This weekend brought us some pretty favorable series between some pretty high ranked teams. We will be doing some rearranging of our College Baseball Daily Top 25 tonight, that is for sure.
Series of the Weekend
We will start in Orlando, Florida where the no. 7 UCLA Bruins and the no. 17 North Carolina Tar Heels traveled to play a three game series after inclement weather cancelled the series in Chapel Hill. Luckily the kind folks in Orlando took these two teams in with open arms, ahh you gotta love good ol’ college baseball!
The no. 7 Bruins defeated the no. 17 Tar Heels 8-5 behind a 0 walk and 7 strike out performance from starting pitcher James Kaprielian in 6.0 innings of work. Kaprielian jumps to 2-0 and on the young season and also proves nationally that he and the Bruins are a top team in the nation.
Game 2 in the series fell in favor of the Tar Heels as Trent Thornton provided his club 5.1 innings of 3 run pitching before turning it over to Reilly Hovis. Hovis threw 2.0 innings, allowing 2 runs, 3 hits and 1 walk before he collected his first win of the year. The UNC offense was led by shortstop Wood Myers who went 3-for-5 on the day with 2 runs scored.
The rubber match was a bit of a let down in the spectators eyes as the Bruins came out on top by a final score of 12-4. Kramer and Persico led the Bruin offense with 4 hits from Kramer and 3 from Persico as well as 2 RBI from Persico and 3 runs scored from Kramer. Starting pitcher Poteet (2-0) allowed 2 runs (0 earned) in 5.0 innings pitched and struck out three in route to his second victory of the year.
Rivalry Series
Next we go to the no. 9 Miami Hurricanes and the no. 2 Florida Gators series in Gainesville. The Hurricanes went into Gainesville after falling to a pretty solid Florida Atlantic team on the road and things weren’t much better for the U in Gainesville.
The no. 2 Gators took game one by a score of 4-3. Starting pitcher Bobby Pyner allowed 2 earned runs, 4 hits and struck out 7 in 5.1 innings of work. He finished with a no decision. Getting the win was Taylor Lewis (1-0). The action was in the Florida 9th when Tobias was hit by the pitch on a 3 and 1 count, followed by a sac bunt to advance Tobias and then a Reed single to score Tobias from second base for the win.
Game 2 was all about Zach Collins and the Miami Hurricanes. Collins led the offense with a 2-for-3 night and collected 3 RBI in the 7-2 win over the Gators. Starting pitcher Thomas Woodrey (2-0) threw 6.2 innings only allowing 5 hits, 2 walks and 1 earned run.
In the rubber match on Sunday the Gators beat the Canes 2-1 behind a 1 run, (0 ER), 3 walks and 4 strike out performance by starting pitcher Dane Dunning (2-0).
Top 25 Match Up
No. 20 Alabama and no. 6 Houston met for a three game series this weekend at Cougar Field in Houston. After taking the first two games of the series Houston lost the third game 8-3. With todays win Alabama baseball claimed the 2,500th win in the program history.
No. 1
Congrats to the University of Virginia for remaining atop our Top 25 Poll and for going 4-0 on the weekend.
Atlantic 10 Love
St. Louis traveled to Pensacola, Florida and went 2-1 in the Cox Diamond Invitational where they defeated Troy 2-1 and Southern Miss 2-1 but fell to North Florida 8-6. The St. Louis baseball team will travel to SIU Edwardsville this Wednesday before heading to Memphis for a three game series this weekend (2/27-3/1).
Bubble Team
The University of Central Florida traveled to Mobile, Alabama this weekend for the South Alabama Tournament and won all three games they played. UCF was first paired up against SEC squad and previously unbeaten Arkansas which they took care of in a 9-5 victory behind a 3-for-3 day from DH Matt Diorio and a 2-for-2 day from infielder JoMarcus Woods.
The second game UCF was scheduled for was with no. 11 Maryland which they escaped with a 7-6 victory behind the pitching of starter Cre Frinfrock. Frinfrock picked up his second win of the year with a 3 strikeout, 4 hit and 2 walk performance in 5.2 innings of work.
The Knights defeated the tournaments host, South Alabama 7-5 on Sunday to stay unbeaten at 7-0.
UCF travels to Bethune-Cookman on Wednesday before a three game series with Ole Miss in Orlando.
Other Notable Games
Some other games that were worth reporting about include Arkansas State defeating no. 10 Louisville 4-to-1 behind stellar pitching from Tyler Zuber (1-0, 8 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO)
Rider defeated ACC opponent Virginia Tech 4-to-3 on Sunday. Starting pitcher Kurt Sowa threw 6.0 innings in which he allowed 5 hits, 2 runs and 5 walks before Donnelly, Hafer and Thomas combined for three innings out of the pen. It was Hafer that picked up the win as he struck out 1 batter and allowed 1 run and 2 hits in 1.0 inning of work.
The no. 25 Washington Huskies lost 3 out of 4 games in over the weekend in the Big 12/ Pac 12 Challenge in Mesa, Arizona.
Since winning the series against previously ranked Tennessee the Florida International Panthers have lost 3 out of the last 5 games they’ve played to unranked teams. FIU was defeated by Stetson, Georgia Tech and NC State before beating North Carolina Central in back to back games this weekend at the Caravelle Resort Baseball at the Beach in Myrtle, South Carolina. The Panthers were 2-2 over the weekend.
