NCAA Super Regional at Gainesville
Game 3 of best-of-three series
Florida 8, MSU 6
Florida clinches College World Series for second straight year
—Florida hits a season-high five home runs against the Bulldogs
—All of Florida”s runs come via the long ball
—MSU uses eight pitchers after starting pitcher Luis Pollorena is pulled at the beginning of the third.
—Who did work?
—Mississippi State: Sr. 2B Nick Vickerson
MSU”s postseason hero stepped to the plate in the fourth inning with MSU trailing 4-0 and two runners on. Florida pitcher Alex Panteliodis had given up back-to-back singles, which prompted a visit from Florida coach Kevin O”Sullivan. Two pitches later, Vickerson jacked a three-run bomb to left-center to bring the Bulldogs within 4-3. The home run was Vickerson”s third of the postseason, including the SEC tournament.
Against Florida this year, Vickerson went 9-of-22 with eight RBIs, three home runs and five extra-base hits.
Vickerson finished Sunday 2-for-5 with four RBIs.
—Florida: Jr. OF Daniel Pigott
Pigott had his first multi-home run game of his career, putting the Gators up 3-0 in the second with a two-run homer to left field. He later put the Gators up 8-6 in the eighth with a solo homer off Chris Stratton.
Pigott finished the day 3-for-3 with three RBIs.
Pigott, though, was just one of several Gators to go yard against the Bulldogs. Mike Zunino had a solo home run in the first inning, and Vickash Ramjit had a solo shot in the second. Preston Tucker had a three-run homer off Caleb Reed in the 7th that erased an 8-6 MSU lead.
All of Florida”s runs came via the long ball.
—What happened?
The Bulldogs simply ran out of pitching.
The Bulldogs used eight pitchers, including closer Caleb Reed, who gave up the go-ahead homer to Preston Tucker in the bottom of the seventh.
MSU”s seventh-inning rally saw it go up 6-4 on the Gators after Devin Jones pitched three scoreless innings and gave up just three hits to rescue a game that was close to getting out hand.
Ideally, the Bulldogs would have liked at least five innings from Pollorena and not to have to turn to Reed. But Pollorena struggled to keep the ball down and gave up three home runs in the first two innings.
Daryl Norris walked two batters with nine balls in 10 pitches before Reed came in. Reed threw two pitches in the dirt before giving up the home run. He threw 82 pitches in MSU”s win Saturday.
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