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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.

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Thoughts and Notes From Day One Super Regional Play

Matt Purke struckout 11 in TCU's 3-1 win over Texas. (TCU photo)

(I’m not going to mention the name of my phone provider, because c’mon this isn’t a product placement blimp.)  Anyway, I got to watch most of the last three innings of the Texas-TCU game on my phone while dining…and while my wife was driving.  I say “most”, because my phone ran out of juice with one out to go in the game.  I guess I still need to make the extra investment for a car charger.

Purked: How about the performance by TCU freshman Matt Purke in the 3-1 upset of #2 national seed Texas?  The lefty retired the first eight batters he faced and then 11 of the next 12 after allowing a hit in the third inning.  He struckout 11 and is now 14-0.

Backs To The Wall: Give Vanderbilt credit for rallying from a 6-0 deficit in the first three innings of the game.  The Commodores actually rallied back to tie the game and then take 7-6 and 8-7 leads before McGee’s heroics.  One Vandy loss now sends Florida State to Omaha and the Commodores back to Nashville.  Don’t count Tim Corbin’s guys out though.  They were 3-0 in elimination games to win last week’s Louisville Regional, including two wins over the #7 national seeded Cardinals.

Credit Where It’s Due: I was critical of the newly retired Eric Byrnes when he was making his debut as a college baseball analyst last week for his apparent lack of preparation.  Byrnes noted during Friday’s Florida-Miami telecast that he stayed in Florida all week to do his research rather than return home to the west coast.  Byrnes came with good stuff Friday, including locker room material Miami provided Florida, like Hurricane head coach Jim Morris calling his team the New York Yankees of college baseball.  Byrnes, Kyle Peterson and play-by-play man Clay Matvick seem a lot more comfortable together in the booth this week, and Byrnes’ care free attitude seems to bring out a lot more of Peterson’s personality.  More “Oppo Tacos” please.

Costly Miscue: It wasn’t scored as an error, but a big mistake by Miami shortstop Stephen Perez led to Florida’s first three runs of the Gainesville Super Regional.  With two outs and the bases loaded Perez thought he caught a sinking line drive off the bat of Brian Johnson to apparently end the inning.  However, it was ruled the he took it on a short hop, and since Perez never threw to first base it was ruled a hit and a run scored.  Florida’s next batter, Mike Zunino, then lined a single to left to score two more & make the score 3-0.

Alex Panteliodis (Gatorcountry.com)

Upon Further Review: Instant replay of Perez’s non catch appeared to show he had actually caught the ball.  Byrnes asked about using instant replay in college baseball like it’s used in college football and to some extent in MLB games.  “If you have the technology use it,” Byrnes said.  I agree with that to an extent.  I do think the big leagues need more replay, but I’m not in favor of it in the college game.  The biggest reason is with 301 Division One teams the Super Regionals and the College World Series are the only games guaranteed to be on TV.  Even the Regionals don’t have full television coverage.  The argument can be made that post season games are the most important, so available technology should be used when it’s there.  But what about those last three games of the regular season?  They were just as important to teams like Tennessee and Kentucky and several others who were trying to get into their post season tournaments, but TV isn’t uniformly in play like it is for the MLB.  When every college game’s on TV I’ll go for it (and by the way, that would be a pretty big day if every game is on TV), but until then no replay is the way to go.

Johnny Pants: A big time effort from Florida pitcher Alex Panteliodis.  The sophomore fanned 12 in a career-best nine innings to help the Gators down the Hurricanes 7-2.  It’s not just the first complete game of the season for Florida, it’s the staff’s first since 2008.  Pitching isn’t quite the same precious commodity in Super Regional play as it is in Regionals, but it’s always big to save every arm possible in the first game of a big series.  While Panteliodis went the distance for Florida, David Guiterrez and Jason Santana each worked four innings for Miami.

Miscues II: Miami had two errors which lead to five unearned runs in the five-run loss.  The Hurricanes have now committed 10 errors in their six NCAA Tournament games this year, while Florida is yet to commit an error in its four NCAA games.

Son Of A Robby: Florida’s Tyler Thompson is the son of 11-year MLB veteran Robby Thompson.  He was named to our Regional Prime Time Performer Honor Roll this week for his three home run game in last week’s Regional title game win over FAU.  Thompson homered again in Friday’s win over Miami to give him four HR in his last two games after hitting just two during the regular season.

Special K Day: Friday was a big strikeout day for starting pitchers.  Cal State Fullerton’s Noe Ramirez (12-1) had 13 Ks in 7 IP in a 4-3 win over #6 national seed UCLA.  Bruin starter Gerrit Cole had 7 Ks in 6 2/3 IP in the loss to move his season total to 138, which is the third best in Bruins history.

On The Clock: Don’t be surprised if the subject of the length of games comes up during and after the College World Series.  Last night’s Cal State Fullerton-UCLA game lasted 3:35.  Remember that experimental 20 second clock at the SEC Tournament?  It kept most 9-inning games at around three hours.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s implemented in the NCAA post season soon.

Visit our Super Regional Central Page – with links to all eight Super Regional capsules.