The opening day of the College World Series was an all-around success. Two huge crowds showed up for each game and they were rewarded with great weather and some even better performances from the best college baseball has to offer. The Florida Gators looked like a team with six underclassmen in the starting lineup for the first few innings, then they flipped the switch and showed why many consider them to be the favorites in a stacked College World Series field. Virginia leaned on the experience that helped them overcome injuries all season long just to get to Omaha — that helped the Cavaliers limit damage on the mound and come up with timely hits to advance to the winner’s bracket. All of that and more highlighted the first day of action at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha…
Two-Out Production Recipe For Cavaliers, Gators Success
It didn’t take much digging into the box scores from the first two games to find out the key to success on Saturday for both Virginia and No. 4 national seed Florida. The Cavaliers and Gators combined to go 11-for-22 (.500) at the plate with two outs, scoring 12 of their 20 combined runs in the process. Compare that to Miami and Arkansas who combined to score just one run on 4-of-19 hitting (.211) with two outs, and it’s not hard to understand why Virginia and Florida are each 1-0 in Omaha this year, while the Hurricanes and Razorbacks are playing with their seasons on the line on Monday afternoon.
“We kept getting runners on, but we didn’t punch them in,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “[Virginia] did. That was the difference in the ballgame … I don’t know how many runs they scored with two outs, but I’m going to think four. They got the big hits.”
It was actually five runs that Virginia scored with two outs, but it happened so often throughout the game, it’s understandable that Van Horn lost track. Cavaliers right fielder Joe McCarthy started it off with a solo home run to right on the first pitch he saw against Arkansas starting pitcher Trey Killian in the top of the second inning. In the top of the fifth, shortstop Daniel Pinero and catcher Matt Thaiss delivered RBI base hits against Killian to give Virginia a 3-2 lead. Senior third baseman Kenny Towns plated the game-winning run in the top of the eighth, going the opposite way to right field for an RBI double against Arkansas closer Zach Jackson. The Cavaliers added an insurance run with two outs in the ninth to seal the deal.
“One thing we like to focus on with runners in scoring position, especially with runners on second base, with two outs, you don’t want to do too much,” Towns said. “You just want to go out there and try to hit the ball on the barrel and hit a line drive or a ground ball somewhere. We were able to make some good swings in the situation. Danny [Pinero] had a really good swing on a pitch high and in, and was able to get it over the third baseman’s head to get that first run across [in the fifth inning]. We had a lot of guys have good at-bats with a runner in scoring position and put a lot of pressure on those teams.”
Two-out hitting may not have made much of a difference in Florida’s 15-3 pasting of Miami in the nightcap, but the Gators did score seven of their runs on 5-of-11 hitting with two outs against the Hurricanes. When breaking down why the Gators and Cavaliers are in the driver’s seat in Bracket One, their ability to extend innings at the plate is among the main reasons.
Aces Not Dominant, But Effective
While the offenses carried the day for Florida and Virginia, it wasn’t without help on the mound. Starting pitchers Connor Jones (Viriginia) and Logan Shore (Florida) didn’t have their best stuff of the season on Saturday, but when they needed to make a pitch to get out of trouble, they did. Jones scattered six hits and two walks, and allowed three runs in his six innings of work. Not overly impressive, but lost in that is the fact that Arkansas was just 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position against him.
“Going back to earlier this year, I found myself in quite a few situations with runners on base and runners in scoring position,” Jones said. “It’s not the first time I’ve been in that position this year. It felt like almost every inning I threw with runners in scoring position. So I got pretty used to kind of pulling it together and having to make a big pitcher there.”
On the mound for the Gators, the sophomore right-hander, Shore, watched as Miami converted a leadoff hit-by-pitch into an early lead in the first inning. The Florida ace scuffled a bit in the early innings, but only allowed Miami to cross home plate twice before his offense picked him up with a run in the bottom of the third followed by 11 more in the bottom of the fourth to put them game out of reach.
The only thing Shore allowed with runners in scoring position were a pair of sacrifice flies off the bat of Miami third baseman David Thompson, the nation’s leader in runs batted in. Despite his starting pitcher not having his best stuff and the 15 runs his offense put up, Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said that it was Shore who picked the team up when they were trying to fight through the early struggles.
“What gets lost in the shuffle is the first inning,” O’Sullivan said. “I mean, Logan gets a big strikeout I think on [Miami designated hitter Garrett Kennedy] with the bases loaded. He just gave up one, and that’s the damage control thing we talk about all the time. Give up one, don’t give up two. Give up two, don’t give up three. Going back to that inning, Logan just giving up one run was a big lift for us.”
Schwarz, Gators Terrorizing Opposition
If Thursday was the first time you saw the Florida Gators baseball team, you may have walked away thinking that 15-run, record-setting performance was an outlier, or something you can’t expect to see every time you go to the ballpark. Well, in the case of these Gators in this NCAA Tournament, you’d be wrong. That wasn’t even the most runs Florida has scored in a game this postseason. They started their road to Omaha with a 19-0 beat down of Florida A&M in their first game of regional play.
Including the Miami game, the Gators have outscored their opposition 68-15 in their six postseason games so far. That’s an average of 11.3 runs per game for the Florida offense. So you can imagine that there wasn’t much concern from the players when they fell behind 2-0 against the Hurricanes. They stuck with their game plan and knew once they broke through against Miami starting pitcher Andrew Suarez, that they would be able to sustain the output.
“We’re feeling pretty confident,” senior third baseman Josh Tobias said. “I mean, the past four or five games everybody has been contributing, not just me or [freshman catcher/designated hitter JJ Schwarz] — we’ve all had hits. I heard a stat today that everybody in the starting lineup scored, so everybody had to contribute. Our whole lineup is producing.”
Speaking of that freshman, thus far JJ Schwarz hasn’t played like one. Schwarz is hitting .583 in postseason play, including a 2-for-4 night against Miami in his first College World Series game. He has scored 12 runs, driven in 13 more, has six extra-base hits — four home runs and two doubles — and a single stolen base just to round out the stat sheet.
If Florida keeps up this pace their aren’t many offenses remaining in the College World Series field that will be able to keep the Gators from dogpiling on the mound when this is all said and done. And if their freshman star continues to put up these gaudy numbers it won’t be hard for those watching the series to decide the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
Arkansas Star Shines On Big Stage
He would trade it all for a win, but Arkansas sophomore center fielder and 2015 Dick Howser Trophy winner Andrew Benintendi didn’t come up short when he needed to produce in Saturday’s 5-3 loss to Virginia in the opening game of the 2015 College World Series.
If Benintendi could get on base and drive himself in, I’m sure he could pull it off. In a losing effort, Benintendi made several clutch plays both with his bat, on the base paths, and in the outfield. In the third inning, with his team already trailing 1-0, Benintendi made a diving catch in center field on a line drive by Virginia third baseman Kenny Towns. The play was the final out of the inning and it saved a run as Cavaliers shortstop Daniel Pinero was in scoring position when Towns drove the ball to the outfield.
In the bottom half of that inning, Benintendi tied the game with a sacrifice fly to left field. Finding his team once again trailing in the fifth inning, Benintendi cracked his 20th home run of the season, a game-tying solo shot into the right field bullpen to even the score at 3-3.
Finally, with Virginia leading 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth, the Arkansas superstar, and seventh overall pick by the Boston Red Sox in the 2015 MLB First-Year Player Draft, drew a base on balls against Cavaliers closer Josh Sborz, then stole second base to put the tying run in scoring position with no outs. However, the heart of the Razorbacks lineup went strikeout, fly out, strikeout to leave him stranded.
Benintendi did make a mark with his 20th home run of the season, though. Aside from tying the game momentarily, it made the 5’10, 180-pound sophomore the first player to hit at least 20 home runs and steal at least 20 bases in the same season since 2009 when Western Kentucky’s Wade Gaynor also accomplished the feat.
Play from this bracket will resume on Monday with Arkansas (40-24) and Miami (49-16) squaring off at 2:00 p.m. to see who gets to play in the College World Series and who gets to start thinking about next season. That will be followed up by the winner’s bracket game between Virginia (40-22) and Florida (50-16) at 7:00 p.m.
