Tag Archives: Kent State
The parallels are too obvious to ignore. A little-known left-hander starts in a CWS elimination game for South Carolina and delivers a career-best performance.
Two years ago, that was the breakthrough story of Michael Roth, who now holds a CWS record for innings pitched after another gem in Thursday’s 4-1 win over Kent State. And after Thursday’s nightcap, it appears freshman Jordan Montgomery is following in the senior’s footsteps.
Montgomery pitched the Gamecocks to a winner-takes-all match-up against Arkansas Friday, holding the Razorbacks to just three hits in eight scoreless innings en route to a 2-0 season-extending win.
Montgomery had the Arkansas offense out of sync all night, locating his fastball regularly on the inner-half of the plate and getting the opposing hitters to reach …
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The Gamecocks arrived at TD Ameritrade Park just before 7 p.m., roughly six hours after beating Kent State in an elimination game earlier Thursday.
The between-games plan: Shower, eat something, nap (maybe). The players will participate in a light batting practice session in the indoor cages before the nightcap.
A little odd, yes. One team doesn’t usually play two games in one day during the College World Series (hasn’t happened since 1980). And usually, in the typical doubleheader format, you don’t leave the ballpark.
But SC won’t complain.
“It’s better than making reservations for Columbia,” coach Ray Tanner said after the Gamecocks’ 4-1 win over Kent State.
Especially considering the way South Carolina advanced. Starter Michael Roth threw a complete game, which means the entire …
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South Carolina’s Michael Roth started warming up Thursday morning and didn’t like the result. He was just a little off, but couldn’t figure out why.
He tried tweaking a few things, but he didn’t have the precise command he knew he’d need to keep his team from avoiding elimination against Kent State. Made him a little angry, actually.
“I wasn’t pegging the dummy batter 15 times or anything,” Roth said. “It’s just, I’m more of a perfectionist in the bullpen than anything.”
So how does he explain what happened soon after that? The senior left-hander threw a complete game two-hitter Thursday, leading his team to a 4-1 win and extending its season for at least a few more hours. South Carolina will play Arkansas at …
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Scott Stricklin’s team had just lost 4-1 to South Carolina, ending its season, and the Kent State coach couldn’t stop talking about the CWS experience.
The stadium, the fans, the environment. Stricklin wouldn’t change a thing — except, of course, the outcomes on the field. But he didn’t sound like a man who carried many regrets Thursday afternoon. He was proud of his team and grateful to get a CWS spot.
Here’s what he told reporters afterward about his week in Omaha:
“On the off days we’d walk down (to the stadium) to eat at a restaurant or go through the tents, just to see the atmosphere and how much the people love this event. The crowds in the stands — it was just an
How can you argue with coach Ray Tanner or take issue with his trust in a veteran gamer like Michael Roth?
The rain washed away Wednesday’s elimination game and allowed South Carolina’s ace one more day to rest. So when action begins Thursday, Roth — not Jordan Montgomery, as originally planned — will be on the mound against Kent State.
And it’s the right move.
Thursday’s elimination game against the Golden Flashes will be Roth’s seventh College World Series start (tying a record). The left-hander is 3-0 in Omaha, recording a 1.61 ERA and allowing 29 hits in 44 2/3 innings of work.
One figures that Tanner realized Wednesday that if the Gamecocks were fortunate enough to beat the Flashes Thursday morning and advance to …
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Kent State junior Jason Bagoly, whose mother died last week, traveled back home Tuesday to attend funeral services. But he could be back before Kent State’s 11 a.m. elimination game concludes.
It’s just another chapter in a touching tale of incredible tragedy for Bagoly — whose mom, Cheryl McHenry, died unexpected Thursday.
Bagoly chose to remain with the team after receiving the devastating news. Four days later, the designated hitter went 2-for-3 with a double in a 5-4 win over Florida. He left Omaha after that game (perhaps the best of his career on Monday), but will fly back Thursday morning.
He’s set to arrive around 1:20 p.m., according to coach Scott Stricklin. Kent State will play South Carolina at 11 a.m. Thursday …
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South Carolina and Kent State will play their elimination game at 11 a.m. Thursday, setting up a likely doubleheader for the team that wins (playing Arkansas at 8 p.m.).
It was the best option because of the rainy weather, according to the two teams’ coaches. Both agreed that starting the game late Wednesday night — presumably continuing well past 1 a.m. even without additional delays — was not in the best interest of their players.
The rain started falling around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. The tarp went on the field at around 5:45 p.m. The grounds crew did begin tending to the puddles pooling along the warning track and foul lines after 7 p.m., but the tarp was never removed.
The game was postponed just before …
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The tarp went on the TD Ameritrade Park field around 5:45 p.m. And College World Series officials expect it to stay there until at least 8 p.m.
The rain will continue to fall for another hour (at least), according to a PA announcement in the press box. Here’s a look at the radar. The official statement from the NCAA: “We are monitoring the situation and will provide updates when available.”
The elimination game between South Carolina and Kent State was originally supposed to begin at around 7 p.m. We’ll see how long fans have to wait.
So far, there hasn’t been much action to entertain them. No rain delay dance-offs. No skits. Just occasional lightning and a looped radar image on the big screen.
One …
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Sure seems like a fairy-tale. A mid-major program from Ohio that doesn’t even utilize all of its NCAA-allotted 11.7 scholarships beating two SEC powerhouses in back-to-back games?
Why do you think the Kent State players smiled and chucked in a postgame huddle Saturday when their coach told them that to stay alive in the CWS, they’d face either the nation’s No. 1 team or the two-time defending champs? Matchups so one-sided that even the underdog has a complete understanding of its role.
Don’t get it twisted, though, the Golden Flashes fully believe they’re talented enough to be in Omaha. They just know that they’re not on-paper equals with Florida or South Carolina.
Sometimes, though, the squad with the most professional prospects doesn’t always win.
“We’ve …
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It had been 148 official at-bats (54 total games) since sophomore Jake Wise had a home run. But the sophomore catcher was the one responsible for arguably the hardest-hit ball of the College World Series so far.
Wise drove a two-seam fastball over the wall in left-center field Saturday afternoon, a line drive that had just enough steam to reach the bleachers. The solo shot gave the Razorbacks a 2-0 lead.
It couldn’t have been a more surprising moment for Arkansas. Not only did the blast end an eight-game homer-less drought — but it came from a guy who’d hit one all year, and from a portion of the lineup that had been mostly unreliable since the postseason began.
Spots six through nine in the …
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