On a night that saw three national seeds lose on their home fields, no upset was more shocking than Arizona’s 1-0 win over SEC heavyweight Mississippi State. The Wildcats, the last staggering survivor of the downtrodden Pac-12, were an afterthought heading into the super regionals and given little chance to win Friday in Starkville.
The pitching matchup alone was enough to write off Arizona. Mississippi State threw shutdown ace Dakota Hudson, who had been selected in the first round of the MLB Draft less than 24 hours prior. The Wildcats, still resting ace Nathan Bannister after a two-outing regional weekend, had to counter with Bobby Dalbec, who earlier in the day was drafted in the fourth round as a position player; what experience he did have on the mound had come largely as a reliever.
Dalbec pitched the game of his life in front of a crowd of nearly 13,000 in Starkville, overcoming a shaky first inning to pitch a near-complete game shutout against one of the best offenses in the country. He allowed just five hits and struck out five, finally giving way to Cameron Ming after State put two on with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
Making the start even more impressive was the fact that Dalbec had to sit through a 37-minute delay during the eighth inning after a power outage hit the entire town of Starkville. Dalbec, who had never gone more than six innings, came right back out after the delay, never missing a beat. In the bottom of the ninth, he was still painting the black with 92-mph heat.
With Dalbec having already bested Hudson, Arizona now gets the opportunity to clinch the series with Bannister on Saturday.
East Carolina 8, Texas Tech 6
Travis Watkins is the star of the postseason so far. The ECU catcher, who had just three homers in the entire regular season, has left the yard four times in four NCAA Tourney games, including twice on Friday night. His first was a monster gram slam to give the Pirates their first lead of the game in the fifth inning. An inning later, Watkins smashed a two-run shot over the left-center wall to put his club up, 8-3.
Nearly as critical to the Pirates upset was the late-inning pitching of freshman Matt Bridges, who entered in the seventh after Tech’s Tyler Nelsony made it an 8-6 ball game with a three-run dinger. It felt like the play that would shatter ECU’s day dream; that would swing the momentum back to the Big 12 champs and bring the home crowd back to life. But Bridges stopped the rally cold, retiring the last eight batters of the game, six by way of the strikeout.
Freshman relief pitchers trying to preserve two-run games on the road in a super regional just aren’t supposed to look as comfortable as Bridges did. He was bounding confidently around the mound after each K, mouthing “Here we go, baby” after a particularly filthy swing and miss in the eighth. The kid was clearly feeling it, prompting head coach Cliff Godwin to make the ballsy decision to send Bridges out again in the ninth instead of ace closer Joe Ingle. Bridges sat ’em down 1-2-3, including a strikeout of Neslony to end it.
TCU 8, Texas A&M 2
Former Horned Frog and current SEC Player of the Year Boomer White went 2-for-4, but the rest of the Aggies powerful offense was stymied by a brilliant 7.2 innings from TCU’s Jared Janzak. This was an A&M lineup that scored 34 runs in three regional games last week and hadn’t gone under four runs since the final game of the regular season. After scoring twice on a couple of hits in the first inning, the No. 4 national seed mustered just four hits and was held off the scoreboard the rest of the way.
Janzak finally gave way after putting a couple men on with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, but Brian Trieglaff and Ryan Burnett combined to keep the Aggies off the board over the final five outs.
TCU’s offense was driven by 6’4, 265 freshman Luken Baker, who looks and bashes like a create-a-player from MVP Baseball ’05.
LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKEN!
TCU Freshman with a 3-run SHOT and the Horned Frogs lead 5-2 in the 3rd! #RoadToOmaha pic.twitter.com/XUOkdPuwYJ
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) June 11, 2016
That three-run bomb broke a 2-2 tie in the third inning, putting the Frogs up for good. Oh, and the big fella has some wheels as well.
TCU’s Luken Baker scores from 180′ feet away on the wild pitch… not a typo! #RoadToOmaha pic.twitter.com/JSwhxEQxQl
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) June 11, 2016
Miami 12, Boston College 7
Boston College centerfielder Michael Strem opened the night’s scoring in the opening frame after advancing twice on throwing and pickoff errors courtesy of Hurricane pitcher Michael Mediavilla. A groundout from teammate Nick Sciortino plated Strem for the unearned run in the next at bat and the score sat at 1-0 until the bottom of the third, when Miami exploded for four runs. White Sox draftee Zach Harris’ three-run shot was soon followed by Johnny Ruiz’s solo blast and just like that the Hurricanes were up, 4-3.
Despite his first inning troubles, Miami big man pitcher Michael Mediavilla gave seven and two-thirds innings of solid work, with seven strikeouts and two earned runs.
Boston College battled back to within a score in the fourth inning, plating three runs and giving ace pitcher Justin Dunn a little help for his labors on the mound. Dunn dealt valiantly for five and a third innings, but the Mets prospect’s night was done after giving up another run in the sixth inning. Miami scored two runs in that frame to gain some separation, 6-3, and with Boston College scratching around in the bullpen, the Eagles just couldn’t manufacture an answering rally. BC pitched a particularly dreadful eighth inning, which saw a walk, a hit-by-pitch, another walk, another hit-by-pitch for a run, and then a Johnny Ruiz grand slam.
Up 12-3 heading into the top of the ninth, the Canes tried to preserve closer Bryan Garcia for another day. BC slammed a three-run homer, loaded the bases up and walked in another run to make it 12-7 before Garcia was finally forced to come in and get the last out.
