Top 25 Showdowns

• (1) Florida at (8) South Carolina: The Gators bounced back from Thursday's 9-2 loss with an 8-2 win Friday to level the series. Vickash Ramjit, who entered the game in left field after third baseman Josh Tobias left with a hand injury (causing the Gators to shuffle their defense), homered twice, while Mike Zunino and Brian Johnson each added a homer apiece to help Johnson (6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K) improve to 4-0. Rain delayed the start of the game for an hour, 15 minutes, and Florida jumped on Forrest Koumas (1 IP, 4 H, 6 ER, 5BB, 3 K) for five runs in the first when play finally got going.

• (5) Arizona at (19) Oregon State: The Beavers won the series opener in walk-off fashion, 6-5. Oregon State built a 5-1 lead through three innings against Kurt Heyer (6.1 IP, 10 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 5 K), and Ben Wetzler (6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 4 BB 7 K) held the Wildcats at bay until they rallied for two runs in each of the final two innings against the OSU bullpen to tie the game. But Ryan Dunn hit a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to win it.

Top 25 Upsets

• (3) Arkansas at Mississippi State: Chris Stratton (7 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K) shined in his second straight start against an SEC West power, leading the Bulldogs to an 11-2 win. With C.T. Bradford back in the lineup in center field, Hunter Renfroe slid to right for MSU and had a big game, hitting two homers (one of them inside-the-park) against Arkansas ace D.J. Baxendale (3 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 7 ER).

• (11) Louisiana State at Auburn: LSU's Kevin Gausman (5 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 5 BB, 8 K) and Auburn's Derek Varnadore (7.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K) earned no-decisions, and Ryan Tella's RBI single in the eighth propelled Auburn to a 4-3 win. Auburn improved to 3-1 in the SEC, with all four games coming against ranked SEC West foes (LSU and Mississippi).

• (16) Kentucky at Tennessee: Zack Godley (8 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K) out-dueled Taylor Rogers (6.1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K), leading the Volunteers to a 4-1 win, as the nation's last remaining unbeaten team fell. Each team mustered just four hits.

• (15) Georgia Tech at Boston College: The Eagles, who were swept in their first two conference series, registered their first ACC win with a 15-7 upset of Georgia Tech in just their second home game of the year. Eight BC hitters posted multi-hit games, as the Eagles pounded out 19 hits against Buck Farmer (4.1 IP, 14 H, 11 ER) and Clay Dalton (3.2 IP, 5 H, 4 ER). Anthony Melchionda and Spenser Payne combined for two of BC's four homers, and six RBIs.

• (22) Texas at Kansas State: The Wildcats jumped out to a 4-1 lead through four innings against Nathan Thornhill (5.1 IP, 9 H, 4 ER) and cruised to a 5-2 upset. Matt Applegate (5.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K) picked up the win for Kansas State, and leadoff man Ross Kivett sparked the offense with three hits and two runs.

• (23) Texas State at Sam Houston State: The Bearkats erased a 2-0 lead with four runs in the seventh against Travis Ballew (7 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 7 K) and held off Texas State's ninth-inning comeback bid to win 4-3. Cody Dickson (8 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K) was strong for SHSU.

Other Highlights

• In the matchup we highlighted as this week's Marquee Mound Showdown in Thursday's Weekend Preview, Missouri State's Pierce Johnson (9 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 16 K) was masterful in a 3-0 win against Creighton's Ty Blach (6.2 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K). Johnson recorded his second consecutive complete game, his fourth straight double-digit strikeout game and posted the most strikeouts by a Missouri State pitcher since 1969.

• Michael Wacha carried a perfect game into the eighth inning and finished with a complete-game, two-hit shutout, leading Texas A&M to a 4-0 win at Pepperdine. See my report on the Draft Blog for more details.

• Sticking with the complete-game shutout theme, Matthew Reckling (9 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K) threw the first of his career in Rice's 1-0 win at Memphis. The Owls pushed across a run in the eighth to beat Sam Moll (7.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER).

• In the weekend's big Conference USA showdown, Ronnie Richardson's eighth-inning RBI double broke a 1-1 tie, propelling No. 21 Central Florida to a 2-1 win against East Carolina. Brian Adkins (7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER) and Kevin Brandt (8 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER) pitched well for the Knights and Pirates, respectively.

• Kenny Mathews (5.2 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 11 K) led No. 13 Cal State Fullerton to a 5-3 win against Oral Roberts, clinching the Thursday through Saturday series. Michael Lorenzen had three hits out of the leadoff spot and worked 1.2 scoreless innings to record his eighth save.

• Alex Wood (4.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R) had a start cut short by a weather delay for the second straight week, but Georgia still earned a 1-0 win at Vanderbilt, as Chase Hawkins, Bryan Benzor and Blake Dieterich combined for 5.1 innings of three-hit relief.

• Brady Rodgers (9 IP, 8 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K) went the distance in Arizona State's 5-1 win against California. Andrew Aplin had three hits in support of Rodgers, who improved to 4-0.

• Mississippi rode a seven-run seventh to an 11-7 win at Alabama. Alex Yarbrough and Andrew Mistone combined for four hits and seven RBIs to lead the Rebels' 16-hit attack.