The Stetson Hatters are one win away from their first trip to the NCAA Super Regionals.
Behind 14 strikeouts from ace Logan Gilbert, and a mammoth three-run home run from shortstop Jorge Arenas in the top of the fifth, the top-seeded Hatters cruised by Oklahoma State, 10-3, in Saturday night’s regional semifinal.
"We're known as a pitching and defensive team, and tonight we brought the bats, too," head coach Steve Trimper said. "Obviously, in a four-team tournament, Game 2 is very important for pitching matchups and for rest. With the weather delay, we got done kind of late today, so the losing team was going to have to turn around and play pretty early, so it was big."
Stetson (47-11) has now won 17 in a row, improves to 31-3 at home, and will face either South Florida or Oklahoma State at 7 p.m. on Sunday in the regional final. The Bulls and Cowboys will play Sunday afternoon in an elimination game, and the winner would have to beat Stetson twice to advance out of the DeLand Regional.
With the way Stetson pitchers are throwing, that figures to be a tall order.
Gilbert gave up just five hits and struck out 14 over seven innings — the 10th time this season he’s had double-digit punch-outs — and now leads the country in strikeouts with 157.
The righty only made two bad pitches all night, and both left the ballpark. Oklahoma State’s Andrew Rosa hit a towering solo shot in the third to tie the game at 1, and Cade Cabbiness tagged Gilbert for another blast in the seventh. Gilbert fired 121 pitches over his seven innings of work.
"I had some command issues, some walks there in the third trying to settle in, but for the most part I felt good," Gilbert said. "It was a complete game for us."
When the junior hurler wasn’t dominating on the mound, the Stetson bats did plenty of damage at the plate.
Leading 2-1 in the fifth, the Hatters sent nine men to the plate and scored five times, capped by Arenas' three-run blast with two outs that made it a 6-1 game. Austin Hale also added a run-scoring double in the frame, while Mike Spooner, who led off the inning with a base hit, scored on a passed ball.
"It didn't feel like a home run off the bat at all," Arenas said. "Those are the ones that go the furthest, I guess. Just a slider that I stayed on long enough and got enough barrel on it."
Spooner and Arenas each had a pair of hits for the Hatters, while third baseman Jon Meola and senior Brooks Wilson had three hits apiece. Wilson, Friday night’s hero, plated another run in the sixth on a two-out triple, and one more in the eighth with a single. The senior leader is 5-for-7 with five RBIs through the tournament’s first two games.
Defensively, the Hatters were stellar — highlighted by Meola's flying grab into the Oklahoma State dugout in the second inning, and Hale's diving grab and crash into the backstop in the third inning.
Should the Hatters win on Sunday, they would face the winner from the Chapel Hill region in a best-of-3 series next weekend. If they lose, a winner-take-all game would take place at 1 p.m. on Monday.
Trimper said that righty Jack Perkins will get the nod on Sunday. The junior is 10-2 this season with a 2.57 ERA.
"We talked about the big plans we had when the season started, and we talked about checking boxes off," Trimper said. "One of those boxes for us to check off will be up for us tomorrow."