Let’s begin talking about Opening Day with the unexpected loss by the Florida Gators to the St John’s Red Storm. It was in the first inning when St John;s got all over Florid’s Friday starter Cade Fischer and two more in the second inning. Fisher allowed a leaf off double in the third inning and the hurler was out of the game for Ryan Slater.
It was in the third that Florida hit the boards with singles by Cade Kurland and Jason Robertson followed by a sac fly by Luke Heyman. Cody Shelton led the offense for Florida with a double and a home run.
Losing pitcher Fischer was a bit disappointing with 2 IP/6H/5ER/2BB/4K
Teams will lose by it hurts more in the opener when you are a concensus Top Five team in the country. Both teams are back in action early on Saturday against each other.
The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers easily provided their starter Riley Eikoff with the victory over regional power George Mason with a 26-0 win. Coach Gary Gilmore watched the bats ablaze in Port Charlotte for the opener.
Caden Bodine and Sam Antonaacci paced the top of the order with . Bodine (3-for-4, 3 RBI, 2 BB) followed an Antonacci (3-for-3, 3 RBI, 2 BB).
RBI: Antonacci, Sam 3; Bodine, Caden 3; Bender, Derek 6; Beach, Zack 2; Brown, Graham 2; Books, Jake 4; Alexander, Sebastian 2; Mihos, Dean 1; Sebuck, Cameron 1; Dooley, Ty 1
Coastal certainly made others take notice of this high octane offense. The Chanticleers face Indiana on Saturday.
A pair of Top 25 teams faced off in Globe Life Field as Tennessee defeated Texas Tech 6-2. AJ Causey was the winning pitcher for the Vols with a piggy back from Al Russell as the duo fanned 17 batters and allowed five hits on one walk.
Billy Amick and Christian Moore powered the offense with two hits apiece, including a two-run homer by Amick that opened the scoring in the fourth inning. Hunter Ensley and Bradke Lohry also drove in runs for UT on the night while Kavares Tears scored a pair of runs.
Texas Tech struck for their only runs of the game in the bottom of the fifth when TJ Pompey tripled to right center with two outs to plate a pair of runs, however, the Red Raiders had just one runner reach base for the rest of the game.
Texas Teach only scored in the fifth inning fueled by a triple from TJ Pompey to bring in two runs.Tennessee offense ws powered by a pair of two runs homers. One from billy Amick and nother by Christian Moore Hunter Ensley and Bradke Lohry also drove in runs for UT on the night while Kavares Tears scored a pair of runs.
Arkansas Razorbacks opened with a victory over James Madison 6-4. Will McEntire was the winning pitcher. Arkansas scored six unanswered runs to win the season opener on Friday afternoon at Baum-Walker Stadium. Hudson White and Jared Sprague-Lott each homered for Arkansas.
The Dukes and Razorbacks meet back at Baum-Walker Stadium on Saturday, Feb. 17 for game two of the four-game series.
The 2023 champs, LSU defeated VMI 11-8 as All-American Tommy White had a hit, RBI and a stolen base. Winning pitcher for the Tigers was Nate Ackenhausen.
