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College  | Story  | 5/29/2016

Saturday Conf. Tournament Recap

Jheremy Brown      Patrick Ebert      Blake Dowson     
Photo: Brian Ray/hawkeyesports.com




Perfect Game Top 25 | Conference Championships Hub | Field of 64 (May 18) | Video Vault
Conference Championship Recaps: Day 1 - Tuesday | Day 2 - Wednesday | Day 3 - Thursday | Day 4 - Friday


Congratulations to the following teams for winning their respective conference tournaments and therefore receive an automatic bid to the 2016 NCAA postseason:

America East: Binghamton
Atlantic 10: Rhode Island
Atlantic Sun: Stetson
Big South: Coastal Carolina
Horizon: Wright State
MAAC: Fairfield
Missouri Valley: Dallas Baptist
Mountain West: New Mexico
Northeast: Bryant
Summit League: Oral Roberts
WAC: Utah Valley
West Coast: Saint Mary’s

Already claimed their conference tournaments: Princeton (Ivy), Navy (Patriot), Bethune-Cookman (MEAC), Alabama State (SWAC).

Here are the championship matchups set to be determined on Sunday:

ACC: Clemson vs. Florida State
American Athletic: Houston vs. UConn
Colonial (rained out Saturday): UNC Wilmington vs. William & Mary (tied 8-8, top 10)
Big 12: West Virginia vs. Texas Christian
Big East: Xavier vs. Creighton
Big Ten: Iowa vs. winner of Ohio State/Michigan State on Sunday
C-USA: Southern Miss vs. Rice
MAC: Kent State vs. Western Michigan
Ohio Valley: Southeast Missouri vs. Jacksonville State
SEC: Texas A&M vs. Florida
SoCon: Mercer vs. Western Carolina
Southland: Southeastern Louisiana vs. Sam Houston State
Sun Belt: Georgia Southern vs. UL Lafayette



Big Ten Tournament

Iowa 11, Maryland 0

The Hawkeyes improbable run continued Saturday morning when they put it to Maryland. It appeared the game may run along the same course as Iowa’s previous game against Ohio State, with the Hawkeye bats being stifled early by Maryland freshman Hunter Parsons.

Parsons threw three-straight scoreless frames to start the game, changing speeds and locations really well. In the fourth inning however, Parsons lost his control and walked three batters. The free bases, along with a pair of singles and a sac fly, combined to plate three runs for Iowa in the inning.

Tyler Peyton was impressive for the Hawkeyes once again. He had two hits on the day, moving his tournament total to eight, and added a pair of walks. Every Hawkeye in the starting lineup hit safely in the game except for Zach Daniels, who walked three times.

Joel Booker had another good day at the plate for the Hawkeyes as well, going 3-for-6. He is now 9-for-16 in the tournament.

Iowa scored all of its runs in bunches— three in the fourth, five in the eighth, and three more in the ninth.

Shane Ritter started on the mound for Iowa but only went three innings. He gave up three hits and one walk before being lifted for Nick Gallagher. Gallagher was phenomenal for Iowa, pitching the final six innings while only giving up one hit and one walk, striking out nine. Gallagher was also extremely efficient, throwing 86 pitches with 60 coming for strikes.

Maryland had six pitchers combine for the final two innings of work, giving up eight runs combined on seven hits and three walks.

The Hawkeyes will move on to the championship game Sunday, and the Terrapins were eliminated with the loss.


Ohio State 11, Michigan 4

The Buckeyes and Wolverines got an inning and a half in on Friday night before rain moved into the stadium and they were forced to start up again Saturday afternoon.

Adam Niemeyer hit the first two Michigan batters he faced in the first inning, ultimately leading to two runs.

It didn’t take long for Ohio State to get those runs back, though. The first six Buckeyes reached base in the bottom of the first, and five runs crossed the plate. There were six hits in the half inning. Michigan starter Ryan Nutof only recorded one out in the inning before being pulled.

Ronnie Dawson was really good for Ohio State in this game, and has been the whole tournament. He had three hits in five at-bats, running his hit total to eight in Omaha. Dawson swings to all fields, and has done more damage going the other way to left field in his last four games. Dawson also covers a ton of ground in left field.

Ryan Feltner took over for Niemeyer on the mound when play resumed on Saturday, and he put together the best performance of his career. He kept the Wolverines at bay all game, except for a two-run hiccup in the fifth inning. Feltner threw 6 1/3 innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits with 10 strikeouts. His 6 1/3 innings and 10 punch-outs were both career highs.

Every Buckeye hitter ended up with a hit in the game.


Ohio State 3, Michigan State 2

This was a well executed but slow-moving game for about the first eight innings. Jake Lowery of Michigan State and Kyle Michalik of Ohio State were both stellar in relief roles for their teams.

Lowery gave up a leadoff double to Ronnie Dawson in the eighth inning with the game tied 2-2, but worked his way out of the inning with no harm done by striking out the final two batters of the inning.

L Grant Davis got a pinch-hit single for the Buckeyes to lead off the ninth, and a sac bunt got him to second base, but Ohio State left him stranded there.

The bottom of the ninth inning left everyone in the stadium shaking their heads. With Marty Bechina on second base with one away, Kory Young bounced a ball back to the mound, and Bechina got caught in no man’s land, eventually getting tagged out. While Bechina was in the rundown, Young tried to get to second base, and he too was tagged out to end the inning.

Dawson then took the first pitch of the top of the 10th and put it in the right field bleachers to give the Buckeyes the lead for good.

After picking up the loss in the collapse against Iowa on Friday, Yianni Pavlopoulos came on in the bottom of the 10th to earn the save for Ohio State. The two teams will play again on Sunday morning to determine who will face Iowa for the Big Ten Championship.



SEC Tournament

Texas A&M continued to do what they’ve done all spring; score runs and win ballgames. The offense is firing on all cylinders right now as they defeated the scorching hot Ole Miss Rebels 12-8, recording 12 base hits with eight different players recording a knock, including a three-hit day from nine-hole hitter Aaron Homan and a pinch hit three-run home run in the top of the eighth by Walker Pennington which give the Aggies a 10-8 lead. What makes the five-run eighth even more impressive is the fact that the Aggies did it against Mississippi’s lights out reliever, Wyatt Short. Power-armed closed Mark Ecker did his thing once again with two scoreless innings and in the process lowered his ERA to 0.43 on the year.

Speaking of the Gators, they took care of business as they defeated the Tigers of LSU in a tight 1-0 game, with strong pitching from the first frame to the last while staving off the Rally Possum. Lefthander Scott Moss surrendered just three base hits over six scoreless innings, punching out seven without issuing a walk and adds to the incredible depth of the Gators pitching staff. Dane Dunning showed his usual mid-90s heat out of the ‘pen and continues to up the draft stock as June approaches, punching out three in his 1 2/3 innings. The offense was sparse throughout the entire game as LSU picked up a strong start from freshman righthander Caleb Gilbert who will be a critical piece moving forward for the Tigers. Jonathan India led the Gators offense with a two hits, including a sixth inning double that plated the lone run of the game, propelling the Gators to a championship game with the Aggies.



ACC Tournament

The Clemson Tigers just might not be stopped and continue to add to a strong resume with a 5-4 victory in the ACC semifinals over Wake Forest. Finding themselves down in 4-1 in the top of the seventh, Clemson plated three runs themselves to knot the game at four runs apiece courtesy of home runs from Chase Pinder and Mike Triller, who drove in two runs each. Lefthander Pat Krall picked up his 10th win on the year after turning in virtually a hitless 2 1/3 innings to continue his dominance of 2016.

In a battle of the Sunshine State it was Florida State who came out on top taking down Miami by the score of 5-4 courtesy of a Dylan Busby walkoff single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. Along with Busby’s heroics, Quincy Nieporte had a big day at the plate going 3-for-3 with three singles – two down the left field line and another to the right-center field gap – with two RBI. Freshman lefthander Tyler Holton was fantastic on the mound going seven strong innings in which he punched out nine while surrendering just two earned runs. With the win the Seminoles improved to 37-19 on the year and are now one win shy of capturing back-to-back ACC championships which would give Coach Mike Martin the seventh of his career.



Big 12 Championship

When you’re hot you’re hot and that’s exactly what the West Virginia Mountaineers are as they toppled Oklahoma 11-1, punching a ticket to the conference title game. In a run-rule shortened game, West Virginia starter Connor Dotson punched out nine in 6 1/3 innings of work to pick up his seventh victory of the year. Kyle Davis went deep once again, hitting his 10th round tripper of the year, as part of a 3-for-5 effort to go along with four RBI. The offense is one that can’t be stopped, or so it appears, as they advanced to the championship game and have outscored their opponents 26-5 in the three-game stretch.

After finishing 10-14 in the Big-12 throughout the regular season the Texas Longhorns have gone on a roll and took the first game from TCU 2-1 in walkoff fashion thanks to a Kody Clemens home run before dropping the second game 8-2, ending their season. As he’s done in the games prior, highly touted freshman Luken Baker went deep in a 3-for-4 day which yielded five RBI and reached base another time thanks to a walk. Brian Howard went six strong on the mound before giving way to Brian Trieglaff, who notched a three-inning save, his fourth of the year, to help send the Frogs to the championship game to face West Virginia.



National Notes

• Houston advanced to the American Athletic Conference Championship Game for the third consecutive year with a 6-2 win over top-seeded Tulane on Saturday.  The teams’ Nos. 1 and 2 hitters,  Zac Taylor and Connor Wong, each went 4-for-5. Taylor hit a solo home run in the third inning that tied the game and Joe Davis’ two-run bomb broke the game open in the fifth. Nick Hernandez picked up his third save of the tournament by providing 2 1/3 scoreless, hitless innings. The Cougars will face UConn in the championship game.

• Although the Pac-12 doesn’t have a conference tournament, the series between Washington and Utah has essentially served as one. After Washington took the first game on Friday to tie Utah with a 17-11 conference mark, Utah returned the favor with a 12-8 win on Saturday to pull ahead by one game. The Utes scored seven runs in the bottom of the seventh to pull ahead, as DaShawn Deirsey, Jr., Cody Scaggari and Hunter Simmons all enjoyed three-hit games at the plate. While there could be a tie at the top of the conference should Washington win tomorrow, the winner of the game will be awarded the league’s automatic bid.

• Cal State Fullerton won the 2016 Big West title and an automatic bid for the postseason (not to mention their weekend series) with a 2-1 win over Long Beach State on Saturday, the same score that the Dirtbags beat the Titans by on Friday. Once again neither team produced much offense, as freshman righthander Colton Eastman moved to 8-2 on the year with 8 1/3 strong innings for Fullerton, allowing just one run on four hits while striking out nine batters.
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