It’s the best weekend of the early, non-conference slate as we get to see three big time SEC-ACC matchups.
Florida and Miami both came limping into their weekend series having suffered mid-week upsets. The Gators took the series with 7-3 and 8-4 wins on Friday and Sunday.
Jac Caglianone helped them secure the series on Sunday by tossing 6 shutout innings with 11 strikeouts while also going deep. He had 7 hits and 2 home runs against the Hurricanes.
Georgia had a big weekend against it’s rival, Georgia Tech, and it could have been even bigger. They were up 9-3 on Friday before the game was halted in the 5th inning due to weather and the decision was made to cancel the game entirely.
But they didn’t let that get them down as they still won the series by taking down the Yellow Jackets 3-1 and 11-9. Charlie Condon hit a home run in Sunday’s game where Bulldogs had 12 hits and 5 walks.
It was a brutal weekend for South Carolina as their only home game of tha Palmetto Series against rival Clemson was cancelled, and then they lost a pair of 1-run games.
On Saturday Ethan Petry hit a dramatic 2-run homer in the 9th to tie the game, but Clemson’s Andrew Ciufo hit a walk-off home run in the 12th inning. It was the only hit reliever Garrett Gainey allowed in 3.2 innings out of the bullpen.
Despite another Petry home run in the 9th inning on Sunday, it wasn’t enough as they fell short by 1 run again.
Big Non-Conference Matchups
Not only did this weekend have some great rivalry matchups, but several teams also played in some big non-conference tournaments.
LSU kicked it off with a classic matchup against Texas in which they won 6-3 thanks to a great performance on the mound by Luke Holman. He punched out 12 in 5.2 innings only allolwed 3 hits and 1 walk.
On Saturday they would get a 1-run win against UL-Lafayette, and then they finished off the weekend with a 10-5 win over Texas State. UCLA transfer, Gage Jump, tossed 5 shutout innings on Saturday.
Vanderbilt was in that same tournament as LSU (Astros Foundation College Classic) and also swept the field taking down UL-Lafayette (7-3), Houston (3-1), and Texas (14-11).
Alan Espinal broke the game open against UL-Lafayette wit a 3-run homer in the 7th inning. Bryce Cunningham dominated on the mound for the Commodores against Houston allowed just 1 earned run over 5.2 innings with 8 strikeouts.
Sunday’s finale against Texas was wild as Vanderbilt found themselves down 11-3 after 3 innings. They chipped away with 2 runs in the 5th and 2 in the 6th.
And then they exploded in the 7th with 5 runs to give them the lead. That inning started with a hit by pitch, single, single, error, and triple.
Sawyer Hawks and Ryan Ginther did a great job keeping the Loghorns off the scoreboard the final 4 innings to allow the comeback.
Alabama went out to Frisco, Texas and won games over Indiana (12-0) and Arizona (7-6) before suffering their first defeat of the season at the hands of a really good Dallas Baptist team 7-5 in 12 innings.
Ben Hess struck out 10 over 5 scoreless innings against Indiana on Friday. They took advantage of some Arizona errors on Saturday to get the comeback win late. The pitching staff on Sunday was victimized by the home run ball giving up 4 to DBU hitters.
Auburn hosted UConn over the weekend and after splitting a double-header on Saturday they won the series on Sunday with an 8-2 victory.
Chase Allsup was great in the Saturday win giving up just 1 earned run over 6 innings with 6 strikeouts. John Armstrong finished it off with 3 hitless innings.
Joseph Gonzalez didn’t make it out of the first inning of the second game on Saturday as he continues to try and get back to form.
A Deric Fabian 3-run homer in the first inning of Game 3 gave the Tigers an early lead. Ike Irish also drove in 4 runs with a pair of 2-run homers.
The weekend got out to a rocky start for Ole Miss as they dropped the Friday game 13-7. After tying the game with a 5-run eighth inning, the bullpen gave up 6 runs in the top of the ninth.
But they carried that offensive momentum into the next two games with 12-5 and 8-3 wins.
Ole Miss fell behind 5-1 on Saturday but scored 11 unanswered led by Andrew Fischer who drove in 5. On Sunday they jumped out to an 8-0 lead and got a good start on the mound from Grayson Saunier who tossed 5 scoreless innings.
In the Glove Life Field Series, Texas A&M took on a couple of Pac-12 opponents in Arizona State (twice) and USC. After 4-0 and 10-5 wins over the Sun Devils and a 9-3 win over USC, the Aggies are now the only undefeated team leaf in the SEC.
Ryan Prager and Evan Aschenbeck combined for the shutout on Friday night with 12 strikeouts and each pitcher allowed just 1 hit. Braden Montgomery drove in 3 of the 4 runs on a home run.
Montgomery continued his hot start against USC on Saturday with 3 hits, 3 runs scored, and 2 RBI. And then he capped it off with a grand slam against Arizona State on Sunday.
The Rest of Them
Tennessee got a stress free sweep over Bolwing Green as all three games finished early via the run rule.
The Razorbacks also got a sweep, but Murray State made them work for it with a couple of close games. Hagan Smith continues to look like one of the best pitchers in the country with 12 strikeouts over 6 innings with just 1 hit and 1 run allowed.
Kentucky is quietly 10-1 on the year after sweep over Lipscomb at home this past weekend.
Mississippi State was able to rack up some much-needed wins in a sweep over Mount St. Mary’s where the pitching staff allowed a total of 4 runs in the 3-game series.
The rough season continues for Missouri as they dropped a series at home to Northern Kentucky. The final two games of the series saw a combined total of 69 runs scored. Missouri is the only SEC team with a losing record.
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