SEC Baseball roundup

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Auburn and #6 Florida State split a weather-shortened 2 game set.
Game 1: Auburn won 5-2 behind the arm of Josh Dennis who gave up jush 2 hits in 6 innings.  Freshmen Luke Grienke pitched the final 2 innings as the Seminoles only got 2 hits on the game.  Dennis now has a 1.50 ERA through 12 innings on the year.
Game 2: Florida State won 8-3 behind All-American Shane Robinson's 4-for-4 day.  FSU got out to a 4-0 lead through 2 innings and didn't look back.  Brett Butts gave up 6 earned in 4 and two thirds IP for the loss for the Tigers.

The Tigers still haven't got a good start from anyone but Josh Dennis and need someone to step up.  Tyler Johnstone has hit the ball well so far on the year for Auburn, posting a .450 AVG with 4 walks and 4 steals.  Josh Donaldson has put up a .391 AVG with 3 doubles and leads the Tigers with 7 RBIs so far.


Florida dominated Cinncinati sweeping them by a combined score of 40-8.
Game 1: Florida had an overflow crowd at home to open up the season well with a 10-0 victory over the Bearcats.  Brian Ball pitched 5 scoreless innings for the Gators and Adam Davis went 3 for 5  with 3 RBIs.
Game 2: In the closest game of the series, the Gators still got by Cinncinati 10-4.  In his 3rd career start, Florida sophomore Bryan Augenstein had a perfect game bid for 7.2 IP before a 3-2 pitch was grounded through the right side of the infield to break up the bid.  Augenstein finished with 9 Ks.  He was lifted after allowing 2 hits to start the ninth.  Adam Davis continued his hot hitting with a big homer to start the scoring and give the Gators a 2-0 lead early.  Brian Jeroloman homered for the Gators as well.  Cinncinati avoided the shutout by scoring 4 times in the ninth.
Game 3: Florida crushed the Bearcats 20-4.  Gavin Dickey hit 2 homers and drove in 4 runs while Brian Jeroloman homered for the second straight day and drove in 4 runs as the Gators cruised.  The Gators got out to a 11-0 lead after 3 innings and coasted from there.

Hitting stars: Adam Davis: 7-13, 2B, HR, 7 RBI, 4 BB
Brian Leclerc: 5-11, 6 R, 2 2B, 3B, 3 BB
Gavin Dickey: 4-10, 2 HR

The #1 Gators were dominant this weekend as expected.  The competition probably was not too great (Cinncinati picked 10th in Big East out of 12) but always good to get the bats going that well that early.

Tennessee won both games of a weather-shortened set over Eastern Michigan.
Game 1: In the first game of a Friday doubleheader, James Adkins had another solid outing for the Vols as he allowed 1 run and 1 hit through 6 innings as the Vols beat Eastern Michigan 3-2.  Junior closer Sean Watson worked out of a jam in the ninth to get the save.  The Eagles only managed 1 hit.  The big blow was a Michael Rivera 2-run homer to push the Tennessee lead to 3-1.
Game 2: Same day, same score.  Game 2 of a doubleheader was also won by the Vols 3-2.  Freshman Josh Lindblom went 5 innings, giving up 1 run on 3 hits with 3 BBs and 8 Ks.  Craig Cobb pitched well for the second time on the day to set up Watson to get save #2 on the day.  Preseason All-america J.P. Arencibia had 2 doubles and 3 RBIs on the doubleheader.  Watson moved into 2nd on the Vols all-time save list behind only...Todd Helton.

Pretty good pitching but not much hitting for the Vols.  Not a very good opponent so you'd like to see a few more runs.

LSU took 2 of 3 from North Florida.
Game 1: LSU 11, North Florida 1.  The Tigers posted 20 hits and blasted UNF in their DI debut. JUCO transfer Steven Waugespack went 4-for-5 with 3 runs scored to lead the Tiger attack.  Redshrit Frosh Nolan Cain got the win, giving up a run in 5 innings while fanning 5.  Clay Dirks started for LSU and went 4 innings giving up 2 hits while fanning 6 in 4 innings before a rain delay ended his day. 

Game 2: LSU 4, North Florida 0.  Notre Dame transfer Derek Olvey tossed 8 solid shutout innings in his Tiger debut as the Tigers got the bats going in the 8th with 3 runs to break open a close game and win game 2 of their 3-game set.  Olvey gave up 4 hits and fanned 5 in 8.1 innings.  Matt Liuzza led the Tigers at the plate going 2-for-3 with a big RBI single in the 8th. 

Game 3: North Florida 4, LSU 3 in 10 innings.  Damon Olinto doubled and scored on a sac fly to give the Ospreys their first lead of the season in the top of the 10th and stave off a 3-game sweep.  Reliever Jared Incinelli threw 5 great innings in relief for UNF , going 5 innings, giving up 1 run with 4 Ks.  Will Harris retired 9 of the 11 batters he faced but was tagged with the loss for LSU.  Newcomer Jared Bogany continued his good hitting, going 3-for-3 with a RBI, and Steven Waugespeck hit well again as well, going 2-for-4 with an RBI for LSU.

About what you expect in a season-opening series against a decent team.  UNF is probably pretty good.  Tigers only gave up 5 runs while scoring 18 on the weekend.

Hitting Stars:
Jared Bogany, 8-11, 2 2B, 2 RBI
Steven Waugespeck, 8-12, 2 2B, 2 RBI

South Carolina took 2 of 3 from Elon.
Game 1: South Carolina 5, Elon 4 in 11 innings.  An Elon error on a potential Double-play ball allowed South Carolina to score the winning run in the bottom of the 11th.  South Carolina overcame a 4-1 deficit through 5 and a half innings to win their season opener.  Gamecock relievers Andy Lambert and Shawn Valdes-Fauli combined to retire 17 of the last 18 Elon hitters.  South Carolina did not have an extra-base hit on the game.

Game 2: Elon 2, South Carolina 1.  2 unearned runs scored by Elon and good pitching allowed them to upset #14 South Carolina.  Neil Geisler hit a solo homer to give USC a 1-0 lead in the first but they would not score again.  20 of the 27 USC offensive outs were recorded by way of the air.  18 fly balls and 2 popups. 

Game 3: #14 South Carolina 8, Elon 3.  James Darnell hit a 3-run homer following a Reese Havens 2-run single as the Gamecocks scored 5 in the fifth to erase a 3-2 Elon lead and win the rubber game.  Forrest Beverly got the win, going 5 innings, allowing 3 runs for USC.  All 8 RBI by USC were driven home by the 7,8 and 9 spots. 

Hitting stars:
Cheyne Hurst 7-14, 2 R
Neil Geisler 6-13, 3 R, HR, RBI

Best start:
Saturday: Arik Hempy, 6 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 5 K, 0 BB

Alabama and Winthrop split a weather-shortened set.
Game 1: #26 Winthrop 9, Alabama 6.  Winthrop hit 3 home runs.  Jordan Davis got shelled for the Tide, allowing 6 runs on 6 hits in 1 2/3 innings.  The Tide scored 4 runs in the 8th and 9th 3 runs shy.  Senior catcher Kody Valverde hit a 2-run home run and led the Tide with 2 hits and 3 RBIs. 

Game 2: Alabama 7, Winthrop 4.  Kody Valverde hit a 3-run walk-off homerun in the bottom of the ninth to get the Tide a split of this 2-game set.  The Tide scored 4 in the ninth.  Bernard Robert gave up 3 runs in 5 2/3 IP in his Tide debut as a starter.

Winthrop is a solid team and took 2 of 3 from Miami so a decent start at least hitting-wise for Alabama.  My opinion on the very, very small results so far is this is the SEC order:
1. Florida
2. Arkansas
3. LSU
4. Tennessee
5. Alabama
6. South Carolina
7. auburn

the rest haven't played.