Rivalry games abounded in college baseball on Tuesday, none better than Florida-Florida State at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. The red-hot Gators ran their winning streak to eight games by clobbering the No. 2 Seminoles 16-7 in front of 12,280 fans, the largest crowd ever to attend a college baseball game in the state of Florida. That mark shattered the previous record of 8,277, set in 1986 for a Texas-Miami game. Florida senior Matt LaPorta continued his recent tear, smashing a pair of three-run homers. He’s now homered in six of Florida’s last seven games, as the Gators have swept their last two conference series on the road against Auburn and Georgia. Florida coach Pat McMahon has pushed all the right buttons to help the freshman-laden Gators rebound from an 11-13 start. [...] Continue Reading »

Wake Forest junior third baseman Willy Fox didn’t play against Elon last night, and he might miss a few more games after fighting off a burglar in his house Monday and suffering a laceration on his leg. An intruder entered Fox’ apartment late Monday night, and Fox tried to stop him, according to a statement released by the Demon Deacons today. He was cut on his left leg and taken to the hospital, where he spent the night and was released on Tuesday. Fox, a transfer from Arizona State, is batting .344 with four homers and 27 RBIs, and he has provided crucial protection for Allan Dykstra in the Wake Forest lineup. He’s listed as day to day.

One other note before we get to this week’s mailbag. [...] Continue Reading »

Strike One: Vandy Wilder

COLUMBIA, S.C.–You won’t hear it from Vanderbilt, because Tim Corbin insists it isn’t in his club’s character to get cocky, but somebody needs to say it: the top-ranked Commodores are sitting pretty. Every coach in the Southeastern Conference has memorized the standard line about how any team can beat any other team on any given weekend and there are no easy series in the SEC. That line might be tired, but it’s also true. Still, there is an elite group of teams atop the conference, and Vanderbilt opened its SEC schedule with three straight weekends against the cream of the crop, culminating in this weekend’s road series win against South Carolina. It is very impressive for the Commodores to be 5-4 in the conference after hosting Mississippi and traveling to Arkansas and South Carolina. Weathering that stretch so admirably puts Vandy squarely in the SEC driver’s seat. [...] Continue Reading »