Vanderbilt's Rhett Wiseman circles the bases after homering Friday (Aaron Fitt)

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Ten Thoughts: Friday, March 6

Coverage From Our Writers:

• McComas: Takeaways From Day One At Houston College Classic (premium)

• Rogers: Minter, Aggies Show Premium Depth (premium)

• Rogers: Hawaii’s Brewster Shows Upside Against Baylor (premium)

• Sorenson: Stanford Two-Steps Past Texas (premium)

• Photo Gallery: Houston vs. LSU (free)

1. Vanderbilt plays like the top-ranked team in the country.

One of the season’s most anticipated games took place here in Los Angeles on Friday, as No. 1 Vanderbilt (the 2014 national champion) took on No. 4 UCLA (the 2013 national champ) in a matchup between two teams with an aggregate record of 21-3 heading into the day. It was a battle between two hot offenses and two marquee junior righthanders, and Vanderbilt’s Carson Fulmer got the better of UCLA’s James Kaprielian, as the Commodores won 6-0. The reigning champs looked like the part of the juggernaut, stringing together quality at-bats, playing strong defense (especially in the middle infield) and holding UCLA’s potent offense scoreless.

Kaprielian was not sharp in the first two innings, and Vandy capitalized. He walked leadoff man Bryan Reynolds to start the game, then surrendered back-to-back singles to Rhett Wiseman and Dansby Swanson, as the Commodores jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first and never looked back. Kaprielian struggled to locate his 88-91 mph fastball early in the game and also left his 83-85 slider up in the zone. He found his feel for his 78-81 curveball starting in the second inning and relied upon it heavily. He kept UCLA in the game with three consecutive strikeouts in the second to strand runners at second and third, and the last two punchouts in that frame were on very good back-foot curveballs to lefthanded hitters Reynolds and Wiseman. He struck out four more batters over the next two innings before serving up a homer to Wiseman on a changeup in the fifth, and allowing a leadoff double to Will Toffey in the sixth. That turned into a two-run rally that effectively put the game out of reach. But the tone was set in the first inning.

“We know the kid has a lot of confidence in his secondary pitches, but you had to stay on fastball and you had to keep the zone,” Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said of his team’s plan of attack against Kaprielian. “We had to keep command of the strike zone as much as possible offensively, and if he was going to throw the secondary pitches away from us or down, then we had to do a nice job of not offering. I think we were fortunate to get a great first at-bat by Reynolds to get eight pitches, then we executed the hit-and-run, and from there we kind of threw the first punch, so to speak, and after that there were some add-on runs. But he’s just a guy that you just have to hang in there with because he’s not going to give in, so you just have to stay with him. There were some innings later that were a little quicker, but we did some nice damage in the first three innings.”

Fulmer’s stuff was more electric; he held his 91-94 mph velocity throughout his 6 1/3-inning outing and touched 95 several times. As the game wore on, he did a better job finishing his 79-82 mph power curveball and also showed good feel for his 86-88 changeup, which he occasionally threw right-on-right. UCLA had its share of scoring opportunities against Fulmer, who issued five walks and hit a batter, but he made big pitches in tight spots, as he usually does, to escape unscathed. The biggest spot came in the second, when he struck out dangerous Kevin Kramer on a 93 mph fastball to strand the bases loaded.

“I really thought Vanderbilt outplayed us in every phase,” UCLA coach John Savage said. “They out-pitched us; now, we did get good swings off Fulmer early, and we had some chances. He didn’t crack. He bent, but he didn’t crack. You’ve got to give him credit because he walked five, and we chased a couple 3-2 pitches that were, you know, balls. He hit a guy. But he didn’t give up one run. So you’ve got to give him credit for making pitches when he had to. I thought they clearly had better at-bats throughout the game, and they pecked away. So they outplayed us in every phase. And they deserved to win, and we deserved to lose.”

I’ll have plenty more on the always-entertaining Fulmer in the next few days.

2. USC shows resilience.

In the other game at the Dodgertown Classic, Southern California won a wild 7-6 affair in 12 innings against No. 6 TCU. The Trojans carried a comfortable 6-2 lead into the ninth with bullpen ace Kyle Davis on the mound to close it out, but two errors in the ninth helped TCU score four runs to force extra innings. But the Trojans did not fold, as Davis kept the Frogs scoreless over the next three innings, and USC won it on a walk-off squeeze play in the bottom of the 12th. Our Shotgun Spratling was on hand for that one and will have more details, but the primary takeaway is that USC showed admirable toughness by not folding after blowing that four-run ninth inning. However, later this weekend the Trojans could regret having to burn Davis, who threw 68 pitches over 4 1/3 innings.

3. Thomas Eshelman must be the pitcher of the day …

Cal State Fullerton’s Thomas Eshelman (Shotgun Spratling)

Eshelman might wind up being the pitcher of the year, too, because he never has a bad outing. Even when he loses, he only gives up a run or two, and no pitcher in college baseball can match his superb command. He was at his very best on Friday, striking out a career-high 14 and walking one in a five-hit shutout against an explosive Texas Tech offense that had outscored its opponents 85-45 heading into the weekend. Eshelman (2-2, 1.23 with 39 strikeouts and four walks in 29.1 innings) smothered the Red Raiders with strikes, as is his way: He threw 119 pitches, and 89 of them were strikes. (For the sake of comparison, Fulmer threw 112 pitches over 6 1/3 innings, and only half of them—56—were strikes. Two pitchers could not be more different stylistically, but both are extremely effective and fun to watch.)

Spratling detailed Fullerton’s offensive improvement in a great piece leading into the weekend, and the Titans continued to rap out hits Friday, tallying 10 hits in a 4-0 win. Jake Jefferies and A.J. Kennedy led the way, combining to go 7-for-7 with three RBIs.

4. … Unless Andrew Moore was the pitcher of the day.

Oregon State’s junior ace righthander did not match Eshelman’s shutout, but he did hold Fresno State to just a run on three hits and a walk while striking out 10 over 10 innings, and the Beavers won it 2-1 on K.J. Harrison’s walk-off homer in the 11th. Moore was even more efficient than Eshelman, throwing just 112 pitches over his 10 innings of work (81 for strikes). Moore sometimes seems to fly under the radar, but he is similar stylistically to Eshelman—both have good command of solid four-pitch repertoires that include fringe-average fastballs, and both pound the strike zone. Moore is now 1-0, 1.76 with 31 strikeouts and three walks in 30.2 innings this season.

Harrison, meanwhile, might be the leading candidate for national Freshman of the Year honors after the season’s first month. He is now hitting .426/.523/.889 with five homers and 19 RBIs. He sure looks like a worthy successor to Michael Conforto as a fearsome presence in the heart of the OSU order.

5. Hold on—what about Carson Cross?

Fine; nobody gets to be pitcher of the day—it’s too hard to choose just one. Connecticut ace Carson Cross was masterful in a 4-1 win against Florida International, striking out 15 without issuing a walk while allowing just a run on two hits in a complete game. It was the most strikeouts by a UConn pitcher in head coach Jim Penders’ 12-year tenure. Cross gave up a double to the first batter of the game and then retired 27 of the next 29, including a streak of 18 straight. And he did it against an FIU lineup that has plenty of talent and scored 46 runs in four games against Manhattan last weekend. Cross now has 41 strikeouts in 26.2 innings on the season. The further removed he gets from the shoulder surgery that cost him all of last season, the better his stuff should get.

But the senior’s savvy is special. In a postgame interview with UConn’s official website, Cross said he noticed early in the game that FIU’s hitters were hunting fastballs, so he attacked them with his slider. The second and third time through the lineup, he said the Panthers were anxious about the slider, so he came back after them with fastballs. Scouts who have seen Cross early this year said he had not shown his best stuff, but his ability to set hitters up and sit them down is very advanced, as he showed once again Friday.

6. Dillon Tate continues to dominate.

Last week against Oregon, the UC Santa Barbara ace righthander carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning but wound up taking the loss. A crosschecker who was on hand called him “unreal” and said he carried his 94-97 mph velocity throughout his start and showed an excellent hard slider. His new role as a starting pitcher certainly seems to suit him well.

He was even better this week against Sacramento State, striking out 10 and allowing three walks and five hits over seven shutout innings to lead the Gauchos to a 2-0 win against Sacramento State and ace Brennan Leitao (5 IP, 6 H, 2 ER). Tate improved to 3-1, 0.96 with 35 strikeouts and 11 walks in 28 innings. A month into the season, Tate looks like a leading candidate for national pitcher of the year honors, along with Eshelman and Moore.

7. Illinois continues its hot start.

The Fighting Illini got a second straight strong outing from ace lefty Kevin Duchene (7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K) and a big game from leadoff man Adam Walton (3-for-5 with a two-run homer and an RBI triple) to win the opener of its big series at Oklahoma State, 6-2. The Illini out-hit the Cowboys 10-5 and played error-free defense, and Tyler Jay shut the door with 1 2/3 innings of shutout relief. Illinois improved to 10-2-1, its best start since it opened the 2009 season 11-2. As I wrote in Thursday’s Weekend Preview, this is a very dangerous club.

8. Wolf Pack wins Silver State showdown.

UNLV entered the season as one of the leading contenders to win the Mountain West Conference, but the tide may be turning in the Silver State. Nevada overcame a 4-1 deficit with four runs in the seventh inning Friday to beat the Revels 5-4 in Las Vegas. The Wolf Pack improved to 12-1 overall and 4-0 in the MWC, while the Rebels fell to 6-6 overall and 0-4 in conference play. Nevada’s win snapped its six-game losing streak against UNLV.

The Wolf Pack has shown toughness in the late innings several times already this year—this team has real moxie. On Friday, Nevada had just one hit though the first six innings against D.J. Myers before rallying in the seventh. Two-way player Christian Stolo made his first plate appearance of the season and delivered a go-ahead two-run single to cap the rally.

“This was great perseverance by our guys tonight,” second-year Nevada head coach Jay Johnson said. “We overcame a lot of adversity early in the game in a hostile environment. I am proud of them for staying with it and focusing on their play.”

9. New Mexico strikes first in other big MWC clash.

The Lobos got nice performances from Chris DeVito and Cory Voss, who each went 2-for-4 with three RBIs to lead UNM to a 6-2 win against San Diego State. Toller Boardman (6.1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER) continues to shine in his first year in Albuquerque, giving the Lobos an ace who can match up with any Friday starter in the Mountain West—including San Diego State’s accomplished bulldog, Bubba Derby (5.2 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K). These two clubs entered the weekend with a combined 19-3 record, so this series is a nice measuring stick for both of them. This conference race is sure to have plenty of twists and turns; stay tuned.

10. Favorites mostly take care of business in opening day of ACC play.

Florida State’s Mike Compton (Ross Obley/FSU Athletics)

The opener of the big Miami-Louisville series was postponed by weather until Saturday, but the other four games on the ACC schedule all went down as scheduled, and the higher-profile team won three of them. North Carolina got a brilliant outing from righthander Zac Gallen (7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 12 K) and a big game from Skye Bolt (3-for-5, 3 R, 2 RBI)—hitting leadoff in his return to the starting lineup after a two-game absence—to beat Duke 8-1. Clemson got another strong effort from ace lefty Matthew Crownover (7 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K) and broke open a close game with five runs in the seventh to beat NC State 6-4. And Florida State rode a two-hit shutout from Mike Compton (who struck out seven and issued just one walk) to a 7-0 win against Boston College.

The lone “upset” was Notre Dame’s 3-2 win against Georgia Tech in 10 innings. Brad Bass and Peter Solomon combined for 3 2/3 innings of two-hit, shutout relief of Scott Kerrigan (6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 ER), and Kyle Fiala delivered a tie-breaking RBI single in the 10th. The Fighting Irish improved to 11-1 overall, and one more win this weekend would serve notice to the rest of the ACC that Notre Dame will be a force to be reckoned with this spring.