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Second seed Florida squeaks past visiting Texas A & M, 5-4, by scoring three times in the seventh inning, and 3rdseed UCLA disposes of visiting 11th seed Arizona, 7-1
By Arnie Leshin
When 16th seeded Kentucky had no trouble scoring runs in the Lexington Region that it hosted, outscoring three opponents 28-1 all in five mercy-rule innings, and raising its slugging average to .473, it was thought that No. 1 seed Oregon (49-8) would cool off these Wildcats.
Think again. Kentucky, with the worse record of 34-19 in the Super Regional, showed up in Eugene Thursday night and its bats were still red-hot after stunning the Ducks, 9-6, in game one of the best-of-three.
And Florida, the 2nd seed, almost suffered the same fate, but scored three times in the last of the seventh to squeak past 15th seed Texas A & M, 5-4, in Gainesville following two lengthy rain delays at the all SEC meeting.
The Aggies still haven’t won in Gator land in eight tries, and with a 4-3 lead and two down in the seventh, their defense committed back-to-back miscues that tied the score, and then Jarrell Wheaton walked with the bases loaded to turn an almost loss into an exciting win.
Not exciting for the Aggies though. Back in March, they played three times in Gainesville and were swept and outscored 23-4. Now they had the opportunity to turn the tables on the home side.
But with two on and two out, a grounder to second baseman was tossed to shortstop for the apparent force out. But dropped the ball. The next batter found with a ground ball that skipped under her glove and it was 4-4 and the bags full as replaced hard luck starter Trinity Harrington and served up a walk on a 3-2 count. It was a tough test in which A & M scored four runs versus the 53-8 Gators for just the sixth time all season, but still fell to 48-17.
And surprising Kentucky, swept by Oregon, 4-0 and 6-5, in last year’s Super Regional at the same site, just reared back and attacked starting pitcher Megan Kleist, who with Miranda Elish were arguably the best 1-2 hurlers in the country, plus Kleist was named Pac-12 pitcher of the year.
But the Wildcats just came out swinging. Junior Abbey Cheek clouted a pair of home runs over the left field fence and senior teammate Alex Martes delivered with a shot over the fence in centerfield. And Katie Reid held her own from the circle, getting key Duck outs that included two runners on and two out in the seventh.
Then they celebrated this unexpected result while the Oregon fans became silent, the opposite of how they cheered and chanted during the frustrating contest. The Ducks and two-time defending champion Oklahoma were the only two to win all three Regional games via shutouts.
In Los Angeles, 3rd seeded UCLA was the host at Easton Stadium and the contest that figured to be the closest, wasn’t, as the Bruins won handily 7-1 over the 11th seeded Wildcats. This was sophomore pitcher Rachel Garcia at her best and the visitors had no answers.
Garcia retired the first 10 batters and didn’t allow a hit until a fourth inning single. She stuck out eight and upped her ERA to 0.93. With her bat, she contributed two hits, and senior teammate Madeline Jelenick belted a solo and a 2-run home run.
Maybe Arizona could blame Cal-State Fullerton(35-23) for the UCLA uprising. State rival Fullerton almost eliminated the Bruins the previous weekend in the Region also hosted by UCLA. Cal-State Fullerton had the home team down to its final out before yielding the tying and winning runs.
Three times they played all tight games and the Bruins were fortunate to survive against 14thseeded, upset-minded Fullerton. But they stormed back Thursday night to hand long-time rival Arizona a rude welcome to LA. While the Wildcats dropped to 43-14, UCLA rose to 54-5.
As for Kentucky, which last played in the World Series in 2014, it was thought to be a tough Regional the previous weekend with the likes of Michigan, Notre Dame and Illinois-Chicago.
But while the Irish won two-straight over Big 10 champion Michigan, The Wildcats cooled off Notre Dame in 5 and 6-inning mercy-rule shutouts, and also put their pitching on display.
All three of these games will be contested again today along with the remainder of the Super Regional, and all are on the ESPN channels.
So it will be first-round games for 3rd seeded Oklahoma (53-3) against visiting 13th seed Arkansas (42-15). In Seattle, the 5th seeded Huskies (49-8) are hosing 15th seeded Alabama (36-19).
In Tallahassee, it’s 6th seed Florida State (52-10) welcoming 13th seeded LSU (44-16). In Tempe,host Arizona State, the 8th seed at 46-11, faces 9thseed South Carolina (48-15).
In Athens, 8th seeded Georgia (46-11) gets a visit from SEC foe Tennessee, the 10th seed at 48-12. One of these two and Florida or Texas A & M will be able to reserve spots in the World Series by winning.
They will join the six other schools for the Elite Eight finale in Oklahoma City.
