Foley’s Quick Hits for March 5th

Here are some of my thoughts from the college baseball games that took place on March 5th. We check in on the UCLA Bruins against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Oklahoma in San Diego, the struggles of Miami against the Florida Gators, the Big Ten Conference having a solid day, and a no-hitter from Indiana State.

• The biggest story of the day was UCLA’s Trevor Bauer pitching ten innings against Nebraska striking out 17 Husker batters. The Bruins came up short in the end though as they lost the game 2-1. It is interesting that the UCLA coaching staff though it was a smart move to pitch Bauer for so long in only his third start of the season. His pitch count ended up being 129 pitches which is extremely high for a college pitcher during any point of the season but extremely high for the beginning of March.
• The early season struggles for the Miami (FL) Hurricanes continued on Saturday as they were one-hit by the Florida Gators. Hudson Randall pitched the first seven innings for the Gators giving up a Dale Carey leadoff single in the sixth. He ended up striking out only five batters while walking none and hitting one batter. Even though this is the Canes first series loss of the season, they still have not hit the ball well yet this year averaging just 4.2 runs per game and hitting .227 as a team.
• I don’t understand how Oklahoma continues to roll through the season but this is the first time I have had a chance to recognize the Sooners great start to the season. They picked up a convincing 5-3 victory over Cal on Saturday to up their record to 13-0. The star on Saturday was Garrett Buechele who went 3-4 with two RBI and Burch Smith was solid on the hill going 7.1 innings giving up eight hits and only three runs (two earned). CBD Assistant Editor Mark Rafferty is currently in San Diego for the weekend series and will have a full feature on the teams currently playing out there that will be available early in the upcoming week.
• Interesting stat from the action on Saturday is the fact that the Big Ten went 4-1 against teams from power conferences highlighted by Minnesota’s 2-0 victory over Washington State. The other victories were by Indiana over Tennessee (6-3), Iowa over Mississippi State (7-6) and Penn State split a doubleheader with NC State losing Game 1 4-1 before bouncing back in the nightcap with a 9-4 victory.
• Indiana State senior RHP Jason Van Skike tossed a complete game no-hitter against Central Arkansas as the Sycamores grabbed a 8-0 victory in the first game of a doubleheader. The no-hitter wasn’t the cleanest one though as he walked eight batters while hitting one also. The feat by Van Skike was the first by the Sycamores since March 30, 1988, when Skip Wiley and Kevin Klingerman combined to no-hit the University of Indianapolis in a 10-0 victory. Mike Gardiner threw ISU’s last solo no-hitter, coming on April 15, 1984, in a seven-inning 2-0 win against Wichita State while Indiana State’s last nine-inning no-hitter came back on May 6, 1943, when Darrell Wible led ISU to a 6-0 victory over Eastern Illinois.