Jung, Vooletich power Texas Tech as San Antonio area talent shines

San Antonio-area baseball players crushed it on Sunday afternoon. Starring in four different games, in four cities, ball players who grew up in the area led their teams to victories. Here’s the way it happened:

Texas Tech 7, Kansas State 6
At Lubbock

Jace Jung, a Texas Tech sophomore from MacArthur — Hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning to win the game.

Zac Vooletich, a Texas Tech junior from Brandeis — Started the fourth-ranked Red Raiders’ ninth-inning rally with a solo homer.

Texas 7, TCU 3
At Austin

Travis Sthele, a Texas redshirt freshman from Reagan — Came out of the bullpen and pitched one and 1/3 scoreless innings to pick up his third win of the season.

Douglas Hodo III, a Texas redshirt sophomore from Boerne — Stroked an RBI double off the wall in the seventh inning for the seventh-ranked Longhorns.

UTSA 13, Old Dominion 4
At Norfolk, Va.

Ian Bailey, a UTSA senior from Stevens — Enjoyed a four-for-five day with a triple, a double and two singles. He also scored four runs and drove in three.

Texas State 10, Georgia Southern 9
At San Marcos

Dalton Shuffield, a Texas State senior from Johnson — Belted a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the first. Went two for three on the day with three RBIs for the 10th-ranked Bobcats.

x-Rankings, according to D1 Baseball.

Unveiling the ‘All Messy-Garage’ team in college baseball

In some ways, my infatuation with college baseball on ESPN Plus this spring is sort of a sad statement on my social life. In other ways, watching so many games on the network’s alternate channel for live event coverage has really opened my eyes to some great, young talent.

In that regard, I wanted to convey a few thoughts on some the most entertaining players I’ve seen this year. You can just say these are the guys to blame for a certain garage that has needed cleaning for months and yet remains a mess as we, er, speak.

Christian Franklin, Arkansas

Franklin, a junior for the No. 1-ranked Razorbacks, plays center field. He is one of those guys that you see in a game and wonder how much money he could possibly earn over the course of his impending pro career. Quite a bit, I’d say. I’ve seen the man make some remarkable catches in the outfield. He also hits a home about every other time I watch the Razorbacks. Right now, he hits .302, has an on-base percentage of .435, and he slugs .586. About the only negative I can find on the stat sheet are 45 strikeouts in 152 at bats. Most impressive thing you see when crunching numbers on Franklin? He hasn’t made an error in 84 chances.

Ivan Melendez, Texas

Melendez’s recent streak of six games with a home run (seven in all) was really something. I didn’t see the first three games in his run, but if memory serves, I picked it up on the fourth, and watched as the big man from El Paso cranked some shots far into the night sky in Austin. I watched one of his homers sail over the green batters’ eye above the center field wall at UT’s UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Not sure about his all-around ability, as he’s used mostly as a DH. Also, Melendez has cooled off a bit since his streak. But he remains as a threat to batter scoreboards anywhere he plays. Honorable mention when I watch Texas? Second sacker Mitchell Daly, a freshman who turns the double play as well as he hits for average (.348).

Enrique Bradfield, Jr., Vanderbilt

Bradfield comes to mind, because early in the season, I’d always flip the channel to the Vanderbilt game to watch either Kumar Rocker or Jack Leiter. And then, invariably, I ended up being transfixed by something remarkable that Bradford did. Either in the outfield or on the base paths. The key to his game is speed. Reportedly, he runs the 60-yard dash in 6.26 seconds. On top of that, he uses it wisely, as his NCAA Division I-leading 34 stolen bases in 36 attempts suggests. It’s also fun to watch him play the field, where he will start to track a fly ball you think he has no chance to get, and then he comes up with a diving catch. With a .342 batting average, he doesn’t seem intimidated in the least by SEC pitching.

Phillip Sikes, TCU

The well-traveled Mr. Sikes hails from Paris, Texas. His career path in college baseball — from New Mexico to Pima Community College and then to TCU — would suggest journeyman qualities as a player. His facial features suggest he might be more ready for a Pony League all-star game than a weekend showdown with the Longhorns. If you think he’s lacking, though, you’re wrong. Sikes is batting a team-leading .377 with a 1.188 OPS for a team that leads the Big 12 standings. Early on, I liked to turn the channel to find the TCU game to watch Luke Boyers, the kid from Boerne, who is having an excellent season. But Sikes just continues to hit. If Texas has any hope of beating TCU a couple of times this weekend, they need to keep the baby-faced East Texan off the bases. Good luck with that.

Dru Baker, Texas Tech

Baker showed up in Austin last weekend with an unmistakable swagger. The Red Raiders’ leadoff hitter went on to make life miserable for the Longhorns, who lost their first series at home all year. In Game 1, he opened with two weak at bats and then, in his next two trips to the plate, he doubled. In the fifth inning, he slammed a two-run, two-bagger that broke the game open in a 6-3 victory. His play led directly to an outcome that was a psychological blow to the Longhorns, who lost in a key game started by ace right-hander Ty Madden. Baker has been good all year. He’s a .393 hitter. Freshman Jace Jung from San Antonio has created a lot of excitement with his power hitting, but right now, Baker seems to be the man.

Landon Sims, Mississippi State

I don’t pretend to know a whole lot about the Bulldogs, except that they seem capable of beating just about anybody. But I do have a memory of right-handed reliever Landon Sims that stands out. A few weeks ago, he entered a game in the seventh inning at Nashville against Vanderbilt. With the Commodores threatening, he gave up a couple of singles to the first two batters he faced. A five-run Bulldogs lead had shrunk to three. At that point, he walked Bradfield to further muddle the situation. But then Sims took on something that can only be described as a Goose Gossage-like persona, striking out two to end the inning. Just the way he finished the inning, and then finished the game, bouncing around the mound in animation, made me think that the kid is very capable of doing the same in the playoffs.

Garage update

Well, it’s cleaner than I thought. But it’s still littered with plastic containers filled with old newspapers and boxes of old press guides. Who’s responsible? Hey, come see me after the College World Series.

Selection Sunday is two weeks away, so, who’s in?

With two weeks remaining until Selection Sunday, here are the Texas-based teams projected into the NCAA tournament by Jerry Palm of cbssports.com:

(3) Texas Tech, in the South, at Dallas
(6) TCU, in the East, at Dallas
(7) Houston, in the West, at Pittsburgh
(9) Texas A&M, in the South, at Charlotte
(12) Texas, in the East, at Dayton (R-68)

Note: Texas is projected to play in the round of 68 and the others in the round of 64.

Arizona coach Sean Miller linked to basketball corruption scandal

Add the name of Arizona head coach Sean Miller to the burgeoning corruption scandal in college basketball.

ESPN is reporting that Miller discussed with a representative for a professional player agent a plan to pay $100,000 to center Deandre Ayton.

Authored by Mark Schlabach, the story is linked here.

The corruption investigation by the FBI came to light last fall with indictments of officials in and around college basketball for bribery and fraud.

Among those indicted were assistant coaches at Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State and Southern Cal.

The story intensified earlier this week when the NCAA ordered Louisville to vacate victories over a four-year period that included the 2013 national title.

Louisville fired coach Rick Pitino last fall after Pitino was linked to a plan to pay a recruit.

Pitino has not been charged criminally.

Another chapter in the tale unfolded Friday when Yahoo Sports reported that players from more than 20 Division I teams had been identified as possibly breaking NCAA rules, according to information uncovered in the probe.

See the story, written by Pete Thamel and Pat Forde, here.

Some of the players identified are being held out of practices and games leading into the final few weeks of the regular season.

Texas, for instance, is holding out guard Eric Davis Jr.

But other schools, namely Duke, Alabama and Michigan State, are allowing players linked to the investigation to play.

Those players include forward Wendell Carter at Duke, guard Collin Sexton at Alabama and Miles Bridges at Michigan State.

With the reports swirling about Miller and Ayton, Arizona is set to play tonight at Oregon.

Miller was unavailable for comment to the media Friday night, per a story at azcentral.com. See the story here.

Arizona (22-6, 12-3) and Southern Cal (20-9, 11-5) are 1-2 in the Pac-12 standings.

The 7-foot-1 Ayton, averaging 19.6 points and 10.9 rebounds, is considered a potential NBA lottery pick if he comes out for the draft this summer.

Texas Tech beats Texas 73-71 at the buzzer in overtime

Keenan Evans hit an 18-foot jumper at the buzzer Wednesday night, lifting 10th-ranked Texas Tech to a 73-71 victory over Texas in an overtime thriller in Lubbock.

Kerwin Roach II made a 3-point shot with 12 seconds left to tie the game, setting up the dramatic final play.

Evans calmly brought the ball up and drained a shot over Roach from the top of the key.

“He made a tough step-back on me,” Roach told the team’s radio broadcast. “I guarded pretty well … but it was a tough shot by a good player.”

Evans led Texas Tech with a career-high 38 points on 9 of 13 shooting from the field. Evans was also 2 of 4 on three-pointers and 18 of 20 from the free-throw line.

Roach scored 20 to lead Texas.

Records
Texas Tech 18-4, 6-3
Texas 14-8, 4-5