Baum Stadium the next night only to see the Sun Devils jump out to a 6-1 lead through three innings. Jason Kipnis’ 10th home run of the year was among the early damage inflicted by ASU, but for a second straight night the early lead would not hold.
Arkansas capitalized on an Abe Ruiz error at first base to plate a total four runs in the 4th inning to its deficit to 6-5. Three of the runs were unearned.
ASU added a run in the top of the 5th to make it 7-6, but the Razorbacks scored three more runs, all with two outs, in the bottom of the frame. Andrew Darr’s single plated the first run, and then Tim Carver drove-in Darr and Brett Eibner with another single to give Arkansas an 8-7 win and the two-game series sweep.
Zack Cox was one of six pitchers sent to the mound by Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn. He gave-up just two hits in three shutout innings to earn the win. Stephen Richards tossed a perfect 9th inning for his 6th save of 2009.
17,300 fans came through the turnstiles for the historic two-game series at Baum Stadium. It broke the record of 15,919 set earlier in the season vs. Nebraska.
Both teams would make it to the College World Series in 2009, but they took distinctly different roads to Omaha.
Pat Murphy’s Sun Devils won 22 of their last 26 games to close the regular season. They were a combined 5-0 in the Regional and Super Regional games they hosted vs. Kent State, Oral Roberts and Clemson.
Arkansas was just 10-16 (including 2-2 at the SEC Tournament) down the stretch, but they caught fire after getting into the NCAA Tournament. The Razorbacks were 3-0 at the Norman, OK Regional with a win over Washington State and two victories over the host Sooners. They won both of their Super Regional games vs. Florida State in Tallahassee, FL to advance to Omaha.
Other Top Moments Of 2009
17. Rhode Island Beats Miami And Oklahoma State
18. Kansas State’s A.J. Morris beats Arizona State’s Mike Leake
19. North Carolina’s Mike Fox Wins His 1,000th Game
20. Illinois Shocks #1 LSU In Baton Rouge
21. Alabama’s Kent Matthes Launches Longballs
22. Freshman Levi Michael Starts In North Carolina’s Season Opener
23. LSU Opens The New Alex Box Stadium
24. Oregon Brings Back Baseball
Top College Baseball Moments Of 2009 #18
KSU’s A.J. Morris Beats ASU’s Mike Leake
(With the end of the year fast approaching, we’re counting down some of the top moments from the 2009 college baseball season (in no particular order). We’ll have one a day through New Year’s Eve.)
It was a Super Regional caliber pitching match-up even if nobody really knew it…yet. It was Tuesday, March 10, and Kansas State was going to play perreniall power Arizona State in Suprise Arizona at the spring training home of the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals.
The Sun Devils’ pitcher, Mike Leake, was a known commodity. Leake was the reigning Pac 10 Pitcher of the Year and a Second Team All-American as a sophomore in 2008 after going 11-3 with a 3.49 ERA. He was one of just two ASU pitchers to earn 20 wins in his first two seasons on the mound in Tempe.
At 3-0, the Kansas State pitcher, A.J. Morris, had pitched solidly to that point, but to say his first three years as a college pitcher were much more modest than Leake’s would be an understatement.
Morris red-shirted in 2006 in his first season at K-State after lettering twice at Humble (TX) High School. He was 4-2 with a 3.78 ERA in 19 appearances (5 starts) in 2007, and an unspectacular 4-4 with a 6.04 ERA with 12 starts and 14 appearances in 2008. Hardly ace-like stuff by any measure.
But if nobody knew about Morris and the Wildcats before the game, they would
A.J. Morris was 14-1 in 2009.
remember them afterward.
In a head-to-head duel with one of the top pitchers and teams in the country Morris had what was to that point the best game of his career. Morris gave-up two runs on five hits in a (then) career best 8 1/3 innings as K-State shocked Arizona State with a 6-2 win. The red-shirt junior did not allow a hit in 6 of the 8 full innings he pitched, and he faced the minimum in an inning three times.
Arizona State came into the contest averaging better than 9 runs through its first 12 games. The only real offense the Sun Devils could manage against Morris was a solo home run by Carlos Ramirez that ended Morris’ run of 19 2/3 scoreless IP to start the season.
Leake didn’t pitch poorly, but he was far from dominant. The righthander surrendered two runs (one earned) on seven hits with just three stikeouts in 7 IP to suffer the loss.
The 6 runs and 11 hits by the Wildcats were the most allowed to that point by a Sun Devil pitching staff that had a 1.01 ERA entering the game.
Both teams stood at 11-2 after the KSU win, and it would set the tone for what would be a record-setting season for both the team and its starting pitcher.
Morris finished with a 14-1 record and 2.09 ERA with 100 strikeouts in 116.1 IP. He was named the 2009 Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and received multiple All-American
KSU head coach Brad Hill & A.J. Morris
accolades. His 14 wins tied with LSU’s Louis Coleman for the second-most in the nation.
K-State head coach Brad Hill was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year. In his sixth season he led Kansas State to a school record 43-18-1 record and the program’s first ever NCAA Tournament berth.
Arizona State made it all the way to the College World Series. Leake finished with an NCAA-leading 16 wins with a 1.71 ERA and 162 ks in 142 IP as the ASU staff ace.
The March 10 loss to Morris and Kansas State would be his only loss of the season.
Other Top Moments Of 2009
19. North Carolina’s Mike Fox Wins His 1,000th Game
20. Illinois Shocks #1 LSU In Baton Rouge
21. Alabama’s Kent Matthes Launches Longballs
22. Freshman Levi Michael Starts In North Carolina’s Season Opener
23. LSU Opens The New Alex Box Stadium
24. Oregon Brings Back Baseball
Friday College World Series Thoughts And Notes
Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires shares some thoughts from another day at the College World Series…
- Does Arizona State’s Kole Calhoun remind anyone else of the character ‘Ham” Porter from the movie Sandlot? Calhoun (pictured right) and his teammate, Carlos Ramirez, are built more like beer league softball players than college baseball players, but they play the part well. Neither strikes out a lot for power guys, and they both know how to work a count.
Calhoun’s OPS is .981, while Ramirez’s is 1.126. After Thursday’s win over North Carolina, Calhoun now has 3 home runs and 10 RBIs in Omaha, including a grand slam vs. the Tar Heels. Meanwhile, Ramirez has caught all 64 of the Sun Devils’ games this season. Like Oakland’s Billy Beane has said “We’re not selling blue jeans”.
- Speaking of movie characters…ASU’s Pat Murphy reminds me of Mickey Rourke’s “Marv” in Sin City. Murph was born in New York, and he brings that east coast toughness to the desert & the Pac 10. The confidence his players exude often borders on, if not crosses into, cockiness, but given the results (3 CWS in the last five years) that’s not a bad thing.
- The ebb and the flow…Arizona State jumped-out to a 6-0 lead in Tuesday’s game vs. Texas, only to see the Longhorns score the last ten runs of the game. North Carolina opened Thursday’s game with the first four runs of the game, to bring ASU’s total to 14 straight combined unanswered runs. The Sun Devils then used an 8-run seventh inning en-route to 12 unanswered runs of their own before UNC finally got a run in the 9th in ASU’s 12-5 win.
- North Carolina’s Garrett Gore played in the 21st and final College World Series game of his career Thursday night. He’s played in more CWS games than anyone in the history of the event.
- Gore’s teammate, Dustin Ackley, collected a ninth inning double Thursday to extend his record NCAA Tournament hitting streak to 21 games. It was his 28th career CWS base hit, a CWS record.
- Robin Ventura is just a dude who knows baseball. When he talks baseball during a game as an ESPN analyst he makes me listen intently to what he has to say. Ventura speaks and explains the mechanics of the game, both pitching and hitting, in a manner that’s easily understood. His breakdown of Ackley’s swing during Thursday night was eye opening.
Is it just a coincidence? Since 2000 the winner of bracket 2 has gone on to win the College World Series. Texas and Arizona State are the remaining teams from bracket 2 this year, while LSU and Arkansas reside in bracket 1.
