Here is your SEC Recap for March 10th.
Florida 8 Illinois State 0
Freshman Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) (4-for-5) drove in a career-high six runs, highlighted by his first grand slam, as No. 6 Florida (9-2) completed a two-game sweep of Illinois State (4-7) with an 8-0 victory on Wednesday night at McKethan Stadium. Maddox was 5-for-9 (.556) in the series with three extra-base hits and tallied nine RBI.
Sophomore Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) (1-1) earned his first win of the campaign with 5.1 strong innings in which he registered a season-high six strikeouts and gave up one hit. The trio of freshman Steven Rodriguez (Miami, Fla.), freshman Michael Heller (Bradenton, Fla.) and sophomore Justin Poovey (Granite Falls, N.C.) permitted one hit over the final 3.2 innings to nail down the Gators’ first shutout since 12-0 triumph over Eastern Michigan on Feb. 24, 2009.
Florida Recap
Illinois State Recap
Arkansas 21 South Dakota State 2
FAYETTEVILLE – The No. 14 University of Arkansas baseball team broke out of a two-game slump with a 21-2 win over South Dakota State Wednesday afternoon at Baum Stadium. Bo Bigham, in his second game back in the starting lineup, tied a career mark with three hits and a career-high four RBI.
Matt Vinson also drove in four runs against the Jackrabbits, while James McCann tied a career high with three base hits. Seven Razorbacks had at least two hits and six posted multi-RBI performances. Arkansas’ 21 runs, helped in large part to a 10-run eighth inning, are the most since the team scored 20 against Mississippi State last season (March 27, 2009). The Hogs move to 9-3 on the season, matching their start to the 2009 campaign, and South Dakota State drops to 6-3.
Arkansas Recap
South Dakota Recap
Ole Miss 10 Austin Peay State 2
OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss (11-2) posted double-digit hits for the eighth time this season and was efficient in turning those hits into runs as the 17th-ranked Rebels defeated Austin Peay (8-5) by a score of 10-2 on Tuesday to sweep the mid-week series.
Ole Miss claimed the first game by a score of 14-4 on Tuesday night.
Miles Hamblin and Taylor Hashman led the Rebels at the plate with 2-for-4 performances from both hitters. Zach Miller drove in three runs, while Hamblin, Taylor Hightower and Mike Snyder all plated two runs each.
Ole Miss Recap
Austin Peay Recap
Vanderbilt 9 Tennessee Martin 1
NASHVILLE— The 1-2 duo of Brian Harris and Bryan Johns went 5-for-6 and the trio of Will Clinard, Drew Hayes and Russell Brewer limited UT Martin to one run on seven hits in Vanderbilt’s 9-1 win Wednesday evening at Hawkins Field.
The Commodores won their seventh straight game to improve to 11-1 on the season while the Skyhawks fell to 7-5.
"Our pitching staff didn’t allow any gimmes and Will, Drew and Russell worked fast on the mound," said Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin. "Offensively, anytime you score nine runs and play a complete game in two hours and 15 minutes it is a good thing."
Vanderbilt Recap
Tennessee-Martin Recap
Evansville 8 Kentucky 4
LEXINGTON, Ky.—The University of Evansville baseball team exploded for five runs in the sixth inning to grab a four-run lead, and relievers Matt Netherton and Tom Heithoff made it stand up, as the visiting Purple Aces doubled up the nationally-ranked University of Kentucky Wildcats, 8-4, on Wednesday at Cliff Hagan Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky.
After UK used single runs in each of the first four innings to build a 4-3 lead against UE starter Seth McCabe, Netherton (1-1) kept it a one-run game by shutting down the Wildcat offense with three scoreless innings of two-hit relief. His teammates would then give him his first career mound victory with a sixth-inning explosion off of sophomore right-hander Alex Meyer, a typical weekend starter for the Wildcats and a projected first-round pick in the 2011 Major League Baseball draft.
Evansville Recap
Kentucky Recap
South Carolina 7 Valparaiso 3
Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina pitchers Jimmy Revan, Matt Price and Parker Bangs combined to strike out 18 batters to tie a school single-game record and Whit Merrifield tallied a base hit to set a school record for consecutive games with a hit, now at 26, as the Gamecocks earned a 7-3 win over Valparaiso on Wednesday afternoon at Carolina Stadium. South Carolina is now 8-4 on the year while the loss drops Valpo to 3-11 for the season. The Gamecocks will be back in action this weekend beginning a three-game series vs. Brown with first pitch for the opener set for 7 p.m. on Friday. All three games can be heard on the Gamecock Radio Network with live video broadcast available at GamecocksOnline.com.
The Carolina pitching staff was in command for most the afternoon on its way to the victory over the Crusaders. Price earned the win in relief of Revan with four scoreless innings and just one hit allowed while striking out eight and walking one. Bangs closed the game out striking out the side to preserve the win in his one inning of relief. Revan had seven strikeouts to two walks in four innings as the starter. The strikeout total of 18 is the seventh time in school history that the Gamecocks have reached the mark. The last time was on March 18, 2006 when six Gamecock pitchers totaled 18 in a win at Auburn. With the win, Price is now 2-0 on the year. Valparaiso starter Will Robinson suffered the loss and is 0-4 for the season. He allowed five runs, three earned, on five hits with five walks and a strikeout.
South Carolina Recap
Valparaiso Recap
Tennessee 8 Middle Tennessee State 6
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee baseball team (7-6) battled back from three different deficits before taking the lead for good with four runs in the eighth inning, including two on sophomore Charley Thurber’s third home run of the season, in an 8-6 victory over Middle Tennessee State (8-4) Wednesday night at Reese Smith, Jr. Field in Murfreesboro. The Volunteers rode the arm of senior Steve Crnkovich who picked up his second win in four days with five strong innings of relief.
"We battled really well today," UT Head Coach Todd Raleigh said. "Every time they got up on us, we were able to answer the bell. In a weird way, I thought this was our best game of the year, just because of how we kept responding.
Tennessee Recap
Middle Tennessee Recap
Mississippi State 9 Western Kentucky 3
STARKVILLE, Miss. – A six-run fifth inning proved decisive as Mississippi State turned back Western Kentucky 9-3 in college baseball action Wednesday night at Dudy Noble Field.
The Bulldogs capped their season-opening 12-game homestand with a 9-3 record. MSU ran its win streak to five games, while defeating WKU for a second time in two all-time series meetings. Fresh off a victory over Southeastern Conference foe Western Kentucky, the Toppers could not beat an SEC foe again, falling to 9-4.
Mississippi State Recap
Western Kentucky Recap
