College Roundup: Simonds Stars With No-Hitter

Strike One: Simonds No-Hits Vandy

Just a week ago, Kyle Simonds threw the first complete game of his collegiate career. Suffice to say he topped that on Saturday.

The Texas A&M senior righthander threw the 12th no-hitter in program history Saturday afternoon at Blue Bell Park. That he did it to win the rubber game of second-ranked A&M’s series with No. 10 Vanderbilt makes it even sweeter.

How the Top 25 Fared

1. Florida: lost, 5-2, at Tennessee

2. Texas A&M: won, 3-0, vs. (10) Vanderbilt

3. Mississippi State: won, 3-1, vs. Missouri

4. Miami: lost, 12-1, at Georgia Tech

5. Florida State: won, 10-0, vs. Bowling Green State

6. South Carolina: lost, 6-0, at Kentucky

7. Mississippi: won, 7-3, at Georgia

8. Texas Tech: won, 9-2, at Kansas

9. Louisville: lost, 3-2 (10 inn.), at North Carolina

10. Vanderbilt: lost, 3-0, at (2) Texas A&M

11. North Carolina State: won, 20-9, at Clemson

12. Texas Christian: swept DH, 6-2 and 5-4, at Penn State

13. Louisiana State: won, 10-9 (10 inn.), vs. Arkansas

14. Rice: won, 3-0, at Florida International

15. UC Santa Barbara: won, 7-3, at UC Davis

16. Virginia: off

17. Oregon State: lost, 4-1, at Arizona

18. Oklahoma State: won, 12-0, vs. Prairie View A&M

19. Florida Atlantic: won, 13-5, vs. Texas-San Antonio

20. Tulane: won, 7-1, at South Florida

21. Southern Mississippi: won, 3-0, vs. Western Kentucky

22. Minnesota: won, 8-6, vs. Indiana

23. Washington: won, 7-3, at Southern California

24. Michigan State: lost, 6-3, vs. Nebraska

25. Creighton: won, 4-0, vs. Georgetown

“He was fantastic,” Aggies head coach Rob Childress told 12thman.com. “He built on last weekend’s performance against Arkansas. He was coming in with a whole lot of confidence. He had all three pitches working and fielded his position well. I couldn’t be more proud of him and our defense.”

Simonds will have to “settle” for being credited with a no-hitter. For all intents and purposes though, he was perfect. Vanderbilt had only one baserunner in the entire game, when Bryan Reynolds reached on a throwing error with two outs in the first inning. Simonds retired the last 25 hitters in a row, including a couple late close calls to finish it out. With one out in the ninth, Vandy No. 9 hitter Connor Kaiser hit a soft liner to center that A&M’s Nick Choruby made a diving catch on to rob a hit. Jeren Kendall then ripped a line drive that was headed back up the middle before Simonds himself stabbed it for the final out, and the celebration ensued.

Simonds finished the game on a cooly efficient 83 pitches, as he had just four strikeouts and got 13 outs on the first or second pitch of the at-bat. He also had only one three-ball count all day.

“I really started throwing my breaking ball better at Arkansas (last week),” Simonds said. “I knew it was going to have to be an out pitch for me so I really got it going there. It really built the confidence for me. I threw it a lot today especially for a few out pitches that’s really been the biggest difference. And the other thing is just throwing strikes. You hurt yourself when you walk and hit guys, so if you can just throw strikes its makes things easier.”

A&M won the game 3-0, taking two out of three in the Thursday-Saturday series. The win keeps the Aggies in sole possession of first place in the SEC West by a game over Mississippi State, which finished a home sweep of Missouri on Saturday, and adds another series win to a resume that includes ones against other SEC heavyweights MSU and Louisiana State. The Aggies face another one next week when they travel to South Carolina.

Strike Two: Underdogs Ruling Pac-12

The Pacific-12 Conference might not produce any elite teams this year, but the last three weeks of the season should nevertheless give us plenty theatre. With the top 10 teams in the league separated by just three games in the standings, it almost has to.

Arizona came into the year with modest expectations in its first year under coach Jay Johnson, and while the Wildcats may not have overwhelming talent, they’ve proven exceptionally tough and well coached. They clinched their fourth series win in the last five weekends on Saturday in Tucson, downing Oregon State 4-1 behind 6 2/3 shutout innings from lefty J.C. Cloney and marking their first home series win against the Beavers since 2007. The win moves the Wildcats to 13-10 in the conference, just a half game behind league leader Washington.

The Wildcats might not want to hear it—they and Arizona State essentially refuse to acknowledge each other’s existence—but the other team that might be playing the best in the conference right now is their rival from Phoenix. The Sun Devils started Pac-12 play 4-8 in coach Tracy Smith’s second season, and were completely off the NCAA tournament radar. They’ve since won four straight series, all against top 100 opponents, to climb to No. 47 in the WarrenNolan.com RPI as of Sunday morning. Oregon is their latest victim, as Jordan Aboites’ walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth capped a 9-8 win. ASU trailed 8-5 going to the bottom of the eighth before rallying, and it improved to an amazing 11-1 in one-run games this season.

The Sun Devils move to 11-9 in the conference, a full game behind the Huskies, who tied their series at Southern California with a 7-3 win Saturday. On the other end of the spectrum, California, one of the league’s cadre of underachieving preseason favorites along with the likes of UCLA, USC and Oregon, lost the rubber game of its Thursday-Saturday series against rival Stanford, dropping the Bears to 11-13 in the league and closer to the NCAA tournament bubble.

Also, midnight might be striking for Utah’s Cinderella ride. The Utes lost 4-3 to cellar-dweller Washington State in the opener of a Saturday-Monday series. They’re still 11-8 in the conference and just a half-game out of first, but they can ill-afford to not take advantage of the most winnable series left on their schedule.

Strike Three: Warmoth’s Homer Lifts Heels

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—You don’t have to be a home run hitter to know when you got one. Logan Warmoth certainly did.

The North Carolina sophomore shortstop had only one home run all season coming into his at-bat against Louisville righty Shane Hummel to lead off the bottom of the 10th inning in a 2-2 game. After starting Warmoth out with back-to-back changeups, Hummel came with a fastball with his third pitch of the at-bat. Warmoth was ready for it, and lifted a towering fly to left field.

“I had a good feeling,” Warmoth said. “I took a peek and saw his head was up, so I had a good feeling.”

Warmoth’s jubilant teammates greeted him at home plate, their 3-2 win snapping a five-game losing streak in conference play and leveling the series with the ninth-ranked Cardinals at a game apiece heading into Sunday. For a UNC team that’s lost four of its last five weekend series to slide from a top-10 ranking into having to fight just to ensure it makes the ACC tournament, a win like Saturday’s could be a turning point.

“Maybe we needed a little shot of confidence,” UNC head coach Mike Fox said. “(A win like this) has to help us. It has to help us. You’ve still got to go out and play, but this is such a mental game, I’m hoping it’ll do just that. I think this team’s destined to take the rocky road to where we want to go—around the mountain and down the valley, up the hill. If we get to where we want to go, I think it’s going to be that kind of ride for us from here on out. This has to help us.”

While the game ended with a flourish of offense, most of the afternoon was dominated by pitching. It was a contrast in styles, with the power arm of UNC’s J.B. Bukauskas facing the finesse of Louisville lefty Drew Harrington, but both starters spent the day trading zeros. Harrington (6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 5 BB, 7 K) kept UNC off the board until the sixth, turning in his 10th quality start out of 12 outings on the year. Bukauskas (8.1 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K) allowed only an unearned run over the first eight innings and went on to match the longest outing of his career before being relieved in the ninth. The Cardinals tied the game with two outs in the ninth on an RBI single by Colin Lyman, leaving Bukauskas with a no decision.

For Louisville, the loss snaps a seven-game winning streak and, more importantly, denied it its chance to clinch its first road series win of the season. The Cards will look to Kyle Funkhouser, who does come in off one of his best starts of the season, as they’ll try again in the rubber game.

The Lineup

Dustin Beggs, rhp, Kentucky: It took a no-hitter for someone to upstage Beggs as the best pitching performer in the SEC. The Kentucky senior twirled a three-hit shutout of No. 6 South Carolina, as UK tied the series with a 6-0 win. Beggs struck out seven and walked only one, retiring 16 straight at one point and throwing the first nine-inning complete game of his career.

Ryan Boldt, cf, Nebraska: Don’t look now, but the Huskers could be playing their way back into the regional discussion, especially if they can finish off a series win at 24th-ranked Michigan State after winning Saturday’s opener 6-3 in East Lansing. Boldt, their biggest star, led the way, going 3-for-4 with a double for his second straight multi-hit game and 11th three-hit game of the season.

Sam Roberson, c, Southeastern Louisiana: Roberson didn’t enter the Lions’ game at Lamar until the fifth inning, yet all he did was go 3-for-3 off the bench, including an RBI double in their series-clinching 5-2 win. With it, SLU moved to 20-3 in the Southland, two games ahead of Sam Houston State and four up on sliding Lamar.

Evan Mendoza, 3b, North Carolina State: We could’ve gone with just about any Wolfpack hitter, as they piled up 20 runs on 21 hits in a series-tying win at Clemson. But we’ll give the nod to Mendoza, who extended his hitting streak to 19 games by going 2-for-3 and reaching base five times in all.

Andy Cox, rhp, Tennessee: Tennessee’s NCAA hopes are on life support, but the Vols took a potentially huge step with a 5-2 win against No. 1 Florida, setting up a vital rubber game on Sunday. They took the lead for good with three runs in the bottom of the sixth, and the senior Cox took it from there, finishing the game with 3 2/3 innings of shutout relief against the potent Gators.

Dan Motl, cf, Minnesota: The Gophers get production from all over their lineup—witness the fact No. 9 hitter Jordan Smith owns a .306 average—but Motl led from the top on Saturday, the leadoff man going 3-for-5 with a double and a homer as the Gophers levelled their battle for first place in the Big Ten against Indiana with an 8-6 win.

Jesse Adams, lhp, Boston College: On the day BC retired Pete Frates’ No. 3, the current Eagles made some history of their own by sweeping a doubleheader from Wake Forest, 9-8 and 4-3, to earn themselves their fifth ACC series win of the season, a program record since joining the league in 2006. Adams had a hand in both, picking up the win in the first game, when he a threw a scoreless 10th inning before BC walked it off in the bottom half, and then turning in a four-out save in the nightcap.

Brandon Gold, rhp, Georgia Tech: The lone member of its presumptive weekend rotation to stay healthy, the Yellow Jackets have asked a lot of Gold, and the junior’s usually delivered. Gold improved to 6-2, 2.16 by throwing seven shutout innings and allowed just six hits against No. 4 Miami, as the Jackets hammered the Hurricanes 12-1 in the opener of a key Saturday-Monday series in Atlanta.

Richard Slenker, 3b, Yale: The Bulldogs earned their first trip to the Ivy League’s championship series since 1995, winning a one-game playoff 5-4 against Dartmouth on Saturday. Slenker was in the middle of it all, going 3-for-3 with a homer and 2 RBIs, and he ignited Yale’s winning rally with a leadoff single in the bottom of the eighth. Yale will face Princeton for the Ivy title and a trip to regionals next weekend.