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Friedlander: SEC struggles, home field rules … and other takeaways from Day 2 of NCAA Tournament
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Maybe the discussion over those top 16 national seeds in the NCAA baseball tournament does get a little overdone in the days leading up to and immediately after the bracket is announced.
But home field really does mean something in the regional round.
And it is an advantage beyond getting the last at-bat.
At least it has been so far for the ACC’s 5 regional hosts. Fourth-seeded North Carolina, No. 6 Clemson, No. 8 Florida State and No. 12 Virginia have combined to go 10-0 in the tournament so far. That record includes wins on Saturday in all 3 head-to-head matchups with SEC opponents.
Though it hasn’t always been easy, the ACC’s seeded teams are all through to the championship round, needing 1 more victory in 2 tries to move on to the super regionals 1 step closer to the College World Series. That compares to a 2-4 record among the 3 non-host ACC teams, 2 of which – Duke and Georgia Tech – are still alive.
Only Wake Forest, which made it to Omaha a year ago and spent time at No. 1 in the polls this season, is out of this year’s tournament.
The Tar Heels beat LSU 6-2. Clemson held off Coastal Carolina 4-3. FSU also beat an in-state rival, UCF, 5-2 while the Wolfpack beat South Carolina 6-4 and the Cavaliers walked off Mississippi State 5-4.
Home cooking has been nearly as kind to the SEC’s 5 seeded teams.
No. 1 overall seed Tennessee, No. 2 Kentucky, No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 7 Georgia have taken care of business and are in the driver’s seat of their respective regionals. Only Arkansas, which lost to Kansas State on Saturday despite having ace Hagen Smith on the bump and will have to work its way back through the loser’s bracket, didn’t take advantage of its host status.
The Volunteers got a grand slam from Clemson transfer Billy Amick to double up Indiana 12-6, Kentucky handled Illinois 6-1, Texas A&M outlasted future SEC member Texas 4-2 in 11 innings and Georgia routed UNC Wilmington 11-2.
Florida joined Arkansas, LSU, South Carolina and Mississippi State in the loser’s bracket while Vanderbilt and Alabama were both eliminated.
Now that you know all the results, here are a few other takeaways from Day 2 of NCAA regional play:
ACC Day 2 superlatives
- NC State’s Garrett Pennington, 2-of-3, 2 HR, 3 RBIs.
- NC State’s Eli Serrano III, 3-of-5, HR, 3 runs.
- Florida State’s Cam Smith, 3-of-4, HR, 2 RBIs.
- Florida State’s Jamie Arnold, 7 innings, 3 hits, 2 ER, 12 strikeouts.
- Clemson’s Jacob Hinderleider, 5-of-5, 1 run.
- Virginia’s Eric Becker, 2-of-4, 4 RBIs.
- Duke’s Devin Obee, 2-of-4, HR, 2 RBIs.
SEC Day 2 superlatives
- Tennessee’s Christian Moore, 2-for-4, 3 RBIs, including 29th HR of season
- Kentucky’s Ryan Waldschmidt, 3-of-5, HR, 3 RBIs.
- Kentucky’s Trey Pooser, 7 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, 7 strikeouts.
- Tennessee’s Billy Amick, 1-of-3, grand slam, 4 RBIs.
- Georgia’s Kolby Branch, 1-of-4, grand slam, 2 runs, 4 RBIs.
- South Carolina’s Dylan Brewer, 2-of-4, 2 HR, 3 RBIs.
- Vanderbilt’s RJ Austin, 5-of-5, 3 RBIs.
Flawed favorites
Wake Forest was a run away from being one of the last 2 teams standing at last year’s CWS and started the current season ranked No. 1 in the nation. They were billed as an LSU-like super team, featuring 3 projected top-20 picks in next month’s MLB Draft: pitcher Chase Burns and hitters Nick Kurtz and Seaver King.
Saturday, the Deacons became the first team out of this year’s NCAA Tournament.
Vanderbilt has been to Omaha 5 times since 2011 and was ranked No. 6 in the preseason polls. And yet, the Commodores were shown the door right after Wake, the first time since 2016 that the Commodores have gone 2-and-barbecue and only the 2nd time it’s happened in Tim Corbin’s 22 seasons as coach.
While the results were surprising, they were also anything but unexpected. Both teams proved to be much more flawed than originally projected.
Some of that can be attributed to injuries. Vanderbilt lost several key position players, including top returning hitter Chris Maldonado and transfers Jacob Humphrey and Jayden Davis. Wake’s health woes ravaged its pitching staff, with preseason All-American Michael Massey missing significant time with a back issue.
Although the Deacons’ staff was anchored by Burns, the ACC Pitcher of the Year, the rest of its staff underperformed massively. Especially a bullpen that let them down one final time by squandering a 2-run lead in the 9th against East Carolina on Saturday.
Vandy’s pitching also helped contribute to its team’s downfall by allowing 23 runs and 20 walks in its losses to Coastal Carolina and High Point.
ACC 3, SEC 0 … Vance Honeycutt 2, Tommy Tanks 0
Even with Wake Forest’s elimination, Saturday was a banner day for the ACC. Not only did all 5 of its national seeds win to advance, 3 of them beat SEC teams to do it.
That’s not to say that baseball means just as much as it does in the conference that likes to say it just means more. But it’s a nice bragging point.
The wins by UNC against LSU, NC State against South Carolina and Virginia against Mississippi State weren’t the only head-to-head competitions in which the ACC got the better of the SEC.
The league also won the much-anticipated battle of college superstars and future 1st-round MLB draft picks that went down in Chapel Hill.
While LSU’s Tommy White has been getting most of the attention for his return to North Carolina, where he started his college career at NC State 2 seasons ago, the Tar Heels’ Vance Honeycutt stole the show on Saturday with a pair of home runs with a pair of home runs and 4 RBI.
Tommy Tanks did have a pair of singles in the game. But he’s just 2-of-9 without a homer or an RBI for the weekend so far.
Even on forgettable day, Cags makes history
Saturday was a day Jac Caglianone would rather forget, but history will remember for a positive reason.
Florida’s 2-way star — and heavy favorite to win the John Olerud Award — got the start against Oklahoma State. Caglianone got 2 quick outs, then gave up back-to-back home runs. A couple innings later, he again gave up back-to-back home runs. The 4 home runs he allowed Saturday matched his total from the regular season.
At the plate? Caglianone blasted his 30th home run of the season, in the process becoming only the 2nd D-I player in history to hit 30 home runs twice in a season. (Last year, Caglianone set the BBCOR-era record with 33 home runs.) Cags is the first SEC player to go 30-30.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
