Faedo, Alonso come up big

The top-ranked Florida Gators secured a series victory over visiting Texas A&M with another, solid team-oriented victory on Saturday night. While Florida never trailed in the opening contest of the series, they faced an early hole as the Aggies scored twice in the top of the first inning, including a leadoff home run from senior sparkplug J.B. Moss. However, the Texas A&M lead was extremely short-lived, as the Gators stormed back for three runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame, and they never looked back.

Sophomore righty Alex Faedo settled into the game nicely after his long first inning, and he showed no signs of intimidation or tentativeness in facing a solid and deep Aggies lineup. Additionally, his stuff and overall crispness did not seem to suffer one bit despite throwing on Saturday, instead of on Sunday, where had been a stalwart in the first month and half of the season.

The 6-foot-5, 225-pound righty does a pretty good job of repeating his delivery and mechanics for someone of his size, and while his left foot can land slightly closed he maintains a solid line to the plate and is able to get extended over his frontside consistently. The first inning was a bit laborious, as the Aggies replicated their efforts from Friday’s affair by spoiling tough pitches and working themselves into deep counts. Still, Faedo was pretty crisp and was able to pound the strike zone with both his fastball and slider, which were his two main offerings of the evening.

His heater touched as high as 95 in the early innings, and predominately sat in the 92-94 mph range for much of the night. As is typical, the pitch featured solid plane and sinking life—especially when located down in the strike zone—and natural tailing action out of his mid three-quarters arm slot.

While the fastball induced some weak swings on its own, Faedo really started to put things together after the Aggies had scraped out a pair of runs when he established a more consistent feel for his slider. Moss’ leadoff homer was on a rare hanging slider that was left down the heart of the plate, but Faedo generally was able to pound the lower half of the zone and work with ease to his glove side with his slider. At its best, the offering—which ranged from 82 to 86 mph—shows good tilt with sharp two-plane depth and finish to the glove side. He threw the pitch with particular effect to lefthanded hitters, consistently burying the pitch near the backfoot (most notably in three separate at-bats to Nick Banks). Even though he threw over 100 pitches and worked through the Aggie lineup three times, Faedo rarely threw his changeup because his other two pitches were so effective, flashing on a couple in the 86-87 mph range in the early innings.

Peter Alonso continued to mash on Saturday. The junior first baseman went 4-for-5, and his first hit of the day was a single in the bottom of the first that brought home Dalton Guthrie. Alonso also impressively turned on an elevated 95 mph fastball from Corbin Martin and deposited it into the left field bleachers for another home run, his second in as many nights. Alonso’s continued destruction of baseballs has been impressive and enjoyable to watch, and he’s seemed to have really taken to some small mechanical adjustments that he’s made since last season. While his approach and strike-zone awareness are as disciplined as ever, Alonso has appeared to be much more aggressive with his swing while consistently creating more bat speed, whipping the barrel through the strike zone and extending through contact to generate more impact and carry.

Mike Rivera’s single to left center field brought home Alonso and Deacon Liput (who walked) to give the Gators the aforementioned 3-2 lead in the bottom of the first. Rivera continued to swing the bat well in his subsequent plate appearances, singling to right field off of a 95 mph heater from A&M sophomore reliever Corbin Martin, and lining out sharply to center field (to go along with a walk and hit by pitch). As with Alonso, it appears that Rivera has developed more bat speed, strength and intent in his swings this season and improved results have come along with the process, as he is tied for the team lead with six homers and is a tough out for opposing pitchers. He garnered considerable praise for his work on the defensive side of the ball last season, but as he’s continued to show sustained success and improvement offensively, Rivera has positioned himself as one of the premier catchers in college baseball and an intriguing 2017 draft prospect.

The Aggies were unfortunate to have their starting pitcher bounced before the third inning for a second night in a row. Senior Kyle Simonds—like Friday’s starter Tyler Ivey—had posted solid numbers and been effective, but the righty was hit around a bit, and the hits seemed to cluster around. Simonds had to work extremely hard to get out of the first inning, and although he was able to throw strikes with his 88-90 mph fastball, his secondary offerings were not crisp enough to keep Florida’s hitters off balance.

Texas A&M Head Coach Rob Childress does have a stable of talented arms, and even after using a number of relievers on Friday night, he was able to turn to another interesting flamethrower on Saturday. Sophomore Corbin Martin was tabbed as the Alaska League’s top prospect this summer, and it was easy to see why coaches there held him in such high regard.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound righty hasn’t posted good numbers this spring (1-1, 6.27 ERA, 18.2 innings, 13 walks, 25 strikeouts), but he’s an intriguing prospect to keep an eye on. He owns broad shoulders, and although he’s solidly built, he still projects well physically. The arm speed is immediately noticeable, as he works through his extended arm action well and releases from a high three-quarters arm slot. Additionally, his delivery is clean and he controls his body well. Martin came out pumping 95 mph, and his heater continued to sit in the 93-96 mph range for the duration of his outing (41 pitches). He flashed a handful of secondary pitches, including an 88-90 mph cutter that showed solid gloveside slice and slight, late depth. Martin also threw a slider in the 83-85 mph range a handful of times, and a slightly softer, slurvy breaking ball in the 80-82 mph velocity band.

Still, Martin was hit hard a couple of times (Alonso’s homer) and both his in-zone command and ability to throw strikes lag behind the pure stuff. He walked three and left a number of balls elevated and center-cut which contributed to his final line (1.2 innings, 3 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts). There is plenty to like about Martin, especially if he’s able to find a way to refine his command.

Florida turned to a power reliever of their own once Faedo had finished his stellar outing (6 innings, 5 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts), and junior Dane Dunning threw three scoreless innings to pick up his second save of the season. With a five-run cushion Dunning had little need to throw anything other than his fastball, and he actually threw over 20 straight heaters before breaking out a slider. His 91-94 mph fastball featured its typical heavy sink and large arm-side run. In the past it has been a challenge for him to command the offering, but on Saturday he showed pretty good feel, and while he went to some three-ball counts, he did not issue a single walk (3 innings, 3 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 4 strikeouts).

Dunning’s main off-speed pitch is usually his changeup, as the pitch shows quality fading and tumbling life off of the fastball, but he didn’t need to break out the pitch on Saturday. Instead he showcased a few low-80s sliders, which were ok but could still use some more consistent finish. At the end of the day, it is quite a luxury to be able to use Dunning, who could be a potential top 100 draft pick thanks to his fastball velocity/movement, projectable frame and athleticism for three innings with a five-run lead, which only further illustrates the depth that the Florida pitching staff has.

Although much of the strong Aggies offense was kept at bay by Faedo and Dunning, Boomer White had another solid day at the plate as the junior third baseman went 3-for-3 with a walk. White was mentioned in Friday’s recap, and he showed off his similarly mature, polished approach at the plate and he very rarely is off-balance or out of sync with any aspect of his swing.

Senior first baseman Hunger Melton was the only other Aggie to have multiple hits, going 2-for-4 with a pair of well-struck singles. The 6-foot-2, 230-pounder has obvious strength in his large frame, and he’s able to impact the ball when he squares it up. After a strong junior campaign in 2015, Melton has started off 2016 hot, entering Saturday’s contest with a .330/.431/.580 slash line. While he struck out in his two other at-bats, Melton has cut down significantly on his strikeout rate from last season, and he should continue to be a pillar in the middle of the Texas A&M offense this season.  



National Notes

• One night after Dakota Hudson delivered a masterpiece over in-state rival Ole Miss, Austin Sexton did the same, in nearly identical fashion, for No. 12 Mississippi State. Sexton went the distance, allowing just four base hits and two unearned runs without issuing a walk, as the Bulldog claimed the series with one more game to play. Sexton struck out eight batters and needed just 111 pitches to navigate all nine innings in the 6-2 win. Right fielder Jake Mangum proved to be the hero on offense in this game, going 2-for-3 with a double, a home run, three RBI and a run scored.

• Miami continues to make big statements on the weekend and this may be the loudest one yet. While North Carolina was the darling of the non-conference season with series wins over UCLA and Oklahoma State, their recent home series loss to Georgia Tech was concerning. One thing that was not in doubt was the legitimacy of the Tar Heels' one-two punch at the front of their rotation.  Zac Gallen and J.B. Bukauskas have been dominant this year and that makes this series win for the Hurricanes a headliner: Miami may end up being the only team in 2016 that pins a loss on both of these righthanders.

Two things that make Miami go are big innings and Zack Collins. In this series, the Hurricanes already have a three-, four- and five-run inning. And Zack Collins has four hits through the first two games of the series. Miami is putting a tremendous Top 8 National Seed together and this series augments that case.  A win against Florida, despite losing the series, and their series wins over Louisville and Clemson are big as well. If we were to nitpick, all of these wins were at home, but they are impressive nonetheless.

• Teams with strong Friday and Saturday starters make for an intimidating opponent.  They also make for a huge opportunity and Miami wasn't the only club taking advantage of that this weekend. East Carolina continues to impress under Cliff Godwin and they clinched their series over Houston by winning game two of the series. That means that the Pirates beat Andrew Lantrip and Seth Romero in the same weekend. Add that to a series win over Virginia and you've got yourself a very nice postseason resume.

• UCSB had a school record 10 players drafted last season so 2016 was obviously going to be a rebuilding year. Apparently, the Gauchos did not get the memo as they clinched their series over Long Beach State to move to 20-5. In doing so, UCSB beat Dirtbag ace Chris Mathewson and upstart Darren McCaughan. McCaughan came into the game with 1.62 ERA through 39 innings.

• Oregon State had a lot on their plate this weekend: deal with the season-ending loss of ace Drew Rasmussen and face the Washington two-headed monster of Noah Bremer and Joe DeMers. Bremer is an established ace in the Pac-12 while the freshman DeMers brings big-time talent to the table. With all that said, the Beavers' offense threw down the gauntlet in this series. In game one, they handed Bremer arguably his worst loss in two years. The game two victory was impressive in its own right as Oregon State scored three runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth to take the lead. The game-winning run was scored on Husky closer Troy Rallings who had not been scored upon in his previous 18 appearances dating back to last season.

• After scoring a combined 13 runs over the first two games of the series, both Vanderbilt and South Carolina’s offenses woke up in game three, scoring 16 runs with Vanderbilt taking the game, and series, with a 10-6 victory. While Jonah Bride and D.C. Arendas both went deep for the Gamecocks in a back-and-forth run scoring affair, it was Jeren Kendall’s solo shot in the bottom of the sixth that gave the Commodores the lead with which they never looked back. The bullpens played a crucial role in the finale as neither starter made it through the fifth inning. While South Carolina’s bullpen allowed six earned, Vanderbilt’s allowed just two and picked up a big-time performance from lefthander Ben Bowden who struck out six and allowed just two base hits in his 2 1/3 innings, picking up his fourth save of the year. Moving Bowden from the rotation to bullpen has been a genius move as he’s nailed down four games over the last two weekends, going 6 1/3 in which he’s allowed just three hits and has struck out 13.

• The BYU Cougars capped off their fourth series sweep of the year as they took care of business in Portland, taking the West Coast Conference series finale from the Pilots, 5-3. Sophomore Colton Shaver continues to put together a ridiculous 2016 campaign as he went 2-for-4 with three RBI, raising his slash to .464/.546/.835 while starting all 26 games for the 23-3 Cougars. Hayden Rogers, who has split time between the rotation and bullpen this spring, was ready when his number was called on Saturday as he threw six shutout innings, scattering just two hits while improving to 3-0 on the year.