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HOOVER, Ala. -- Earlier this season after Florida swept LSU to begin SEC play in Baton Rouge, La., LSU All-American outfielder Mikie Mahtook was asked point blank: "Who's Florida's best starting pitcher?".
Mahtook didn't hesitate. His answer was easy: Hudson Randall.
The Gators have arguably the nation's most talented pitching staff with a plethora of hard-throwing relievers, left-handed starter Brian Johnson and freshman sensation starter Karsten Whitson leading the charge. But even with all those great arms, Randall clearly has been the most consistent throughout the season.
That was until last week when Randall had an uncharacteristic start against Kentucky at home. The sophomore right-hander allowed five runs (four earned) on seven hits in just four innings of work on the way to a disappointing loss.
Randall returned to his usual form on Thursday in a dominant 6-0 win over Alabama, striking out two and allowing just four hits in eight scoreless innings.
"I don't ever see Hudson get rattled. He has high expectations and if you look back at his career with the program when he has a bad start, you pretty much know you're going to get a much better performance the next time out," Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "It was a typical outing for him, and the defense played really well today."
Randall sat 89-91 against the Crimson Tide and did a tremendous job of moving pitches around the strike zone, while also keeping the ball low and away from the barrels of Alabama's bats.
The talented righties' unique craft reminded Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard of one former MLB star.
"He's Greg Maddux. Everything moves and the ball stays down. Even when you get an advantageous count, he's still in there and down with some good sink," Gaspard said. "Even though he doesn't have a dominant or overpowering fastball, he's really, really good."
When asked about the comparison to Maddux, Randall calmly leaned up to the microphone with confidence and cracked a small smile before giving his answer.
"He [Maddux] was one of my idols growing up, and I was always watching him on television when I could," he said. "I model myself after him, and I certainly like to pitch to contact."
While Randall won't ever rack up the strikeout totals of some of the other nation's best such as UCLA's Trevor Bauer or Texas' Taylor Jungmann, he once again showed why many view him as one of the nation's elite arms.
Mahtook called it a long time ago.
GRAY ON DISPLAY, VANDERBILT ARMS GET IT DONE
Scouts typically flock to the SEC tournament no matter which teams are
in the field of eight. But when Vanderbilt and South Carolina took the
field in an epic matchup between two highly ranked clubs, it was clear
who the 30 or so scouts were focused on -- Vanderbilt pitcher Sonny
Gray.
Projected as an easy early first-round pick, Gray, who has an earned run
average of 2.12 ERA in 101 2/3 innings, put his skills on display
against several big league clubs that have a legitimate chance to select
him in the draft.
Gray was forced to battle at times with South Carolina running his pitch
count up to 94 pitches in 6 1/3 innings of work. But he had yet another
solid performance for the Commodores, who defeated the Gamecocks 7-2 to
earn a day off.
"That was a grinding performance by Sonny," Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin
said. "He had to throw some pitches just to get to the seventh inning,
but I thought he competed very well. South Carolina's lineup was just
tough to slow down and punch out. They have some tough hitters in that
lineup."
Gray struck out seven hitters and allowed just two runs (one earned) on
five hits. Stuff-wise, he was consistently 92-94 with his fastball, even
hitting 95 mph at times. He also threw a slider at 87-88 mph and a
solid changeup at 84 mph.
Though Gray's performance obviously was the highlight of the night for
scouts, the Vanderbilt bullpen taking care of South Carolina late in the
game was the most promising development for the black and gold.
The Commodores lately have had some bullpen issues. But on this night,
left-handed pitcher Corey Williams recorded two huge outs, while
right-handers Will Clinard and Navery Moore also took care of business,
Moore earning his 10th save of the season by tossing 1 1/3 shutout
innings.
"We pitched well in clutch situations. Corey was able to get himself out
of a jam, and the same goes for Navery, then we gave him some cushion
in the ninth," Corbin said. "I thought tonight was a growing moment for
Williams."
While Gray and the excellent starting rotation of Grayson Garvin and
Taylor Hill continues to be a strong suit, the Commodores believe
Thursday's bullpen performances were a step in the right direction.
However, the unit still must improve for the team to reach its ultimate
goal, a trip to Omaha.
GEORGIA STAYS ALIVE, AUBURN DONE
Good for Georgia coach Dave Perno his real team showed up Thursday in an elimination game 3-2 win over Auburn.
The Bulldogs entered the SEC tournament with a sense urgency. They were just .500 entering Wednesday's contest against Vanderbilt. But instead of putting together a solid performance, the Bulldogs were completely out of sync and were run-ruled by the Commodores.
"It wasn't necessarily PG rated [the Vandy game]." Perno said. "We don't want to be a sympathy team, a team that played a tough schedule and had to deal with a lot of adversity. We wanted to show our identity, win or lose, and I felt like we did that today."
With their season on the line, the Bulldogs sent left-handed ace pitcher Alex Wood to the mound. And as was the case earlier this season when we saw him throw against UCLA, Wood was solid against the Tigers, striking out eight batters and allowing just two runs on seven hits in the first complete game of his career.
"I was locating my pitches and got back some life on my fastball," Wood said. "I felt like I threw a lot less than 124 pitches out there."
Even with a victory, the Bulldogs have little time to celebrate. Their record improved to .500, and they still must win two more games in the tournament to finish the week postseason eligible.
"We don't win, we go home," Georgia outfielder Zach Cone said about the Bulldogs bouncing back today. "Our mindset was just to relax and have some fun out there."
Though Georgia gets another opportunity to stay eligible for the NCAA postseason, the same can't be said for Auburn. With Thursday's loss, the Tigers dropped to 29-29 overall to finish the regular season, thus rendering them ineligible for the postseason.
"We certainly put ourselves in this position," Auburn coach John Pawlowski said. "We have to continue to build depth with this team and move forward. There were a lot of midweek games where we simply didn't play very well. We just weren't deep enough to pitch in the midweek."
Failing to reach the NCAA tournament this season is a setback for the Tigers. Last season, Pawlowski's program made headlines with a strong regular season campaign that resulted in an NCAA Regional host and their first trip to the conference tournament since 2003.
Now, after having such a promising campaign, the Tigers are forced to head back to the drawing board.
Georgia, meanwhile, survives for another day.
Kendall Rogers is the college baseball editor for Perfect Game USA and has covered the sport for over 10 seasons. He can be reached at kendall@perfectgame.org