Two Stellar Pitching Performances Headline Day 2 of the College World Series
After a fun first day of the College World Series on the left side of the bracket, the right side of the bracket - also known as the SEC bracket with all four teams representing the conference - got going on Saturday. Neither game on Saturday was nearly as close as the games on Friday, but both match-ups delivered some electric performances.
Cord Rager leads Oklahoma into the winner’s bracket over Alabama
No one in the NCAA tournament has been rolling quite like Oklahoma, and that continued on Saturday as the Sooners rolled through the Crimson Tide, winning by a score of 9-0. The freshman left-hander Cord Rager got the start for the Sooners, his third of the tournament. Rager came into the game on a stretch in which he had been playing his best ball all year. In his two starts prior, he combined for 12 innings with just three earned runs on eight hits, one walk, and 14 strikeouts between his outings against The Citadel during regionals and Kansas last week during super regionals. He stayed hot against Alabama as he turned in his best start of the season.
Through his first four innings of work, Rager didn’t allow a single hit and surrendered just one base runner on a hit by pitch in the third. When it was all said and done, he allowed just three hits and didn’t allow a single walk across seven innings of work on 88 pitches. Those seven innings were a career-high for the freshman and his eight strikeouts tied his season-high. He likely could have finished the game, but the fact that he had never pitched that deep into the game and the Sooners will need him at some point later in the week is likely what prompted Skip Johnson to end Rager’s day in what had already become a blowout.
Rager was all over Alabama’s lineup, mixing and matching his advanced secondaries which included a cutter, slider, and curveball on top of his mid-90s fastball that he was locating very efficiently. He really looked the part of an ace that has a bright future in college baseball and beyond, and the Sooners couldn’t have asked for a better outing from the freshman.
On the offensive side, it was really a group effort as all but one hitter in the starting lineup hit safely, while Deiten LaChance, Jaxon Willits, and Dasan Hill all came through with multi-hit games. Speaking of Deiten LaChance, he had an interesting game. It looked like he was going to have to leave the game in just the first inning after he rolled his ankle rounding second base. However, he remained in the game, finished all nine innings behind the plate, and also added a home run as he hobbled around the bases in Kirk Gibson-esque fashion. That big fly came in the sixth inning, extending Oklahoma’s lead to 5-0, as they went on to run away with it later in the game.
The Sooners are now 7-1 in the tournament after a very underwhelming second half to their regular season, but Saturday proved this team is as hot as anyone and firing on all cylinders.
Joey Volchko’s delivers a complete game as Georgia cruises
For the Georgia Bulldogs, it had been all about the bats to this point in the season, but on Saturday, it was all about the pitching against the Texas Longhorns. Junior right-hander Joey Volchko, Georgia’s ace, got the ball for the Bulldogs in what was his third start of the tournament.
I personally was a bit skeptical of Volchko turning in a solid performance against Texas. He has been a tough pitcher to forecast on a start to start basis due to the fact he can struggle to find the strike zone and can get hit pretty hard against left-handed hitters. Add on the fact he was coming off of a rough start against Mississippi State last week during super regionals, Texas has the best offense in Omaha among teams not named Georgia, and it was the biggest stage of Volchko’s career. I saw a lot that could go wrong, but in the end, I was the one that was wrong. Volcko turned in a career performance, throwing his first ever complete game on his way to a career-high 15 strikeouts - a mark that broke Georgia’s single-game College World Series record.
Volchko was ripping his breaking pitches all night, spinning them north of 3,000 RPMs routinely, while also consistently locating his outlier cut-ride fastball. He only surrendered one walk, something he has only done three other times this year, while allowing just four hits - none of which were for extra bases. With Volchko going the distance, Georgia couldn’t be set up any better as the bullpen remains fresh ahead of their match-up with Oklahoma in the winner’s bracket on Monday.
As for the offense, the Bulldogs got on the board early in a nightmare first inning for Texas. Dylan Volantis, Texas’s ace, was on the mound for the Longhorns. Georgia’s Rylan Lujo tagged him for a two-run home run with one out on a line drive that hit the left field foul pole. What followed couldn’t have been worse for Texas as two different dropped third strikes turned into throwing errors by catcher Carson Tinney that brought two more runs around to put the Bulldogs up 4-0. Not a great recipe for success given Georgia is going to put runs on the board whether they’re gifted or not.
Volantis did manage to settle in however, and surprisingly got into the seventh inning despite throwing 40+ pitches in the first. He held Georgia scoreless up until the seventh inning where they managed to push three more runs across when Volantis’s night likely should have already been done. Regardless, Volantis did an excellent job keeping Texas in the game through the middle innings. It wouldn’t matter however considering the Longhorns bats had no answer for Joey Volchko. Volantis finished with just two earned runs despite giving up seven total on four hits, one walk, and nine strikeouts.
Surprisingly enough, only three Georgia hitters recorded hits in this one as the Bulldogs really just took advantage of the defensive miscues of Texas to get runs across. Rylan Lujo and Kenny Ishikawa both had multi-hit games while Ryan Wynn was the only other Georgia hitter with a hit.
Georgia will take on Oklahoma on Monday night at 6 PM CT in the winner’s bracket after Texas takes on Alabama at 1 PM CT in the loser’s bracket. Tomorrow’s action will flip back over to the left side of the bracket as the tournament’s first elimination game will take place between Ole Miss and Troy in the loser’s bracket at 1 PM CT before West Virginia and North Carolina square off in the winner’s bracket at 6 PM CT.
