Boston College Athletics
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May 03, 2002 | Baseball
May 3, 2002
Written by: John Manuel
Which Mississippi team will show up this weekend--the one that went to Tuscaloosa and beat Alabama twice in a three-game series, or the one that got pounded by Florida and lost two of three at home against Tennessee last weekend?
The answer may not matter. Ole Miss, ranked 11th, could play one of its best series of the year and still drop its weekend set at South Carolina, which has played exceedingly well at home this season. The Gamecocks are 22-5 at Sarge Frye Field, where they have averaged 3,206 fans per game.
Each of the Gamecocks' three home series in league play has been tough ones, though. Florida, Alabama and LSU all were able to win a game against the 'Cocks, but none of them were able to finish the deal and win on Sunday. Fourth-ranked South Carolina has won 10 of 11 Sunday games.
The problem it will face this Sunday is that Mississippi will have freshman righthander Alan Horne on the mound. After a slow start caused in part by a back injury and the rust he has had to shake off after a 12-week down period in the fall, Horne has shown why he was the Indians' first-round pick (27th overall) last June.
He's not quite dominating, and he's not throwing up mid-90s numbers on the radar guns yet, but Horne is giving his team a chance to win while learning how to pitch in the SEC. He's given up just six runs--four earned--in his last three starts, covering 18 1/3 innings, for a 1.96 ERA. Overall, he was 4-1, 4.08.
"You have to be a lot finer than you were in high school," Horne said this week. "In high school, there were maybe two or three decent hitters on the other team. In the SEC, they all can hit. I could fall behind 2-0 in high school, rare back and throw 93 down the middle and not worry about anyone hitting it hard.
"Here, while I definitely think velocity helps, it's not everything. You have to show you can throw your other pitches in the zone."
The SEC's other touted freshman, lefthander Jeremy Sowers, has had more responsibility and a heavier workload than Horne. His season was delayed by the NCAA's inane six-game suspension, but he got off to a much better start than Horne. He won his first two starts but got a rude awakening in SEC play, losing five of next seven decisions.
Sowers originally was the Commodores' Friday starter, but he's been moved to Sundays while also being used as a closer in midweek games. He helped Vandy avoid a sweep last weekend against Mississippi State with his first complete-game shutout, a seven-hitter in which he walked one and struck out eight. It was Vanderbilt's first nine-inning complete-game shutout since 1996.
Sowers leads the team in most pitching categories at 4-5, 4.09 with 75 strikeouts in 77 innings. He'll lead the Commodores into this weekend's series at Auburn, which has won 10 of the last 11 in the series. The only other SEC weekend matchup not involving a ranked team has Kentucky at Arkansas.
In other SEC series, No. 5 Alabama visits Georgia (26-17, 12-9) in a crucial home series for the Bulldogs. Georgia swept the Tide at Foley Field in 2000. No. 10 Florida has a tough road assignment as it goes to Mississippi State, where the Bulldogs will face their former coach. Gators coach Pat McMahon left Starkville after the 2001 season to go home to Florida and was replaced by his MSU predecessor Ron Polk.
Polk gave McMahon his first job in coaching in 1980, hiring McMahon as a graduate assistant coach. More important for the Bulldogs, though, is that this series signals a brutal home stretch of three straight series against teams that have ranked in the top 10 this season, starting with Florida, moving to Alabama next weekend and wrapping up the season against Ole Miss.
Finally, No. 24 LSU, back in the rankings after a month-long absence, visits Tennessee. The Tigers have pitched shutouts in three of their last four games as reliever Jake Tompkins, getting his first start since March 24, struck out 10 in 4 2/3 innings.
More telling, the Tigers had their second straight 15-hit game. Confidence is contagious, and the Tigers have it after missing their swagger for much of the season.
Tournament Time
After this weekend, we'll know our first regional team, as the Southwestern Athletic Conference plays its league tournament in Shreveport, La. Southern enters the event as the prohibitive favorite at 41-6, including a 29-3 record in league play and a 9-4 midweek win against Louisiana-Lafayette.
Southern also had to play a pair of makeup games Monday against Arkansas-Pine Bluff to help resolve the league's tiebreaker. UAPB was in position to make the tournament as the eighth seed at 14-16, but the league ruled it had to make up two rained-out games against Southern. The Jaguars' sweep meant UAPB was tied with Grambling State, which owned the tiebreaker edge.
Southern didn't even want to play the games, because the league didn't require several East Division teams to make up rain games to meet their 32-game schedule, but the Jags' sweep came without the help of some of the team's regular starters. Southern enters the tournament as the top seed followed by Texas Southern. The other teams that made the field were Alabama State, Alcorn State and Jackson State from the East Division.
Around The Nation
A few quick notes on regionals. As discussed in Monday's Defend the Poll chat, Wake Forest has put in a bid at Ernie Shore Field for a regional. Wake held the '99 regional at the Shore to positive reviews, but the interesting part has the Demon Deacons putting together a bid for Greensboro's War Memorial Stadium. The home of the Class A Greensboro Bats is an adequate ballpark at best, but it's the most accessible and available super-regional home for the Deacs.
More exciting news comes from Boston College coach Pete Hughes. The Eagles are far from assured of a bid at 24-18, but they lead the Big East at 13-7. If BC can win the Big East regular season it might earn an at-large bid whether it wins the league tournament or not.
Fenway Park is available May 31-June 2, when regionals will be played, and Hughes said the school was just starting to look into the possibility of having a regional played at the nation's oldest big league ballpark. The Fens already plays host to the annual Boston Beanpot tournament with BC, Harvard, Northeastern and Massachusetts.
It's hard to imagine how good a regional in Boston could be for college baseball, perhaps bringing the sport plenty of positive publicity in a baseball-mad town. With the Cape Cod League nearby, Boston has the potential to be a good college baseball market in the Northeast, probably more so than any other city.
However, the Red Sox are under new ownership, and while that's been good for the Sox, it may not be great for BC. Former general managing partner John Harrington is a BC alumnus. "If Mr. Harrington was still there, (a regional) would be a slam dunk," Hughes said. "He would do anything for us."
BC also has a budding star in freshman Chris Lambert. The righthander, discovered last August at a Perfect Game showcase in Wareham, Mass., is 8-0, 2.18, with 65 strikeouts and just 32 hits allowed in 54 innings. With a 93-95 mph fastball and low-80s power slider, Lambert has been the Big East's best pitcher this season, which is saying something considering Rutgers' Bobby Brownlie was on the cover of Baseball America in January.
However, Lambert and Fenway should not be enough for a regional to go into Boston. As much good as it would do, a regional going to an undeserving team would do harm to the integrity of college baseball. The Eagles must earn a bid for the committee to take advantage of the situation.
BC plays out of conference this weekend against New York Tech and still has two very tough series remaining against Virginia Tech and at Notre Dame. Rutgers, tied at 13-7 with the Eagles for first in the league, plays host to the 22nd-ranked Irish, red-hot with a 14-game winning streak. Virginia Tech, tied at 11-6 for third place with Notre Dame, plays host to fifth-place Connecticut (12-7 in the league), so the Big East could shake out a lot this weekend.
* Four Top 25 clubs have the week off for exams, including No. 2 Rice (off until May 8); No. 3 Wake Forest (winner of two midweek games, including Kyle Sleeth's 10th win without a defeat on Tuesday); No. 15 North Carolina; and No. 20 Southern California (more on the Trojans later). The Tar Heels, who also are putting together a bid for a regional and who haven't played host to one since 1983, had a mixed week. UNC played six games in six days and won five of them, losing only a one-run decision to Miami on Saturday.
Included in the run was a decisive 10-1 win against East Carolina sandwiched by shutouts of Elon and Appalachian State. However, the Tar Heels also suspended their leading winner, freshman righthander Carter Harrell, for academic transgressions. It's unclear when or whether he'll rejoin the team.
* Top-ranked Clemson has another tough test in trying to keep its top spot, as it visits Georgia Tech for a Saturday-through-Monday series. Georgia Tech, 10-7 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, is in fifth place in the league and hasn't beaten a Top 25 team all year (0-6). Here's its best chance with the first of those games being played at home. The Yellow Jackets will officially dedicate Russ Chandler Stadium on Saturday. Clemson junior third baseman Jeff Baker is listed as probable for the series.
Also in the ACC, No. 8 Florida State plays host to Duke in a Sunday-through-Tuesday series (thanks also to those pesky exams). North Carolina State visits Maryland in a battle to stay out of the league cellar.
* It's a showdown weekend in the Big 12 Conference, where No. 7 Texas (first place) plays host to No. 17 Nebraska (second place). Senior righthander Shane Komine will make the trip for the Huskers, but is not listed as a probable starter. Instead, the team's notes say he "could be available out of the bullpen."
The rest of the league schedule is a little light, with Texas A&M off for exams (and hoping Travis Wong studies hard), while Baylor (Dallas Baptist) and Kansas (Centenary) go out of the league to play. Every series is big this time of year, of course, but the other two series in conference action may help determine regional bids as well as the final spots for the eight-team Big 12 tournament.
Oklahoma State ended a five-game losing skid by beating Arkansas-Little Rock, but must win a series at Missouri to avoid flirting with missing the league tourney. The Cowboys (30-15, 8-9) face a Tigers team (23-21, 9-11) that has won series against Baylor and Texas A&M. Oklahoma and Kansas State (both 8-10 league) match up in Norman in the other series. One of those four clubs will not make the league tournament.
* No. 8 Houston, the Conference USA leader, has only lost once at home in league play, a success rate that sophomore shortstop Myron Leslie and South Florida will test this weekend. Second place behind the Cougars is hotly contested in C-USA, with three teams sporting seven losses, but two of them have relatively easy assignments. Louisville (14-7 in the league) visits former league bully Tulane in the toughest matchup. Southern Mississippi (13-7) plays host to struggling Memphis. No. 14 East Carolina (13-7-1), which got pounded 10-1 Tuesday for a season split with North Carolina, plays host to Saint Louis.
* It's time for the year's biggest showdown in the Missouri Valley Conference, where the defending league regular-season champion meets the perennial power. Southwest Missouri State knew it was going to have to go through No. 12 Wichita State anyway, and this weekend's series in Wichita should draw capacity crowds to Tyler Field at Eck Stadium.
The Bears have lost five of their last 11, not exactly the hot streak you want to go into your biggest series of the year with. SMS trails Wichita by a game in the league standings, with Creighton looming in third place at 15-8. The Bluejays play host to fourth-place Indiana State.
* No. 9 Stanford took another shot on the chin this week, losing 12-0 on Tuesday to surging San Jose State. The Cardinal has lost three of four and five of seven over the last two weeks heading into a crucial series this weekend with California (26-23, 8-10).
"Washington and Oregon State both played well, and we would like to have won at least another game at those places," Cardinal coach Mark Marquess said. "But we must move on and play well from here on out.
"USC has moved out in front of everybody else a little bit but there are still a lot of teams still involved in battling for a championship. It should be a good race for the title and the next couple of spots in the standings right up until the end of league play."
As usual, Marquess isn't afraid to juggle his lineup. Freshman Donny Lucy, junior DH Jason Cooper and shortstop Scott Dragicevich have all found themselves in and out of the lineup, and Marquess has buried righthander J.D. Willcox, last year's saves leader, in the bullpen due to ineffectiveness.
The No. 20 Trojans will try to defend first place next weekend, but are off for exams. Washington has a chance to join them atop the league with a three-game set at home against UCLA (19-26, 5-7), which has lost junior outfielder Ben Francisco to a broken collarbone. A sweep would move the Huskies (20-19, 8-4) into a first-place tie. Oregon State (27-15, 6-6) could move into a third-place tie with idle Arizona State with a road sweep at last-place Washington State.
* Another huge weekend in the Big West, which was discussed in detail on Tuesday. No. 18 Cal State Fullerton (10-5 league) plays at second-place UC Irvine (9-3) while first-place Cal State Northridge, ranked 16th, visits Pacific. Long Beach State (27-15, 8-4) visits Cal Poly (24-23, 9-6) in a battle for fourth place.
"Cal State Northridge is a better baseball team than we are right now," Fullerton coach George Horton said after the Titans were swept at home last weekend. "They looked us in the eye and just brought it. We've got to regroup, and that's going to be tough against another well-coached team that is playing very good baseball right now."
* It's another huge weekend in Atlantic Sun play for No. 19 Florida Atlantic. This weekend, the Owls play host to Central Florida as they finish up the league's version of a Murderer's Row. FAU's last three series have been against Stetson (second in the league), Jacksonville (fourth) and now Central Florida (third). Naturally, the Hatters--who hope to have shortstop Rusty Beale and third baseman Brian Snyder back soon, possibly this weekend--visit Jacksonville.
* It's a showdown weekend in the Sun Belt, where No. 21 South Alabama's slim league lead will be tested at offensive powerhouse New Mexico State. At 11-2, South Alabama has a percentage-points lead over Louisiana-Lafayette (12-3) and a half-game edge on Western Kentucky, and those two clubs will meet this weekend in Lafayette.
"Our goal from the beginning has been to win every series," Ragin' Cajuns coach Tony Robichaux said. "We want to go into every series with the mindset to win a series. I think that mentality helps you in big series like this one, because you are not putting more importance on a single series. They're all important."
The other way you do that is by playing a tough non-league schedule, which Robichaux has once again put together. The Hilltoppers will be facing their best opponent of the year by quite a bit, but are riding the hot pitching of righthander Ryan Bicandoa. The senior righthander is 7-2, 2.68 and coming off a 14-strikeout effort last weekend against New Orleans.
* No. 23 Richmond has already had a good week, winning the series finale against George Washington, and has to protect its Atlantic-10 Conference lead this weekend against La Salle.
