The best teams in college baseball are punching their tickets to Omaha, and the LSU Tigers are on their way to the Super Regionals thanks to plays like this incredible diving catch/double play:
The tournament plays out against the backdrop of the MLB Draft, which starts on Monday.
Scores From Yesterday
Iowa – Iowa’s offense had one of their better days in this 14-4 win.
Tennessee – The Smokies also had a huge offensive game, and it came while facing first place Chattanooga. Tennessee won 13-3.
Myrtle Beach – This game was suspended after ten innings in a 3-3 tie. Normally I talk about suspended games after they are completed, and I will do the same in this case even though this one went long enough to be a complete game. Look for the highlights of this contest tomorrow.
South Bend – The Cubs completed a suspended game for a 5-4 win, and then took home a second win by a score of 4-0.
Performances of Note
[Iowa] Carlos Pimentel struck out 5 and walked one over 7 scoreless innings. He allowed just 6 hits. He also helped his own cause with a double.
[Iowa] Christian Villanueva homered (his 4th), tripled (his 2nd), and doubled (his 7th) while finishing 3 for 5.
[Iowa] Other triples in this game went to Rubi Silva (his 3rd) who finished 2 for 5, and Arismendy Alcantara (his 5th) who finished 2 for 5 with his 6th steal.
[Tennessee] Jeffry Antigua struck out 7 and allowed 3 runs on 4 hits in 5.1 innings of work.
[Tennessee] Willson Contreras finished 3 for 6 to raise his OPS to .888.
[Tennessee] The Smokies only had 2 extra base hits in this game, both doubles. One came from Billy McKinney (1 for 2, 3 walks), and the other from Stephen Bruno (2 for 3, 2 walks).
[Tennessee] As a team the Smokies walked 11 times against just 5 strikeouts. Most of those strikeouts belonged to Kyle Schwarber.
[South Bend] In the first game, Jeremy Null allowed 3 runs on 4 hits over 3 innings while striking out just one.
[South Bend] Gioskar Amaya, 2 for 3, had the only multi-hit day in the first one. A double from David Bote and a triple from Kevin Encarnacion were the only extra base hits.
[South Bend] In the second game, Erick Leal pitched the first 5 innings of the shutout. He allowed 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out one. Brad Markey and Jordan Minch finished the game off in perfect fashion, one inning each.
[South Bend] Andrew Ely was the Game Two hero, finishing 2 for 3 with a double and a homer (his 2nd). Kevin Encarnacion also homered, his first of the year.
Other News
The Dominican Summer League is now underway. The Cubs have one squad in this massive conglomerate of teams. There are a total of thirty eight teams playing across five uneven, geographically based divisions in this league. Most of the Cubs games are against teams in their own Boca Chica North division, a grouping that features teams in such well regarded organizations as the Pirates, the Yankees, and the Astros (among others). We’ll dive more into the who the Cubs have playing in this league and what we can expect from them once they accumulate enough games and stats to provided a basis for that conversation.