http://collegebaseball360.com/college-world-series-day-1-notebook/ http://collegebaseball360.com/college-world-series-day-1-notebook/#comments Sat, 18 Jun 2011 21:51:33 +0000 http://collegebaseball360.com/?p=21814

www.simplesharebuttons.com

Game 1: Vanderbilt 7-10-1 def. North Carolina 3-12-1
Final Stats | Vandy Recap | UNC Recap

Vanderbilt beat North Carolina 7-3 in the first ever College World Series game played at TD Ameritrade Park, on Saturday afternoon. The game’s first batter, Tony Kemp, had the first CWS hit on a bunt single to start the game. He scored the game’s first run two batters later on Aaron Westlake‘s sacrifice fly to center field.

Commodores ace Sonny Gray had a no-decision after allowing three earned runs on eight hits in only 4.2 innings. Gray threw 99 pitches with five walks and five strikeouts. Reliever Corey Williams (2-0) earned the win in his school’s first-ever CWS game, while Tar Heels starter Patrick Johnson (13-2) suffered the loss.

Vanderbilt next faces Florida on Monday while North Carolina will plays Texas in the first 2011 CWS elimination game.

Some of the College World Series firsts on the first day of action at the new TD Ameritrade Park:

• Omaha’s Gene Klosner sang the stadium’s first CWS national anthem prior to the game

• Former President George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch after his father, George H.W. Bush, who played for Yale at the CWS in 1947 and ’48, introduced him from a pre-recorded open on the massive video scoreboard in right field.

Attendance for the game: 22,745.

Vanderbilt players celebrate after Tony Kemp's 8th-inning RBI single.

• First CWS Pitch at TDAP: Thrown by UNC’s Johnson to Vanderbilt’s Kemp at 1:11 p.m Central

Hit: Kemp – Vanderbilt:

Run: Kemp – Vanderbilt

Error: Johnson – North Carolina pitcher

RBI: Aaron Westlake – Vanderbilt 3-hole

Strikeout (pitcher): Johnson – UNC

Strikeout (batter): Mike Yastrzemski – Vanderbilt

Triple: Chaz Frank – North Carolina

Walk (pitcher): Gray – Vanderbilt

Strikeout (batter):  Jacob Stallings – North Carolina

5-Pitch Walk: Kemp – Vanderbilt … he took first base after what should have been ball four (it was verified by instant replay), but after home plate umpire Mike Conlin made him Kemp go back the plate, the leadoff batter took another ball and then was awarded first.

Wild Pitch: Gray – Vanderbilt

Passed Ball: Curt Casali – Vanderbilt

Sac Bunt: Gomez – Vanderbilt

HBP: Westlake – Vanderbilt

Double Play: (5-4-3) Hit into by UNC’s Jesse Wierzbicki … turned by Vanderbilt’s Esposito, Riley Reynolds & Westlake

Double: Conrad Gregor – Vanderbilt

Home Run: Harrell – Vanderbilt … after after Gregor’s double in the 6th inning. The missle gave Vandy a 5-3 lead.

Balk: Williams – Vanderbilt (moved Levi Michael to second base)

Stolen Base: Kemp – Vanderbilt, in the top of the 7th inning

Beach ball on the field: Just prior to the top of the 8th inning

North Carolina catcher Jacob Stallings is the son of Vanderbilt men’s basketball coach Kevin Stallings.

Vanderbilt rightfielder Mike Yastrzemski is the grandson of Boston Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski.

– Quotable –

“It’s not helping us, that’s for sure. I may have to get him out of the two-hole, drop him down a little bit. That’s really the only thing you can do this late, maybe switch things up a little bit. He’s trying as hard as he can, certainly, and he’s getting pitched pretty well also, But he can’t get anything going.”– North Carolina head coach Mike Fox on the current 4-for-24 slump by Tar Heels junior Levi Michael

“They can keep it. I didn’t even think about it until I guess after the game, someone brought it up. I guess it’s a pretty cool trivia fact.” – Vanderbilt centerfielder Connor Harrell, who hit the first CWS home run at TD Ameritrade, a missle of a two-run shot in the 6th inning, when asked if he would like to make a plea to get the historic ball as a keepsake.

CLICK HERE to see more photos from day one of the CWS on the CB360 Shutterfly page. All photos taken for College Baseball360.com by Kirk Markus.

Game 2:Florida 8-8-2 def. Texas 4-5-0
Final Stats | FL Recap | TX Recap

Florida overcame a pair of early errors to beat Texas 8-4 in the second game of the 2011 CWS on Saturday night. Texas ace (and 1st-round MLB Draft pick) Taylor Jungmann suffered his third straight bad outing and his third straight loss. Jungmann (13-3) gave up four runs on three hits in just 4.1 IP. He walked four with two wild pitches and hit another batter.

Jungmann lost in the NCAA Regional, Super Regional and CWS openers spanning the last three weeks. Texas managed to win six straight elimination games after the first two losses. The Longhorns now will have to win four straight such games (as South Carolina did in 2010) just to get into the CWS Championship Series. Centerfielder Bryson Smith led the Gators by going 2-for-2 with two RBIs. Brian Johnson, playing his first game since the SEC Tournament, had a two-run double.

Florida leftfielder Tyler Thompson is the son of former big-leaguer Robby Thompson. Gator third baseman Cody Dent is the son of former big-leaguer Bucky Dent.

Attendance for the game was 25,521 … guess what? It’s a TD Ameritrade Park record.

ESPN’s replay showed that what should have been called a home run for Brian Johnson was ruled a double by the umpires. Here’s the explanation from NCAA umpire coordinator Gene McArtor:

“The batted ball in the  bottom of the seventh inning was mistakenly ruled in play rather than a home run that did clear the yellow line of the outfield fence [the ball must completely clear the yellow line, not hit on the yellow line to be called a home run]. The umpires did and are allowed to conference to determine if any others of the crew had different information, which they did not. The umpires do not have the ability for video review.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Florida's Bryson Smith races around third base.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hudson Randall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Florida head coach Kevin O'Sullivan conducts his midgame interview with ESPN's Kyle Peterson.

www.simplesharebuttons.com

]]> http://collegebaseball360.com/college-world-series-day-1-notebook/feed/ 0

Vanderbilt players Curt Casali, Mike Yastrzemski and Connor Harrell discuss their team’s recent sweep of Tennessee (courtesy VUcommodores.com).

Every weekend provides every team the opportunity to make a statement in the college baseball world, and this past weekend was no different. However, for the most part it was favorites and not underdogs that made statements from April 15-17.

Friday’s games saw higher ranked teams in the College Baseball 360 Composite National Rankings go 30-8, for a .790 winning percentage. That percentage dipped to .580 (25-18) on Saturday, but the higher ranked teams bounced-back on Sunday by winning at a .700 (26-11) clip.

Two underdogs that broke that trend were #4 South Carolina and #21 Oklahoma State, which each took two of three games in their high profile series against #3 Vanderbilt and #15 Oklahoma, respectively.

Gamecock Statement…

Considering South Carolina is the defending national champion, it’s kind of hard to consider its series win over #3 Vanderbilt an upset. However, the Commodores are the second SEC team that South Carolina has beaten this year (Florida is the other) that was ranked #1 in one of the national polls at the time the Gamecocks beat them in a best two-of-three series. Vandy’s (32-5, 11-4 SEC) series loss is its first since dropping last year’s Super Regional at Florida State, while South Carolina (28-7, 12-3 SEC) has won every series it has played in 2011.

Matt Price

This series was everything it was supposed to be, with great pitching, timely hitting and great defense. There were just two errors committed all weekend. Michael Roth (8-1) out-dueled Sonny Gray (7-2) to give South Carolina a 3-1 game one win. Each ace fired 7 2/3 innings, with Matt Price closing the door with 1 1/3 perfect innings and four strikeouts for his 11th save. The teams combined to use 11 pitchers in Saturday’s 6-4 Vanderbilt victory. Aaron Westlake and Mike Yastrzemski each had two RBIs to help Grayson Garvin improve to 7-1. South Carolina used a 4-run 7th inning to win Sunday’s finale 5-3. Roth was again spectacular out of the bullpen, notching 7 Ks in 3.0 shutout innings to improve to 4-2.

By the way, how would you like to be in the SEC East, where South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Florida all reside? The defending national champs now sit atop the division at 28-7 overall and 12-3 in conference play, followed by Florida (28-9) and Vandy (32-5), which are both 11-4 in the SEC. The Commodores and Gators go head-to-head in Nashville May 13-15.

Beavers Surging, Cardinal Slumping…

Sam Gaviglio

Oregon State swept Stanford in Palo Alto in a match-up of teams who are now heading in completely opposite directions. The Beavers (27-7, 8-1 Pac-10) have won nine straight, with eight of those wins coming against conference foes Arizona, Arizona State and now Stanford. Meanwhile, Stanford (16-12, 3-6 Pac-10) has dropped five of its last six games, including five straight in conference action.

OSU’s Sam Gaviglio (7-1) was masterful in Friday’s 1-0 series-opening win. He mixed enough fastballs in between his devastating curveballs to limit the Cardinal to four hits over 8.0 innings. Gaviglio and his staff mates combined to hold Stanford to five runs on the weekend. It doesn’t get any easier for the Cardinal next week, with UCLA coming to Sunken Diamond.

CLICK HERE for even more in-depth analysis of this series from CB360 contributor Jack Blanchat.

Bedlam Breakthrough…

Oklahoma State took two of three from Oklahoma in the Bedlam Series for its first series win over the arch-rival Sooners since 2008. Both Cowboys wins came in walk-off fashion. Davis Duren gave OSU the win on Sunday with a 10th inning walk-off RBI single for an 11-10 victory in Oklahoma City. Dane Phillips ended Friday’s 8-7 win in Tulsa with a 9th inning lead-off home run.

Break-up The Bruins…

Beau Amaral

The adage that good pitching beats good hitting held-up as UCLA picked-up its biggest series win of the season by taking two of three games from hot hitting Arizona. The Wildcats were averaging 7.5 runs-a-game with a .342 team batting average heading into the series, but the vaunted Bruins pitching staff limited Arizona to 3.3 runs-a-game and a .202 average over the weekend. Trevor Bauer (7-1) fanned 13 and gave-up just four hits in Saturday’s complete game win. Bauer has hit double digit Ks in eight of his nine starts this year. His 110 strikeouts leads the nation. Beau Amaral led the Bruins by hitting 7-for-12 (.583) for the weekend, including six RBIs in Sunday’s 8-5 series clincher.

Wolfpack Attack…

North Carolina was red hot entering its series with arch rival North Carolina State, but the Wolfpack red gave UNC the blues by sweeping the Tar Heels in Raleigh. North Carolina had won 16 of its previous 18 games, including a sweep of Clemson and 2-of-3 vs. Florida State, entering the weekend. Pratt Maynard led NC State by going 6-for-12 with five runs scored in the sweep.

Red Storm Rising…

Joe Panik

Louisville is finding out just how hard it is to maintain dominance over an extended period of time. St. John’s swept the Cardinals (20-15, 6-6 Big East) to hand Louisville its fifth straight loss. Louisville’s 15 losses are one more than it suffered all of last year. St. John’s shortstop Joe Panik was 6-for-14 (.428) with 5 RBIs and a home run in the sweep. Louisville committed 12 errors in the series and has just a .963 fielding percentage this season.

This week we gather some insights from a couple of the top series in the country, #3 Vanderbilt vs. #12 Stanford and #4 TCU vs. #11 Cal State Fullerton, from reporters who were there (rankings based on the College Baseball 360 Week Two Composite National Rankings).

Jordan Pries

Jordan Pries looked very solid in both of his starts this week (Tuesday against Cal and Sunday vs. Vanderbilt) – add them up and you have two wins, 11.0 innings pitched, 4 hits, and 2 earned runs. He varied his stuff well, and he will definitely be a stalwart this season who the Cardinal can count on all year long. Pries’ fastball reaches into the low 90s at times, but the impressive stuff is his off-speed pitches. He has t a slider that looks the same as his fastball coming out of his hand, but dives hard across the plate and ends up for a lot of called strikes.

Brett Mooneyham, unfortunately for Stanford, will miss the entire season with finger surgery on his pitching hand. The blow is definitely a big one for the Cardinal pitching staff, who will miss having a front line starter who could potentially eat up a ton of innings and help keep the bullpen fresh.

Sonny Gray

Friday’s game was a true pitcher’s duel, and both sophomore (Stanford’s) Mark Appel and (Vanderbilt) junior Sonny Gray brought some good stuff to the table. Personally, I thought Appel had better stuff, but I mean that as a compliment to Gray. Gray definitely didn’t have his A-plus stuff on a very cold Friday night, but he still managed to sneak his way to six strikeouts and give up just one run on three hits. To me, that’s the mark of a good pitcher – a guy who can silence a potent Stanford lineup when he is having control issues with his fastball and he frequently missed the strike zone with first pitches. Gray brought scouts out in droves to see his performance (there were probably 15 to 20 teams there), and even though his pitches weren’t great, his pitching was.

The depth of the Vandy staff is also a high point for a team that I think is legitimately a top five team in the country. Gray is far and away their best starter – Grayson Garvin wasn’t as impressive in his Sunday start – but the Commodore bullpen is a force to be reckoned with, particularly Navery Moore. Moore can reach 98 miles per hour on the radar gun, and he also throws a nasty 94-mile-an-hour sliding fastball that is nearly impossible to hit. Having a true closer separates the men from the boys in college baseball, and I think Moore gives the Commodores a big advantage late in games.

A good example of how important a solid closer is to a top team is how the Cardinal let a three-run lead slip away in Saturday’s game, even though they had 17 hits and seven runs (and stranded 13 base runners). Stanford knows what it’s like to have a pure closer – Drew Storen in 2009 – so they know how to develop a guy to compete at the end of games as well.

Offensively, both teams were about equal, but Vandy does stand out for one reason. Stanford trots out a lineup that is full of right-handed hitters, but Vanderbilt has a totally balanced lineup, with a near-equal number of righties and lefties in the lineup at any time.

Kenny Diekroger

For Stanford, shortstop Kenny Diekroeger had another good week, hitting his first dinger of the season on Tuesday against Cal, then going 4-for-5 on Saturday with three RBIs. Similarly, sophomore centerfielder Jake Stewart had another good weekend, as he’s hitting .367 after hitting just .209 last year. He leads the team with three doubles already, and he is blazing fast in centerfield. Senior DH Ben Clowe is also hitting at a nice rate (.385), and he blasted a big home run off Garvin on Sunday. A sore spot for the Cardinal, though, was the suddenly poor Austin Wilson. The big rightfielder struck out eight times this weekend, and had serious trouble with the sliders the Vandy staff kept throwing him.

Vandy’s balanced offense can score in a lot of different ways – Tony Kemp and Mike Yastrzemski are fast and scrappy (but couldn’t swipe a single base this weekend thanks to Stanford catcher Zach Jones, who threw out three baserunners), Aaron Westlake is a big power hitter, and Jason Esposito is a very solid hitter.

Overall, I think both of these teams are legitimately top ten teams. Stanford easily could have won both the Friday and Saturday games, and Vandy could have easily swept the series. Keep an eye on both of these teams – they will be around deep into the postseason this year.

Blanchat was also there last Tuesday when Stanford hosted rival Cal in a midweek game…

Tuesday’s night’s matchup against Cal was very positive for both teams- the reception for the Bears in their last year of baseball for the foreseeable future was pleasant, even though there was some heckling. (A couple choice insults – “That was a big cut! Kind of like your baseball program!” and “Better luck next year!”)

Dugouthats.com has officially licensed College World Series memorabilia year round as well as officially licensed college baseball caps.

From t-shirts and caps to limited edition prints commemorating the last CWS ever played at historic Rosenblatt Stadium. Dugouthats.com also always  hats of your favorite college teams like Cal State Fullerton, TCU, Vanderbilt, and Stanford.

Stephen Francis was on hand to see TCU host Cal State Fullerton…

Noe Ramirez

With Titan Friday starter Noe Ramirez, looks can be deceiving.  He doesn’t look like an overpowering pitcher, but he uses off-speed pitching and location with his fastball to throw hitters off and for the most part he did it with success against the TCU lineup.  They made solid contact on a few pitches in the second inning though and with the way Kyle Winkler was handling the Fullerton lineup, that was all they needed.

The TCU and Fullerton lineups compare pretty well to each other at this point, although seven games may be a small sample size.  What sets the two lineups apart though is the power and speed of the TCU lineup vs. the execution ability of the Fullerton hitters.

With TCU, hitters one through nine are capable of driving the ball every at-bat with authority, although things appear to be “all or nothing” at this point.  The Frogs also have a fast group of players that remain aggressive on the basepaths from beginning to end.  With the new bats and the addition of a new hitting coach, the Horned Frogs do appear to have some kinks to work out.

For Cal State Fullerton, they executed very well on the weekend with clutch hitting late in the game.  They seemed to look a little more “seasoned” at this point in the season and took the final two games of the series by winning in the late innings.

While it would be interesting to see what these two teams would do against each other late in the year, it’s clear that Fullerton’s lineup had the easier time this weekend.  That doesn’t tell the full story though because between both teams, pitching was very good across the board.

Andrew Mitchell

Kyle Winkler won TCU’s only game of the series in Friday’s matchup with Ramirez. Matt Purke did not start all weekend due to a blister on his finger. TCU right hander Andrew Mitchell made his second start of the week in Sunday’s series finale and tossed five scoreless innings. He also earned a win after holding Baylor scoreless over 6 2/3 IP in his start last Tuesday.  Although the bullpen couldn’t hold onto his lead in Sunday’s 2-1 loss, the freshman still ended the week with 11 2/3 innings pitched with a 0.00 earned run average, three hits allowed, six walks, six strikeouts and his first career win.

Day Two Super Regional Notes And Thoughts

Florida head coach Kevin O'Sullivan

Miami hasn’t won a postseason game in Gainesville since 2002.

The Big “E”s: Miami committed seven, that’s right seven errors in Saturday’s loss to Florida.  Only one of the four runs scored by the Gators was earned.  In fact, just two of Florida’s 11 runs in the two games was earned thanks to nine Hurricane miscues.  Miami hasn’t won a postseason game in Gainesville since 2002.

Mighty Mo: It didn’t take long for Texas to take back the momentum in it’s series with TCU.  After losing 3-1 in Friday’s opener the Longhorns drubbed the Horned Frogs 14-1 on Saturday to send the game to a deciding third game.  The rout was due in part to the dominant pitching of Taylor Jungmann, who struck out 9 in 8 1/3 IP, but also largely to three Horned Frog errors that led to six unearned runs scored by the Longhorns.  All five runs allowed in 3 2/3 IP by TCU starter Steven Maxwell (11-2) were unearned.

Crowded House: The first two games of the Texas-TCU Super Regional have drawn more than 7,300 fans each to Disch-Falk Field.  That makes 21 games this season in which the Longhorns have played in front of a crowd of more than 7,000.

Livin’ On The Edge: Vanderbilt downed Florida State 6-2 Saturday to force Sunday’s winner take all game.  The win makes the Commodores 4-0 in NCAA elimination games this year.  Saturday’s win halted Florida State’s seven game winning streak.

Not So Super: This is Florida State’s 10th Super Regional since 1999, but the Seminoles have won just one of their last seven Super Regional series since advancing to Omaha in the first two years of the format in 1999 and 2000.  Three of those Super Regional losses came on their home field.  Including their 1-1 mark this year, the Seminoles are 9-14 all-time in Super Regional games.

Great Garvin: Commodore reliever Grayson Garvin tossed three shutout innings to finish Saturday’s win.  Garvin has now given-up just two runs with 12 strikeouts in 13 1/3 innings in three postseason appearances this year.

Son Of A Yaz: Vanderbilt freshman Mike Yastrzemski is the grandson of Red Sox Hall of Famer Carl

Vanderbilt freshman Mike Yastrzemski

Yastrzemski, but he has a Seminole connection as well.  Mike’s dad, Michael, played at Florida State from 1980-’83.  Mike is 4-for-7 in the Super Regional with a double, a home run and two RBIs.

Is That A Girl, What’s She Know About College Baseball? Those were my wife’s words, not mine, when she heard Pam Ward doing the play-by-play of Virginia’s 3-2 win over Oklahoma in game one of their series.  I’ll admit I was skeptical of Ward doing the game, and I’m sure I wasn’t alone.  I have to say though that Ward did a solid job.  She’s got a lot of experience doing softball games, and she even used that to provide some baseball insight.  Ward talked about the current moratorium on composite bats in college baseball and how college softball may consider the same thing with all of the home runs hit at this year’s Women’s College World Series.

Hoos Boom: Virginia scored all three of its runs in that game on home runs.  Phil Gosselin led-off the bottom of the 1st inning with his 10th HR of the year and then Dan Grovatt hit the deciding two-run blast in the 6th.

Nice Lid: Did you see the hat UCLA pitcher Trevor Bauer wore during the Fullerton game at Jackie Robinson Stadium?  It’s so faded and worn looking that it looks like Jackie Robinson could have worn it during his playing days with the Bruins.

That’s A Bold Statement: “Of all the guys I’ve seen hit Harold Martinez is my favorite hitter.  Manny Ramirez is my guy in Major League baseball.  When I walk into a room and a Manny Ramirez at-bat is on I’m not walking out.   That’s how I felt about Harold Martinez.”  That’s what Eric Byrnes said about injured Miami third baseman Harold Martinez, who was hospitalized in Gainesville with an infected shin.  Byrnes got to see first hand last week just how explosive Martinez’s bat is when the sophomore had 9 RBIs and two HR in the Coral Cables Regional.

Jake Smith hit a home run and earned a save in Alabama's win.

Tide Rolling: Alabama beat Clemson 5-4 in Saturday’s series opener.  The Crimson Tide, which barely made the SEC Tournament field,  has won 13 of its last 15 games to move to within one win from Omaha.  One more win would make Mitch Gaspard just the second rookie coach in the last 30 years to take a team to the College World Series.  Dan McDonnell did it at Louisville in 2007.

The Two Jakes: How about Alabama’s Jake Smith?  The senior started at third base and hit his 14th home run of the season to help the Tide win Saturday’s game.  He then gave-up just a hit over the final two scoreless innings of the game to earn his sixth save.

It’s On Where? With all eight Super Regionals in action on Saturday it was a little hard to actually find where some of them were (or weren’t) being televised.  I was never actually able to watch the Alabama-Clemson game on TV.  I did watch parts of it on ESPN3.com.  That’s where I found most of the UCLA-Fullerton game, and then the video froze.  Turned out they moved it to ESPN2 after the Florida-Miami game was over. It’s just a shame that unless you were on the west coast most of the UCLA-Fullerton series was either on TV after 11pm ET Friday night (it ended after 2am) or was not on TV at all.

Bopping Bruins: UCLA hit four home runs in Saturday’s 11-7 10-inning win over the Titans.  Tyler Rahmatulla had the biggest of the blasts.  With UCLA down to its last two strikes of the season the sophomore’s 2-run shot gave the Bruins a 7-6 lead in the top of the 9th.  Fullerton tied the score 7-7 in the bottom of the inning, and then UCLA plated four in the 10th for the win.

Golden Gallego: Bruin shortstop Niko Gallego made two great plays in the bottom of the 10th to help force Sunday’s deciding game.  Niko is the son of 13-year MLB vetern Mike Gallego.

White Between The Eyes: When Arizona State reliever Mitchell Lambson went to the mound in the top of the 8th inning umpires apparently told him he had too much rosin on his hat.  The reasoning would be that the white from the rosin could be deceptive to Arkansas batters.  Sounds fairly reasonable, and the rationale would be in line with the fact that pitchers cannot have white on their gloves.  What I’ve never understood is how a few white stitches on a pitcher’s glove (or in this case rosin on a hat that’s also covered in white salt stains) aids in hiding the ball than a full home white uniform (like ASU was wearing Saturday night)…or even white lettering on a dark uniform (like Arkansas had).

Lights Out Lambson: Rosin or no rosin, Lambson had 2 Ks in a 1-2-3 inning, and he wasn’t done there.  In a game ASU eventually won 7-6 in 12 innings, Lambson (8-2) fired five shutout innings of relief with six strikeouts to earn the win.

Uggghh: I really want to watch the Arkansas-Arizona State series, just not with Justin “I continually second guess head coaches who have been to the College World Series four times” Kutcher calling the action.  Ok, so Dave Van Horn didn’t bring in Brett Eibner to pitch leading 6-5 in the 9th inning…we get it.  Now go back to criticizing umpires.

Tough Night: Eibner was called out not once, but twice for batter’s interference.  The second one ended the top of the 12th inning.  The two-way star (21 HR, 69 RBIs) then gave-up the game-winning hit to Deven Marrero in the bottom of the 12th.

FSU Next Faces TCU At CWS

Mike McGee & FSU celebrate Friday's walk-off HR. (Photo Larry Novey FSU)

By clicking the “Tallahassee Super Regional” link above this page will expand to fully support the table below.

CLICK HERE for our Super Regional Central page where you find links to the other Super Regionals.

Best two of three series (all times Eastern)

Gm 1 -Friday – FINAL: Florida State 9, Vanderbilt 8 |  Final Stats
FSU Recap | Vandy Recap FSU leads series 1-0
* Highlight: Mike McGee hits 2-out walk-off home run

Gm 2-Saturday – FINAL:  Vanderbilt 6, Florida State 2 |  Final Stats
VANDY Recap | FSU Recap Series Tied 1-1

Gm 3-Sunday FINAL: Florida State 7, Vanderbilt 6 |  Final Stats
FSU Recap | VANDY Recap

Florida State wins series (2-1)

Podcast with Vanderbilt’s Richie Goodenow

The Skinny

Florida State: The Seminoles were the only #1 seed to go on the road for Regional play this year.  They were 3-0 at the Norwich, CT Regional, and get to host the Super Regional after Vanderbilt upset #7 national seed Louisville last week.  Mike Martin’s FSU teams have made it to at least a Super Regional in 10 of the 12 years the format has been in place.

Mike McGee does a little bit of everything for the Seminoles.  The junior leads the team with 14 HR, 67 RBIs, 11 saves, and a 0.38 ERA to go with a 4-0 record on the mound.  Starter Sean Gilmartin (8-7, 4.74 ERA) is a two-way player as well.  He’s hitting .409 with 11 RBIs in limited plate appearances.  Tyler Holt is the team’s top overall hitter with a team leading .349 avg. as well as 12 HR, 42 RBIs, 24 doubles, 29 stolen bases, and a 1.069 OPS.

Vanderbilt: This season marks the fifth straight NCAA appearance for Tim Corbin’s Commodores, and it’s his second trip to the Super Regionals.  Vanderbilt players buzzed their heads prior to last week’s Regional win at Louisville, and now Corbin has a debt to pay.  He promised his team he would buzz his head as well if they won the Regional, and he says he will keep his promise.

Freshman Anthony Gomez (.377) has been one of the top hitters in the SEC all year.  Jason Esposito (.359/10 HR/59 RBIs/30 SB) and Aaron Westlake (.308/14 HR/58 RBIs) are the team’s top run producers.  The Commodores have players with some pedigree.  Sophomore Jack Armstrong (7-3, 4.32 ERA) is the son of the former big league pitcher with the same name and freshman Mike Yastrzemski (.233/2 HR/16 RBIs) is the grandson of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski.

Staff ace Sonny Gray (9-5, 3.51) pitched for USA baseball last year and is invited again this year.  He is perhaps the best pitcher in the nation with five losses.  Russell Brewer (2-2, 3.07 ERA, 6 SVs) heads a relief corps that has seen six hurlers total 13 saves.  Richie Goodenow (podcast above) was the story of last week’s Regional.  The junior made just his second career start in what was his 68th career appearance in Sunday’s elimination game vs. Louisville an tossed a two-hit shutout to force Monday’s deciding game.

Tallahassee Super Regional