Bus Leagues Express: June 17

I enjoyed an 0-4 start in CWS picks, so hopefully you’ve stopped paying attention to my opinions. Anyway, in this round, UCLA will beat Arizona, South Carolina will beat Arkansas, FSU will eliminate Stony Brook and Florida will eliminate Kent State.

Top stories

Corcino, De La Rosa fire Pensacola’s first no-hitter: Pensacola has been one of MiLB’s best success stories in their first season since moving from Carolina. They have great attendance, offer great promotions, have some of the best logos in sports, and now they have a bit of history with two pitchers combining to no-hit Mobile in a 6-0 win. It’s just a day after Mobile cliched a playoff berth. Daniel Corcino threw the first eight innings, striking out nine and walking three. He needed 110 pitches to get through those eight innings, so Wilkin De La Rosa was summoned for the last inning. He walked a batter and ran some deep counts, but he eventually struck out three batters to secure the no-no. It comes a year to the day that Matt Moore threw a no-hitter against Mobile. Maybe next year.

Several teams clinch playoff spots as first half winds down: Leagues that use a first half/second half system to determine playoff teams are seeing the first set of races wind down as halves are ending and MiLB’s All-Star season is beginning. Four more teams grabbed playoff berths Saturday night: Tulsa in the North division of the Texas League, Winston-Salem in the South division of the Carolina League, Greensboro in the North division of the South Atlantic League, ad Bowling Green is the first half wild card from the East division in the Midwest League. All of these teams have won at least 37 games, and no matter how much the roster gets depleted due to promotions or injuries in the next two months, they can be assured that they’ll still compete for a championship.

Nothing decided in Southern Cal: While those teams celebrated, there was chaos in the Cal League’s South division. With High Desert’s win over Rancho Cucamonga plus Lancaster’s win, three teams end the first half tied with 37 wins. According to the league’s tiebreaking procedure if I understand it correctly, they total up the head to head records of the three teams involved. According to the Jethawks PBP man Jason Schwartz, this eliminates Lancaster from the process. To break the tie that’s down to Rancho Cucamonga and High Desert, the first head-to-head meeting between the two teams in the second half (June 27th) will count as the tiebreaking game. Had Lake Elsinore managed to defeat Bakersfield, there would’ve been a four way tie and a complete free for all.

North bullpen can’t hold lead in FSL All-Star Game: Like most Florida State League games, the All-Star Game was a pitcher’s duel through the first seven innings. The North team held a 3-0 lead, mostly due to two solo home runs from Dunedin’s Jon Talley. Some of the league’s best pitching was on display; Austin Wright and Jesse Biddle of Clearwater, and C.J. Riefenhauser of Charlotte were among the 12 pitchers who threw a full scoreless inning. The South division scored three runs in both the 7th and 8th innings to win 6-3. Walks and wild pitches were the main force behind the North unraveling. St. Lucie’s Wilmer Flores went 3/4 with three RBI. Lakeland’s Avisail Garcia won the home run derby.

Arkansas wears out Kent State: One observer on Twitter said that this game reminded him of Friday’s first game. There are certainly similarities: the underdog’s ace (Stony Brook’s Tyler Johnson and Kent State’s David Starn) were not sharp early, allowing the favorite to get off to a fast start and play frontrunner. In Saturday’s game, it was Arkansas jumping in front and ridding starter D.J. Baxendale to an 8-1 win. He was completely unhittable early on. Not only did he not allow a hit until the 5th inning, any contact against him was not at all threatening. Baxendale finished allowing one run on three hits and walk in 6.1 innings with five strikeouts.

South Carolina’s incredible streak continues: Will the Gamecocks ever lose a postseason game again? Not even the #1 seeded Florida Gators could overcome the South Carolina playoff magic that resulted in a 7-3 win. That makes 22 straight postseason wins overall and 12 wins just at Omaha. Their last postseason loss was their first game at Omaha in 2010 against Oklahoma. Although the Gators initially took a 2-0 lead early on, their pitching and defense soon unraveled. Starter Brian Johnson cruised through the first four innings, but he was unable to record an out in the 5th after South Carolina got to him for a double, single, walk, triple and double. They would take a 5-2 lead and didn’t look back. In the later innings, the Florida bullpen uncorked some wild pitches, and the defense committed three errors in the game.

On tap today

MiLB.TV schedule

First elimination game in CWS scheduled

Chris Volstad tries to figure out AAA

Chase Anderson returns from DL

Cal League begins All-Star break

Tyler Anderson looks to improve to 6-0

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