June 15, 2012

CWS Game 2 Notes

Arizona outlasts Florida State in 12 innings

By Phil Stanton

CollegeBaseballInsider.com Co-Founder

@roadtoomaha

OMAHA, Neb. – Arizona was double trouble for Florida State.

Joey Rickard and Johnny Field had back-to-back doubles with one away in the top of the 12th as the Wildcats outlasted the No. 3 Seminoles 4-3 in the first round of the 2012 College World Series in front of 22,391 fans at TD Ameritrade Park.

Arizona will face UCLA on Sunday evening at 8 p.m. CT. Florida State will meet Stony Brook in an elimination game on Sunday at 4 p.m. CT.

“Great one to win, tough one to lose,” said Arizona head coach Andy Lopez. “In a game like that with two good programs, two good starting pitchers competing like that, it's a shame somebody has to go home a loser.”

 

After a lineout to short, Rickard (2 for 4, 2 R) roped a ball to left center for a two-bagger. Field followed with a shot to right center to plate Rickard with the go-ahead run.

“Tonight I wasn't really seeing the ball too well and had really bad at-bats early in the game,” Field said. “trying to do too much, and chasing pitches that weren't in my zone. The last at-bat I made adjustments, went back to the drawing board and tried to look for a pitch to hit the middle off of and he just threw one over the plate and lucky enough to get my barrel on it.”
 

FSU tried to rally in the bottom of the 12th. Seth Miller was hit by a pitch with one away and moved to second on a wild pitch. He advanced to third when Sherman Johnson grounded out to short, but stayed there as Devon Travis struck out to end the contest.

“Our guys fought like crazy,” FSU head coach Mike Martin said. “We just happened to come up short.”

 
Mathew Troupe (5-1), the third hurler for the Wildcats, earned the victory. Troupe allowed one hit in 2.2 innings with no walks and three strikeouts. Kurt Heyer (7.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K) was the starter, while Tyler Crawford (1.2 IP, 1 H, 1 K) took over in the eighth for Arizona.

“I was real proud of our two freshmen coming out of the pen, Tyler Crawford and Matt Troupe, combined they had no walks, which I think is a crucial thing with Coach Martin's club. They do a marvelous job with the strike zone. They got into a high pitch Count I hundred 28 in the eighth inning.

Arizona broke through in the top of the third. Riley Moore (3 for 5) had a leadoff single, was sacrificed to second and came in on a base hit by Rickard. With two away, Rickard advanced to third on an error and scored on a single by Robert Refsnyder to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead.

FSU responded quickly in the bottom of the frame as Sherman Johnson homered into the bullpen in right as the Seminoles pulled to within one at 2-1.

Refsnyder added a RBI single in the fifth as Arizona extended its lead to 3-1.

FSU finally tied it in the bottom of the sixth. Jayce Boyd reached on an error to start the frame. After a pair of strikeouts, Josh Delph drew a walk. John Holland doubled to the gap in left center to plate both base runners, knotting the score at 3-3.

Robert Benincasa (4-2, 4 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 K) suffered the defeat for FSU.

“It was a good game of baseball,” Martin said. “It’s just that the team that I wanted to win didn’t.”