Check out all of WBR’s 2014 College World Series coverage.
Game 1: UC Irvine 3, Texas 1
Cal Irvine got off to a good start due to great pitching (Spomer/WBR)
With a strong wind blowing in at TD Ameritrade Park, runs were going to be especially hard to come between two clubs known for their strong pitching and defense. Both offenses created opportunities early and often, but it Texas that struck first.
After walking the first two hitters he faced and working out of a jam in the 1st inning, UC Irvine ace Andrew Morales didn’t do himself any favors in the 2nd inning. After a lead-off double by Texas right fielder Collin Shaw, the Longhorns bunted three straight times to bring him home. Two of those bunt attempts resulted in men reaching base as Morales was forced to eat the ball on Kacy Clemens’ bunt, then the ball got by his glove on one off the bat of third baseman Zane Gurwitz to plate Shaw for the first run of the game. Morales eventually worked out of trouble, getting a strikeout of Ben Johnson and a 1-3 ground out of Mark Payton to limit the Longhorns to just the one run.
As it turned out, stranding runners was the story of the game, especially for Morales who bent but didn’t break no matter how much pressure Texas put on him through his six innings of work. He struck out five, but allowed just the one run as the Longhorns left 12 men on base through the first seven innings to keep the deficit at 1-0.
“That’s the true mark of a champion. He was even better in those situations,” said Texas head coach Augie Garrido when asked why his hitters couldn’t take advantage of Morales’ struggles. “He got ahead on hitters, he used his breaking ball in fastball counts. He hit the outside half of the plate. He located better when he got the runners in scoring position. … Sometimes we have a tendency, especially when you leave a lot of runners on base, to overlook the quality of why you left runners on base, and I’m not sure he didn’t have more to do with it than we did.”
Then the ‘Eater Nation bats came alive in the top of the 8th. Left fielder Adam Alcantara got things started with his 2nd hit of the game, a single to left field. A sac bunt moved him into scoring position, then leadoff hitter Taylor Sparks drilled his nation-leading ninth triple into the gap in left-center to tie the game at one and chase Texas starter Nathan Thornhill from the game.
“The wind was really howling in, so I knew anything lifted wasn’t going anywhere,” Sparks said. “I just tried to stay flat with that and it was able to travel through the gap. It had to be one of — it’s definitely the most special and favorite hit I’ve had so far.”
The Longhorns turned to sophomore closer John Curtiss with one out. Curtiss’ first offering to Irvine shortstop Chris Rabago was drilled up the middle to plate the go-ahead run. The Anteaters added an RBI single off the bat of designated hitter Jonathan Munoz to take a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the eighth.
The Anteaters’ Sunday starter Evan Brock closed out the Longhorns by retiring the final seven hitters, including striking out the side in the 9th to preserve the win and send UC Irvine to the winner’s bracket.
“I haven’t had much bullpen experience, at least this year, but definitely my adrenaline was pumping today … it was a big game,” Brock said. “I haven’t been in that type of situation late in the game in a long time … it was pretty fun for me, so that definitely got the juices flowing.”
Brock’s previous 16 appearances this season came in a starting role, so it was a bit surprising to see Irvine head coach Mike Gillespie turn to Brock out of the ‘pen.
“With the way this tournament sets up, with the days off in between, and of course with the knowledge that you lose two and you’re on your way home, it really wasn’t a difficult call to use either [Evan] Manarino or Evan [Brock],” Gillespie said.
Game 2: Vanderbilt 5, Louisville 3
A battle turned out in Vanderbilt’s favor (Spomer/WBR)
The Commodores got to Louisville ace Kyle Funkhouser early in this one, touching him up for three runs in the bottom of the second inning. Most of the trouble was created by Funkhouser. Two walks sandwiched around a base hit, followed up by a wild pitch on the first offering with the bases loaded put Vandy on the board. Leadoff hitter Dansby Swanson made it worse when he crushed a two-run double to the gap in left-center in the next at-bat and just like that the Commodores provided their sophomore starter Carson Fulmer an early 3-0 cushion.
“I wasn’t making a lot of great pitches tonight,” said Funkhouser. “A lot of credit to their hitters, because even on the pitches I did make they seemed to battle pretty tough.”
Funkhouser continued to struggle with his command and a hanging breaking ball was deposited into the the right-center field gap by Vanderbilt stud freshman left fielder Bryan Reynolds to make it 4-0 Commodores. It was Reynolds’ team-leading 53rd RBI of the season.
“[Dansby Swanson] started us off and kind of got things rolling with that double to score two,” Reynolds said. “During my at-bat he was making good pitches, I was just trying to fight those off. On the one I hit he gave me a curveball down and I just tried to stay on it and drive it.”
Louisville finally started to pick up their ace in the top of the fifth. An RBI triple down the right field line by speedster Sutton Whiting put the Cardinals on the board. Whiting would later score on a ground out by leadoff hitter Kyle Gibson to cut the Vandy lead to 4-2 heading to the bottom of the fifth. The Cardinals got two aboard with one out in the top of the sixth to chase Fulmer from the game, but reliever Hayden Stone stranded the threat with two fly balls to center fielder John Norwood.
The Cardinals got to Stone in the top of the 7th. A leadoff single by No. 9 hitter Zach Lucas led to another Cardinals’ run when designated hitter Nick Solak singled to right field to cut the Vanderbilt lead to 4-3 with two outs. Solak advanced to second on the throw home, but reliever Adam Ravenelle comes in to strand the threat and preserve the Commodores’ one-run lead.
He proved to be the stopper Vanderbilt was looking for, retiring seven of the eight men he faced to earn his first save of his career. With the 5-3 win over the Cardinals, Vanderbilt advanced to the winner’s bracket to take on UC Irvine.
“It was a big boost,” Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin said of Ravenelle’s performance. “Those quick outs I thought brought the momentum back and the face that he was able to grab the first out of the inning, because we weren’t able to do that in the middle part of the game, and that’s where Louisville started to catch up. I thought he was very valuable tonight. He did a good job and a had a good heartbeat for the game.”
Bracket One action will resume on Monday, with Texas taking on Louisville at 2:00 pm (CT), and UC Irvine facing Vanderbilt after that at 7:00 pm (CT).