Daily Dose - Too early to compare
Kentucky and Georgia both lost again Saturday. Both were on the road. Sure they are 0-2, but what would their record be had they played Alcorn State at home this weekend? Or Delaware State? Both Georgia - who has dropped two at Stetson - and Kentucky who has losses at College of Charleston and vs Marshall may struggle this season but let's reserve comparing them to their peers until they get some home-baked competition as well.
It is hard not to gush about Florida's pitching staff. Friday night Brian Johnson was superb and Saturday Hudson Randall matched that effort with six innings of one run ball in a 4-1 win over South Florida. The impressive depth continued as Nick Maronde and Tommy Toledo (two former weekend starters) finished with three scoreless innings.
Maryland split a twinbill with Texas Saturday and will go for the series split Sunday. Avoiding a sweep at a program like Texas is important for second year coach Erik Bakich as he build his program. The Terps won 10-1 behind 6'8" righty David Carroll's six solid innings. Carroll may be the next feared starter for Maryland this season.
South Carolina had their second consecutive capacity crowd with 8.242 fans for their 2-1 win over Santa Clara. The program received a huge boost from their CWS title and are getting huge crowds in their picturesque stadium. Tyler Webb started and went six innings with only an unearned run.
After beating Cal Poly 2-1 Friday, North Carolina grabbed another one run win upsetting Cal State Fullerton 4-3 in 11 innings. The Tar Heels have parlayed strong pitching and timely hitting into a resume-building roadtrip. They try to keep it rolling with games against Missouri and Southern California Sunday.
Virginia sent a message Saturday. The Cavaliers strolled into an SEC park and blasted Auburn 13-2. Starter Tyler Wilson hurled six shutout innings while making his first start after 51 consecutive relief appearances.
Word was out of Rice that Matthew Reckling is a different pitcher this Spring. Saturday he looked like one Owl fans are going to enjoy watching as he threw six shutout innings in a 7-1 win over Stanford. Rubber game Sunday.
After Friday's easy victory, LSU was pushed Saturday by Wake Forest in the Tigahs' 4-3 win. Fans received a huge present as closer Matty Ott retired the final three batters to earn the save. Mikie Mahtook added his third home run of the weekend and JaCoby Jones went 3-3 with a home run as well.
Mercer is on their way to a huge weekend. They beat Liberty Friday 6-4 and followed that a twinbill sweep Saturday 7-2 and 17-5. The Bears, the A-Sun tournament champs last year, return enough talent to be in the at large Regional hunt this year. That is exactly what Liberty did last season which gave this matchup an early season bracket buster feel.
Louisville won another close game beating Ohio State 2-0. Justin Amlung worked 7 2/3 innings in the shutout. The Cardinals are 22-2 against Big Ten Conference opponents in Dan McDonnell's five seasons as head coach. Louisville has won 10 straight overall against Big Ten teams.
Either Bucknell ran out old timers day for pitching or James Madison can really swing it. After scoring 37 Friday, the Dukes swept a twinbill 9-2 and 26-15 Saturday. For those allergic to adding big numbers, that's 72 runs in three games.
In a game that could have been dubbed the BBCOR Classic, East Carolina scored in the bottom of the ninth to beat Youngstown State 1-0. The game had 20 strikeouts and 15 runners left on base.
Mississippi State continued to show improvement on the mound as they beat Akron 10-1 and Lamar 2-0.
Elon evened their series with NC State with a 12-2 win. The teams have traded home blowouts leading into Sunday's game in Raleigh.
Georgia Tech got a 10 strikeout pitching performance from Jed Bradley in an 8-1 win over Kent State.
Clemson lost to Eastern Michigan 7-6 when the winning run scored on a two-out wild pitch.
FIU beat Southeastern Louisiana 8-3. And out of habit, the line on Garrett Wittles: 0-4.