From: Benjamin
The SEC is without a doubt the top baseball conference in the country. Anyone with half a brain knows that. Friday, however, provided a tough day at the park for more than a few of the squads:
The Big 3 all rolled as expected, with Vanderbilt providing the big spark with a 2-1 victory over #12 Stanford. The Commodores were paced offensively by catcher Curt Casoli, and our preseason conference player of the year, Sonny Gray, picked up his second victory on the year by working 6 innings. Gray struck out six, but did struggle with his control a bit by allowing four free passes. Florida had no difficulty with Boston College, while South Carolina jumped out to a 10-0 lead on Southern Illinois, only to allow them back into the game. It took Matt Price's second save on the year to hold onto a 10-6 victory. The biggest concern so far for the Gamecocks has to be the ineffectiveness of reliever Jose Mata. Mata was dynamite is some key situations last year for the National Champs, but he had his second consecutive poor showing with a base on balls and a hit given up to the two batters he faced.
On the sour note, Auburn loses 8-6 to Radford, and Alabama goes down 6-2 to Southeastern Louisiana. It just keeps getting worse for Georgia coach Dave Perno as his Bulldogs drop a tough one at home to Baylor 4-2. Hey, at least Baylor is a respectable opponent, Mississippi State went down 2-1 at home to Belmont and Kentucky continued its downward spiral, losing 10-8 to Illinois-Chicago. I didn't even know they had a team.
The shocker of the day took place at the beach. #17 Coastal Carolina and ace Anthony Meo go down to the school that is disbanding their program, California, by a whopping 17-0. Meo was tagged for 9 runs. Ouch!
