Home Big 12 Random Thoughts: 24 Days to Selection Monday

Random Thoughts: 24 Days to Selection Monday

by Brian Foley
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KyleBlairUSD We are now 24 days away from Selection Monday on May 31st. Here are some of the most interesting stories from Friday, May 7th.

The Ivy League championship series starts on Saturday at noon down at Columbia between the host Lions and the Dartmouth Big Green. TCBB contributor Katherine Cornetta did an excellent preview of the series which you can check out by clicking here.

The biggest series on the West Coast taking place this weekend is between San Diego and the University of Portland. San Diego took Game 1 of the series 2-0 behind an outstanding performance from Kyle Blair. He pitched a complete game shutout while allowing only one hit and three walks while striking out 15 batters. He brought a no-hitter into the ninth inning when he gave up a two-out single to Kris Kauppila before finishing out the one hitter. Kyle Kraus was solid on the mound for the Pilots also as he went 8.1 innings while giving up seven hits and two runs while striking out 10 batters but ended up getting the loss. The teams will be back in action on Saturday when San Diego sends Sammy Solis (7-1, 2.69 ERA) to the hill to face off against Portland’s Zach Varce (5-1, 3.08 ERA).

 

The Kansas State Wildcats picked up an impressive 2-1 victory over the Texas Longhorns on Friday evening. The Wildcats were led on the mound by Kyle Hunter who let up one run in six innings of work while scattering seven Longhorn hits to improve his record to a perfect 8-0. K-State took advantage of a wild Taylor Jungmann on Friday as he gave up a career high seven walks and hit a batter. K-State would capitalize on Jungmann in the fifth inning when Tanner Witt, Adam Muenster and Nick Martini all drew walks to load up the bases with no outs in the inning. Witt would come across the plate when Jungmann would toss a wild-pitch to Daniel Dellasega to plate Witt from third and they would double the lead when Dellasega would ground out to bring home Muenster. This win was key for the Wildcats as they needed to improve their resume for the NCAA Tourney and another win on the weekend would go miles for them.

It was another poor start on Friday for Anthony Ranaudo as he gave up six runs in 2.2 innings of work while walking four batters. His counterpart Sonny Gray was not much better as he allowed seven runs in three innings of work. Both teams wouldn’t stop hitting all game as LSU picked up a 15-14 victory in 10 innings. The star of the game was Micah Gibbs who got the game winning hit while going 4-5 at the plate with a homer, four runs scored, and six RBI. The biggest issue in this game is the fact that Ranaudo has had three straight poor starts for the Tigers as this is starting to become a trend as he needs to be the ace of the Tigers rotation or they will have an early exit from the NCAA Tourney.

Fresno State made a major statement tonight that they are the real team to beat in the WAC conference as they defeated New Mexico State in Las Cruces 21-11. The loss by the Aggies was only their third of the season in the WAC and cuts the conference lead down to two games over the Fresno State Bulldogs. I still think that Fresno will end up taking the conference title as I am not sold on the pitching of the Aggies.

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2 comments

Mario Cantone May 9, 2010 - 12:30 am

Forget about New Mexico State. They got bent over today 16-10 & 12-4. I have seen better little league pitchers than what Rocky Ward throws out on the mound.

Brian Foley May 9, 2010 - 1:49 am

That article was from the games on Friday…I included some Fresno and New Mexico State talk on my Saturday column.

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