Wiseman's HR Caps Vandy Comeback

A&M, LSU, Arkansas Post One-Run Wins

By John Whittle

Special to CollegeBaseballInsider.com

 

HOOVER, Ala. - A leadoff home run in the 10th inning by Vanderbilt right fielder Rhett Wiseman capped a 7-6 comeback victory for the second-seeded Commodores (40-17) over Missouri on Wednesday afternoon at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

 

The Tigers (30-27) catapulted to a 6-2 lead on the strength of a four-run fifth inning that included RBI from four different players, but the Commodores showed why they’re a national championship contender by scoring four runs over the final three innings before winning it in extras.

 

“It was a spirited comeback, for sure. It was great for our team in a lot of different ways,” Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. “Our team hung in there mentally, and we were able to overcome a sizable lead late in the game. We had the big hits towards the end.”

 

Vanderbilt shortstop Dansby Swanson belted a pair of home runs and was 2 for 4 with two runs and three RBI to pace the Commodores’ offense, but it was Wiseman who delivered the big blow.

 

Leading off the bottom of the 10th inning, Wiseman drove a 2-2 pitch to right centerfield. Missouri centerfielder Jake Ring tracked it well, and the ball hit the webbing of his mitt for what would have been a spectacular, SportsCenter-worthy first out. Instead, with his glove higher than the top of the fence, Ring lost the ball as he crashed into the wall giving Wiseman his 13th home run of the season.

 

“I knew I put some good backspin on it, but if it was going to hit the top of the wall, I wanted to make sure I was standing on third base,” Swanson said. “I just kept going hard and I was fortunate enough that it fell on the right side of the fence for us.”

 

Swanson wouldn’t have had the chance for his walk-off winner if it wasn’t for some late-inning magic. The Commodores scored an unearned run in the ninth inning off of SEC saves leader Breckin Williams, who also gave up the final home run.

 

Just one out away from a winners’ bracket game, Williams gave up a line-drive single to centerfield to Vandy pinch hitter Penn Murfee. Ring charged hard but was unable to make the catch, and the hop ricocheted off his leg and into left field. The throw home from Jake Ivory was late and the score was tied at 6.

 

“When you play anybody in this league, losing like that can happen,” Missouri coach Tim Jamieson said. “It was a really tough loss for our guys, and we need to be able to respond and get over it fairly quickly. I’m really proud of the effort and thought we had the win, but that’s the way the game goes sometimes.”

 

Missouri took control in the middle innings behind a four-run inning and a quality start from pitcher Peter Fairbanks, who struck out 10 in 5.2 innings of work. Both runs he gave up came in the first inning on a two-run home run to Swanson.

 

After he passed the ball to the bullpen though, the game began to unravel for the Tigers. Reliever Andrew Schwaab allowed three earned runs on three hits in 2.1 innings while Williams’ record dropped to 4-4 with the loss.

 

With the loss, Missouri will face Alabama on Thursday morning at 10:30 a.m. EST with the loser being eliminated from the SEC Tournament. Vanderbilt will take on Texas A&M on Thursday with first pitch scheduled for 5:30 p.m. EST. Both games will be televised on the SEC Network.

 

GAME 5: No. 3 TEXAS A&M 4 - No. 11 ALABAMA 3

 

An eighth-inning RBI single by Nick Banks put Texas A&M on top by a run entering the ninth, and the Aggies had to hang on for dear life to defeat Alabama 4-3 in the first game of double-elimination play of the SEC Tournament on Wednesday morning.  

 

“It was an extremely hard-fought, well-played game on both sides,” Texas A&M coach Rob Childress said. “We made some great plays and had some amazing momentum plays.”

 

The 11th-seeded Crimson Tide (31-27) jumped out to an early lead, putting up two runs in the top of the second inning and another in the third. That lead was erased quickly though as the Aggies (44-10) struck for three in the bottom of the third inning with three straight run-scoring hits.

 

After allowing the early runs, Texas A&M starting pitcher Grayson Long settled into the game and ended up striking out 10, the fourth time he’s registered double-digit strikeouts this season. Long allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits and a walk during his 117-pitch performance, but his team wasn’t in line to win until the bottom of the eighth inning.

 

Mitchell Nau was hit by a pitch with one out in the inning. After advancing to second base on a single, he came around to score on Banks’ 40th RBI of the season. The play was a close one, and it went in favor of the Aggies.

 

“I thought the ball beat him in that situation,” Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard said. “It was a great throw by Casey [Hughston] and [Nau] very well may have got in, but I thought it was well-played on our end and I thought the ball beat him. Obviously they felt like he got his foot in there before the tag.”

 

It wasn’t a simple ninth inning for reliever Andrew Vinson, who did pick up his fourth save of the season. Crimson Tide first baseman Cody Henry, who reached on a walk, was thrown out at home on a single to left field by Will Haynie for the second out of the inning. After a hit by pitch loaded the bases, Chandler Avant flied out to centerfield to get the Aggies out of their first game of the tournament by the narrowest of margins.

 

“I thought our guys played really hard,” Gaspard said. “I thought we did a good job overall against some of the top pitchers in the SEC. Guys fought all the way to the end and gave us an opportunity in the ninth.”

 

With the loss, Alabama will face Missouri on Thursday morning at 10:30 a.m. EST with the loser of the game going home. Texas A&M will face Vanderbilt in the winners’ bracket game at 5:30 p.m. EST. Both games will air on the SEC Network.

 

GAME 7: No. 1 LSU 9 - No. 9 AUBURN 8

 

Two of the biggest fan bases to show out at the SEC Tournament were treated to a great game on Wednesday afternoon. Top-seeded LSU had a five-run sixth inning to take a 9-8 lead, which was its eventual margin of victory over Auburn at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

 

Five LSU (47-9) relievers combined to pitch six scoreless innings to close out the game and punch its ticket to the winners’ bracket game against Florida. While coach Paul Mainieri was sickened by the first four innings of the game, he couldn’t have been prouder of his team from the fifth inning on.

 

“That was the ugliest game of the year that we’ve played for the first four innings,” Mainieri said. “Somehow we found a way to win the game and to me, that is a credit to our kids. Our guys don’t flinch. They’re not going to give up when we fall behind like that. They don’t lose confidence.”

 

Auburn jumped all over LSU starting pitcher Jared Poche’ in the first inning, putting up five runs (two earned). Poche’ walked two and gave up three hits, which including two-RBI hits by Alex Polston and Cody Nulph.

 

LSU battled back to score three in the second inning, which included an RBI double by Chris Sciambra and a two-run home run by Jared Foster. Auburn answered immediately with a pair of runs in the third and another in the fourth to take an 8-3 lead into the middle innings.

 

“I thought our guys did a tremendous job getting a lead and attacking their starting pitcher,” Auburn coach Sunny Golloway said. “You can not really ask much more of an offensive output there. [LSU] just has a lot of firepower. They can hit.”

 

Auburn (35-23) starting pitcher Rocky McCord allowed the first three runners to reach base, which included an RBI single by Jake Fraley, before passing the ball off to reliever Trey Wingenter. The right-hander didn’t have much better success as he allowed three earned runs of his own on four hits in the inning.

 

“We are a very resilient team,” LSU shortstop Alex Bregman said. “We are going to battle to the end. That’s how we’ve done it all year and that’s what we’re going to continue to do. They won the first three innings of the game and our coaches told us to win the last five, and that’s what we did.”

 

Freshman Doug Norman, the first reliever to start throwing up zeroes for LSU, picked up the win to move his record to 5-1 after working two scoreless innings with a strikeout. After three middle relievers combined to give up only one hit over three innings, Parker Bugg came on to pick up his second save of the season.

 

Bugg issued a one-out walk to add some anxiety in his team’s dugout but he punched out pinch hitter Sam Gilliken on strikes to end the game.

 

With the loss, Auburn faces elimination and will take on Florida on Thursday at approximately 2 p.m. EST. LSU advances to the winners’ bracket game against Arkansas, which will begin approximately 9 p.m. EST.

 

GAME 8: No. 5 ARKANSAS 7 - No. 4 FLORIDA 6

 

After seven innings of slumber, the Arkansas bats awakened as Andrew Benintendi and Bobby Wernes launched ninth-inning home runs to lift the Razorbacks to a 7-6 victory over Florida in the nightcap and final game of the evening on Day 2 of the SEC Tournament.

 

The fifth-seeded Razorbacks (35-20) win a date with top-seed LSU, and the Gators (40-16) will have to turn around and play an elimination game less than 12 hours after their defeat.

 

Only able to manage six hits from the third inning through the eighth, Arkansas found itself down 6-4 in the top of the ninth inning. Benintendi drove a first-pitch fastball off the scoreboard for a leadoff home run and three batters later, after a walk to Rick Nomura, Wernes launched the 11th pitch of his at-bat deep into the darkness over the left-field wall.

 

“It was a great at-bat,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “The more pitches you see, the better timing you get. He got a hanging breaking ball and hit it in the street. That’s baseball. You gotta love it.”

 

Wernes fouled off six straight pitches before getting an offering from Gators reliever Bobby Poyner that he could handle. The blast left Hoover Metropolitan Stadium shortly after 1 a.m., and the game ended one minute shy of four hours from first pitch.

 

“That was a tremendous at-bat by him. We threw the ball in, threw it away, spun it - it was just a heck of an at-bat,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “You have to credit him. We just hung a ball and he ran into it. Simple as that.”

 

Florida put the game-tying run on first base to start the bottom of the ninth inning on a single by Buddy Reed, but he was stranded at third base after pinch hitter Jeremy Vasquez went down on strikes to end the game.

 

“We had nine chances to hit this game and we only scored in two innings,” O’Sullivan said. “I thought our offensive approach could have been better but credit Arkansas. I knew they’d battle until the last out. It was a tough loss but we have no other chance to bounce back tomorrow.”

 

Both starting pitchers struggled, giving up three runs in the second inning and neither was able to get out of the frame. Gators starting pitcher Dane Dunning gave up three runs on two hits and three walks. Arkansas scored all of its runs in the inning without registering a run-scoring hit. Dunning issued a bases-loaded walk and also hit a batter while reliever Taylor Lewis gave up a sacrifice fly to cap the Razorbacks’ scoring.

 

The Gators answered right back though as freshman JJ Schwarz lined a two-RBI single to right field. On the next pitch, Harrison Bader came around to score on an error by Wernes at third base.

 

Florida put up another three-spot in the fifth inning to take control of the game though. Bader recorded an RBI ground out, Schwarz drilled an RBI double to left center and Mike Rivera hit a run-scoring double down the right field line. Each hit came with two outs in the inning as the Gators were able to take what would be a lead they could make stand.

 

The Razorbacks grabbed a run back in the seventh inning when Nomura tripled to begin the inning and came around to score on an RBI single by Brett McAfee.

 

“It didn’t surprise me we came back and won it,” Van Horn said. “I thought we had a shot. We were taking some pretty good swings.”

 

Florida will face elimination on Thursday when it takes on Auburn approximately 2 p.m. EST with the loser going home. Arkansas is set to battle top-seeded LSU, which will begin approximately 9 p.m. EST. Both games will be televised on the SEC Network.

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