By Antonya English, Times Staff Writer
Saturday, June 11, 2011
GAINESVILLE — As Mississippi State senior second baseman Nick Vickerson and assistant coach Nick Mingione stood watching Florida reliever Steven Rodriguez warm up Saturday afternoon, Mingione's initial thought was to have Vickerson bunt with Jarrod Parks on first and the Bulldogs trailing 3-2.
But Vickerson wanted one chance to swing away, and Mingione and coach John Cohen agreed. It turned out to be a brilliant move.
Vickerson hit a two-run homer — on a first-pitch fastball in the bottom of the ninth — to give the Bulldogs a 4-3 win in Game 2 of the NCAA best-of-three super region.
Florida (49-17), which won Friday's opener 11-1, and Mississippi State (38-24) meet at 1 p.m. today, the winner advancing to the College World Series.
"I was just trying to hit a ball hard and, thankfully, it went out of the park," Vickerson said.
Down 2-0, Mississippi State tied it in the seventh. Florida reclaimed the lead in the eighth on a two-out triple by Tyler Thompson. Rodriguez replaced Nick Maronde, who got the last two outs of the eighth but gave up a single to start the ninth.
"If we want to get to where we want to get to and if we want to win a national championship, it's not going to be easy," Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan said.
"We're going to have to recover from it, and we're going to have to give it our best shot. We will not let this leak into (today). Our players did not play bad. I think Mississippi State just played a little bit better. Simple as that."
FSU falls in opener
TALLAHASSEE — After six innings, Texas A&M had two hits and trailed 2-1. But it got four alone in a four-run seventh, including Brandon Wood's two-run single, to beat Florida State 6-2 in their super region opener.
Game 2 is at 4 today.
Seminoles ace Sean Gilmartin, taken 28th overall by the Braves on Monday, had retired 12 in a row before allowing a single and walk to lead off the seventh. After a sac bunt, Wood's single put the Aggies (46-19) ahead. Kenny Jackson and Tyler Naquin added RBI hits.
"Sean pitched extremely well," Seminoles coach Mike Martin said. "He just happened to run into that one inning when they bunched them all together. That's what good clubs do."
Only once in 11 super region appearances has FSU (45-18) advanced after losing the first game. That came in 2008 against Wichita State.
"That's good incentive," Martin said. "I would honestly say if any club could do it of all that I've coached, this one can because this one is special."
Texas A&M's Ross Stripling, a ninth-round pick of the Rockies, allowed seven hits and stranded runners at third in the first, third and fifth innings.
"He kept us off-balance and just did a great job of shutting us down," Martin said. "They got it done, plain and simple. You move on to the next day."
Information from Times wires contributed to this report.