June 18, 2011

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Randall pitches Florida past Texas

By Jimmy Jones

Special to CollegeBaseballInsider.com

(photos by Jimmy Jones)

 

OMAHA, Neb. - Two of the premier pitchers in the country hooked up in game two of the College World Series as Florida's Hudson Randall outdueled Texas' Taylor Jungmann (left) as the Gators posted an 8-4 victory in front of 25,521 faithful fans.
 
Randall (11-3) was strong in the opening innings, retiring six of the first seven hitters he faced but was touched up by three unearned runs in the third when his defense let him down with two errors.
 
Tant Shepherd delivered an RBI single to put the Longhorns (49-18) up 1-0 and move runners to the corners with no outs. Mark Payton and Eric Weiss then hit consecutive sacrifice flies to bump the score to 3-0.
 
Jungmann (13-3) was just as dialed in early on. The right-hander, a Milwaukee Brewers first-round draft pick, matched his opponent pitch by pitch as he too retired six of the first seven batters before running into trouble in the third.
 
He issued walks to Daniel Pigott and Cody Dent to open the third. After a failed sacrifice bunt resulted in Pigott being thrown out at third, Bryson Smith got the Gators on the board with an RBI single. Moments later, a passed ball cut the lead to 3-2.
 
It was all Randall from there as he scattered five hits over 6.2 innings, walked none and struck out five. Only one of the four runs against him was earned. He retired 13 straight from the third to seventh innings before departing to a standing ovation from the Gator faithful.
 
Meanwhile, Daniel Pigott tied the game at 3-all for Florida (51-17) with a double to right field and Dent put his team ahead with a double for a 4-3 lead that they would not relinquish.
 
Jungmann took the hill for the fifth and retired one batter, but hit Bryson Smith with his first pitch to end his night at just 4.1.
 
Preston Tucker (right) made the free base runner hurt when he lined a pitch from Longhorn reliever Hoby Milner into the right-center field gap to score a hustling Smith to put the Gators up 5-3.
 
Texas fought right back to within 5-4 on a double just inside the left field line by Jordan Etier to chase Randall in the seventh. Greg Larson came on and preserved the lead when he struck out Shepherd with the tying run in scoring position.
 
Controversy reared its ugly head in the bottom of the seventh when Brian Johnson hit a long drive that appeared to hit above the yellow line, but was called a double. The hit was good for two RBI and a 7-4 lead, but replays showed that the ball was indeed a home run.
 
After a lengthy discussion, a single by Smith with two outs in the bottom of the eighth gave the Gators an 8-4 lead to close out the scoring.
 
Randall went 6.2 innings, gave up five hits and only one earned run to earn the win for Florida.
 
Jungmann suffered his third consecutive loss of the season.
 
Texas meets North Carolina in an elimination game on Monday at 1 p.m. CT.
 
The Gators advance to face familiar SEC opponent Vanderbilt on Monday night at 6 p.m. CT in the fifth meeting of the year between the two programs.
 
Florida has won three of the first four meetings, including a 5-0 decision in the SEC Tournament championship game in Hoover, Alabama three weeks ago.