Here is your SEC Recap for April 9th.
#1 Vanderbilt 7 #24 Alabama 0
Nashville, Tenn, – Top-ranked Vanderbilt jumped on No. 21 Alabama early scoring in each of the first three innings and rode the strong pitching of Grayson Garvin to a 7-0 win at Hawkins Field on Saturday afternoon.
Garvin dominated over 7.1 innings to earn his sixth win of the year. The lefty fanned seven and scattered four hits and two walks before turning it over to the bullpen. Only one Crimson Tide player reached third base and only three reached scoring position against Garvin. Will Clinard and Kevin Ziomek finished off the Commodores’ fourth shutout victory of the year.
Vanderbilt Recap
Alabama Recap
#3 South Carolina 2 Tennessee 1
Knoxville, Tenn. – South Carolina freshman right-hander Forrest Koumas worked a career-high 7.1 innings and struck out a career-high seven batters and the Gamecocks rallied with two runs in the sixth inning to come from behind and defeat Tennessee 2-1 to sweep a three-game SEC baseball series at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Carolina is 26-5 and 10-2 in the SEC while the loss drops Tennessee to 19-13 and 2-10 in league play.
After yielding a run in the first inning, Koumas settled in and limited the Vols to just three hits on the afternoon and two walks while tallying seven strikeouts. He improves to 4-0 on the year with the win. Sophomore right-hander Matt Price closed the game out with 1.1 scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts to pick up his 10th save of the season and his third save of the series. Tennessee reliever Carter Watson suffered the loss and is now 5-2 on the year. He allowed two runs on three hits in two innings with two strikeouts and a walk.
South Carolina Recap
Tennessee Recap
#4 Florida 18 Mississippi State 0
Sophomore Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) belted a grand slam during an eight-run second inning and drove in five runs as No. 4 Florida (25-7/8-3 SEC) evened its series at Mississippi State (21-10/5-6 SEC) with an 18-0 shutout on Saturday afternoon in front of 11,201 fans at Dudy Noble Field as part of the Super Bulldog Weekend festivities. All nine Gator starters had at least one hit in UF’s most lopsided triumph over the Bulldogs in school history.
Sophomore left-hander Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (5-1) tossed six scoreless innings to earn the win and was followed to the mound by freshman Daniel Gibson (Lutz, Fla.) (2.0 IP, 2 H) and senior Matt Campbell (Tampa, Fla.) (1.0 IP) in Florida’s seventh shutout of the season, matching the program’s most since 1993. The Gator offense recorded season-bests in SEC action for runs (18) and hits (18) and the 18 runs were the most scored by UF in conference play since a 24-2 win at Auburn on April 11, 2009. The teams will play the rubber game tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET, with freshman right-hander Karsten Whitson (Chipley, Fla.) (4-0, 2.06) facing MSU junior lefty Nick Routt (0-1, 2.61)
Florida Recap
Mississippi State Recap
FAYETTEVILLE – Arkansas catcher James McCann capped a four-run ninth inning rally with a towering three-run, walk-off home run to left field to give the Razorbacks a 4-3 victory on Saturday night in front of a Baum Stadium-record crowd of 11,103 fans and a national television audience watching on ESPNU.
“I thought he (McCann) had taken a couple of good swings,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “He hooked the first one and then he hooked another one. That home run, he stayed on it. When it first left the bat, I didn’t know if it was going to hook enough because of the win, but it stayed fair. He knew that it was gone right when he hit it. He put his head down and started jogging.
The Razorbacks improve to 22-8 on the season and 5-6 in Southeastern Conference play, while LSU is now 21-10 and 3-8 in league play. Arkansas earns its first SEC series win of the season and its first series win over the Tigers since the 2004 season when the Hogs swept LSU in a three-game series in Baton Rouge. This is Arkansas’ first series win in Fayetteville since 2001.
Auburn 15 Kentucky 8
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tony Caldwell homered three times and drove in a career high seven RBIs as Auburn defeated Kentucky, 15-8, on Saturday night at Cliff Hagan Stadium to claim its second SEC series victory of the season and improve to 17-14, 4-7 SEC.
“The ball was carrying a little bit and we were fortunate to put some good swings on it,” Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. “We were down 6-3 and we jumped right back into it and took it from there. It was a really solid offensive approach tonight.”
Caldwell, who drove in three runs in Friday’s 12-9 win, homered to lead off the fourth, hit a two-run home run in the sixth and hit a three-run home run in the ninth, finishing the night with a career-high five hits in five trips to the plate, also driving in a run with a first-inning single.
OXFORD, MISS. — Michael Palazzone tossed his first nine-inning complete game of his career to lead 30th-ranked Georgia to an 8-3 series-clinching victory over Ole Miss Saturday in front of 8,833 at Swayze Field.
Georgia (18-14 overall, 8-3 SEC) has won seven straight Southeastern Conference games and seven consecutive games overall while the Rebels fell to 19-13, 4-7 in the SEC. Junior Levi Hyams (2-for-4) matched his career-high with a four-RBI day while Jonathan Hester (2-for-4, 2 RBI) and Kyle Farmer (3-for-5) combined to pace Georgia’s 14-hit attack. Palazzone is now 5-1 after allowing just three runs on eight hits with one strikeout in going the distance. He did not walk a batter to extend that streak to 34 consecutive innings. Earlier this season, he tossed a seven-inning complete game to beat ninth-ranked LSU and last week pitched 8.2 innings in knocking off 24th-ranked Mississippi State.
