Baseball America | Blog | Baseball America College Blog | Wednesday Highlights: Clemson’s Parker Reaches Milestone

Showdown of the day

Louisville completed its second straight season sweep of Western Kentucky with a 7-4 win. Sr. 1B Andrew Clark and So. 2B Ryan Wright had three hits apiece for the Cardinals. Louisville improved to 30-6 with the victory, becoming the fastest team in school history to reach the 30-win mark.

Other showdowns:

• North Carolina State over East Carolina, 8-6, in an ugly game that featured six errors by each team.
• California over Pacific, 13-6
• Vanderbilt over Middle Tennessee State, 11-10
• Coastal Carolina over UNC Wilmington, 8-4
• Louisiana State over Northwestern State, 8-6
• Texas State over Baylor, 9-3

Upset of the day

Akron knocked off Big Ten leader Ohio State, 10-7, in Columbus. It was Akron's first win at Ohio State since 2008.

Hitter of the day

Clemson So. 3B John Hinson: 5-for-6, 3 HR, 7 RBI in 22-4 win vs. South Carolina-Upstate

Honorable mention:

Clemson Jr. OF Kyle Parker: 2-for-4, HR, 4 RBI. Parker's second-inning grand slam made him the first player in Division I history to hit 15 home runs and throw 20 touchdown passes in the same year, according to research by Clemson's sports information department. Just two other players have thrown 20 TD passes and reached double digits in homers in the same year: Southern California's Rodney Peete (21 TDs, 12 HR in 1987-88) and Oklahoma State's Josh Fields (21 TDs, 10 HR in 2003-04).

Pitcher of the day

Texas State So. RHP Mitchell Pitts: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K in 9-3 win vs. Baylor

Hey Aaron,
Gotta comment on the Weekend Update, looks like here is my only spot to do it. In the meaningful match-up, you talked about Rice being 30 in RPI and East Carolina being the next conference USA team at #67…. However, unless Tulane dropped out of Conf USA yesterday… they are RPI # 59, according to WarrenNolan.com (According to Boyd, Tulane is #62 and East Carolina #68) - Just thought I'd show my Green Wave some love.

Thanks for the great preview, as always.

Posted by Dan | April 23, 2010 at 8:45 am | Shortcut

Two notes from last night's UNC-Clemson matchup, won by the Tar Heels. First, Matt Harvey is a horse. He threw close to 160 pitches in a complete game effort. The wisdom of leaving him out there to finish the thing is another issue — but he was throwing as hard in the 9th as he was in the 2nd.
Second, Hinson. Another dinger last night. He's a hitter with a whip stroke — a lot like Josh Reddick in the Red Sox system. And in my view, he's a better hitter than Parker. What Hinson is not is a third baseman. Great arm, but limited instincts over there, and anything over his head — a chopped ground ball, a pop-up — is for some reason a real adventure.

Posted by PCA | April 24, 2010 at 6:58 am | Shortcut