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ACC
Notre
Dame earned their first ever ACC Tournament victory as they defeated
Virginia 8-2 on Friday. Virginia starter Brandon Waddell struck out
nine, but the Irish also tagged him for six runs (four earned) as
Cavan Biggio (2-for-5, 3B, 2 RBI) and Kyle Fiala (2-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI)
starred for the Notre Dame offense.
Skye
Bolt’s three-run home run helped North Carolina beat Clemson 6-3.
Both schools will not advance from pool play, but the victory on
Friday (along with the win in the play-in round) may help North
Carolina secure an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament.
North
Carolina State came from behind to beat Miami 5-4. The Wolfpack were
able to scratch together a run in the bottom of the ninth off of
Hurricane closer Bryan Garcia to force extra innings and then won it
in the bottom of the twelfth when Preston Palmeiro smacked a double
off of the left field wall and raced around to score after a throwing
error saw the ball roll all the way to the right field foul line. Tom
Olczak and Tommy DeJuneas both lights out in relief, striking out six
Hurricanes in 3 1/3 innings apiece. With the win NC State clinched a
berth in the ACC Championship game on Sunday afternoon.
American
Athletic
The
American Athletic Conference is down to four teams as South Florida
and Tulane were both elminated on Friday. Memphis took the honors
knocking off USF 4-1 on the strength of yet another strong start by
Dylan Toscano. The senior righthander improved to 9-2 on the season
by allowing seven hits, two walks and one run in eight innings while
fanning five Bulls batters, and Nolan Blackwood picked up his 14th save of the year with a scoreless ninth.
UConn
used a big five-run bottom of the eighth inning to knock out the
Green Wave in dramatic and late come-from-behind fashion, 7-6. The
scoring in the eighth was capped by designated hitter Joe
DeRoche-Duffin's two-run blast. UConn advanced to face No. 2-seeded
East Carolina on Saturday while Memphis will play top-seeded Houston.
Big
12
The
Big 12 is also down to four teams as Texas Tech and Kansas State were
knocked out by Baylor and Oklahoma repectively. Baylor will face
Texas and Oklahoma will take on in-state rival Oklahoma State.
Big
South
The
Big South Championship will come down to a highly anticipated matchup
between No. 1-seeded Raford and No. 2 Coastal Carolina at John Henry
Moss Stadium (Gardner-Webb University) at 4:00 p.m. ET on Saturday.
The
Chanticleers' bats stayed hot again on Friday as they pounded out 13
hits in a 9-3 win over High Point. Coastal turned to yet another
career reliever in Andrew Beckwith who responded with eight solid
innings, allowing only two earned runs on seven base hits and a pair
of walks.
Radford
backstop Josh Reavis drilled a two-run home run in the bottom of the
eighth inning to pull ahead of Winthrop for good and win the game,
4-2. That blast spoiled a solid starting effort by Michael Green, who
went the distance (eight innings) as the hard-luck loser.
Big
Ten
Indiana
continued to stay alive in the Big Ten Championship with a big 10-2
win over Iowa. Hoosiers second baseman Casey Rodrigue paced the
offence by going 3-for-5 with a double, a triple and a pair of runs
scored while freshman slugger Logan Sowers put the game out of reach
early in the third inning with a grand slam, his sixth home run of
the season.
No.
1-seeded Illinois, who had their 27-game win streak snapped on
Thursday, beat Michigan State 2-0 on the strength of a complete game
shutout by senior righthander John Kravetz.
SEC
The
Florida Gators moved on to the semifinals of the SEC Tournament after
defeating Arkansas 10-0. A.J. Puk continued his recent string of
dominant starts for the Gators, as the big lefthander whiffed 11 in
his seven innings of work, including a stretch where he recorded
eight straight outs via the strikeout. Fellow sophomore, center
fielder Buddy Reed shined at the plate, going 3-for-3.
Vanderbilt
also won in seven innings via the run rule, as they took care of
business in a 16-1 defeat over Alabama. Zander Wiel, Ro Coleman,
Bryan Reynolds, and Jason Delay all had three hits for the Commodores
and starting pitcher Phil Pfeifer allowed just four hits and struck
out nine in for the complete game victory.
Sun
Belt
Arkansas
State used a four-run first inning to beat Georgia State 6-2 in an
elimination game on Friday afternoon. Colton Kibler provided 6 1/3
strong innings out of the bullpen to pick up his fourth win of the
season. With the victory Arkansas State advances to the Sun Belt
Conference semifinals against top-seeded South Alabama.
Louisiana-Lafayette
also advanced to the semifinals, beating UT Arlington 5-1 in the
day’s other elimination game. Kyle Clement had three hits and the
Ragin’ Cajuns are scheduled to play against Texas State on
Saturday.
West
Coast Conference
San
Diego staved off elimination early once, but couldn’t do it a
second time on Friday. They won their first game, with a 5-4 victory
over Brigham Young University as Kyle Holder, Riley Adams, and Ben
Wylly all had homers. However, in the nightcap they fell to
Pepperdine and were bounced from the tournament.
Pepperdine
had lost their first game of the tournament earlier in the day, as
Loyola Marymount starter Trevor Megill (7 innings, 3 hits, 2 earned
runs, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts) was effective. The Waves’ bats woke up
enough against San Diego and they received a sterling from Ryan
Wilson (8 innings, 7 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk, 6 strikeouts) to
take home a 4-2 victory and keep their championship hopes alive for
at least another day.
National
Notes
•
It looks as though
Bradley has locked up a spot in Regional play, if they hadn't
already, by claiming a big 3-1 win over Dallas Baptist to advance to
the Missouri Valley Conference Championship Game against Missouri
State on Saturday evening. Leadoff hitting second baseman Chris
Godinez went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles while starter Cameron
Roegner moved to 4-0 on the year by tossing eight solid frames. Matt
Dennis picked up his 12th save of the year with a
scoreless ninth.
•
The College of
Charleston were beat by UNC Wilmington on Friday in the CAA
tournament and will need to beat Delaware early Saturday morning to
face a re-match with the Seahawks for the conference championship.
•
Cal
State Fullerton clinched their 20th Big West Conference Title with a
4-0 victory over Long Beach State last night. The Titans have played
a typically strong non-conference schedule, so on the surface their
33-22 record is not particularly impressive, but they've now gone
18-5 in conference play and can claim five of the last six Big West
titles. Freshman starting pitcher John Gavin was the star as he
scattered three hits and struck out two in his 6 2/3 innings of work
moving to 7-2 on the season. He out-dueled fellow freshman Chris
Mathewson who finished his successful first year 6-6 in the loss.
•
In what looked like
would be a battle between two surging draft-eligible arms turned into
a slug fest as No. 21 Arizona State took down No. 17 Southern
California 11-3. Sun Devils lefty Brett Lilek worked only the first 3
1/3 innings, while USC's Kyle Davis moved to 3-2 on the season with
the loss after allowing five earned runs in six innings of work. Jake
Peevyhouse, Colby Woodmansee and Joey Bielak each had three hits for
ASU, with Woodmansee and Bielak each hitting a home run.
•
Andrew Moore was
brilliant in No. 11 Oregon State's 4-0 win over Cal, striking out 13
in a complete game shutout in which he allowed only two base hits.
The Beavers Nos. 2 and 3 hitters, shorstop Caleb Hamilton (2-for-3,
home run, 2 runs, 3 RBI, stolen base) and center fielder Jeff Hendrix
(2-for-4, double, 1 RBI) provided most of the offense in the win.