Vandy wins series, but Tennessee packs punch against Leiter

<p>Vanderbilt’s Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter have proved to be the most fearsome pitching duo in college baseball, and either one could be the No. 1 pick in the Major League Baseball draft.</p>
<p>The last two weeks, however, have shown they’re not untouchable.</p>
<p>Rocker gave up three homers to Georgia in five-plus innings in his previous start, then bounced back to limit Tennessee to two hits in seven innings in the Commodores’ 5-0 win Friday.</p>
<p>Leiter, son of 19-year major leaguer Al Leiter, was the one to struggle this past weekend. The sophomore had surrendered just one home run in 68 1/3 career innings before Tennessee went deep on him three times over a span of 11 batters Saturday.</p>
<p>Connor Pavolony and Evan Russell hit back-to-back homers in the fourth inning and Russell hit another off Leiter in the seventh.</p>
<p>
<a href="https://twitter.com/BarstoolMintzy/status/1383573353798148097?s=20">Russell finished his three-homer day</a> with an eighth-inning grand slam off Luke Murphy to help the Volunteers to an 8-4 victory. Russell homered again Sunday in a 10-4 loss and has 10 for the season.</p>
<p>Russell also hit three homers against LSU on March 27.</p>
<p>Asked if he eats anything special before multi-homer games, he said, “I had some Cinnamon Toast Crunch this morning. Other than that, I don’t know what the secret is. I had no intention that this was going to happen. It’s pretty cool that it did.”</p>
<p>Rocker and Leiter are a combined 15-1 with a 1.31 ERA and 175 strikeouts in 110 1/3 innings.</p>
<p>IN THE POLLS</p>
<p>Arkansas (30-6) won two of three against Texas A&amp;M and remained the consensus No. 1 team in the polls Monday. </p>
<p>D1Baseball.com and Collegiate Baseball newspaper rate Vanderbilt (28-6) second and Texas (30-8) third.</p>
<p>Baseball America has Mississippi State (27-8) second and Vanderbilt third.</p>
<p>A TRIO OF GEMS</p>
<p>Alek Jacob pitched Gonzaga’s first no-hitter since 1990 in the Bulldogs’ 10-0 win at Pepperdine on Friday. Jacob matched his career high with 12 strikeouts and walked two.</p>
<p>Elliot Carney pitched Wofford’s first no-hitter since the program moved to Division I in 1995. The senior struck out seven and walked three in a 115-pitch outing in a 5-0 win over UNC-Greensboro on Saturday.</p>
<p>Carney leads the Terriers with 50 innings pitched after throwing only two-thirds of an inning the previous two seasons because of injuries.</p>
<p>Mississippi left-hander Doug Nikhazy pitched a one-hit shutout in a 9-0 win over Mississippi State on Saturday. Nikhazy struck out 12, walked two and didn’t allow a runner past first base in the Rebels’ first nine-inning complete game since 2014.</p>
<p>20 IN A ROW</p>
<p>Unbeaten Fairfield’s four-game sweep of Monmouth extended the nation’s longest win streak to 21. The Stags were just 2-9 in last year’s pandemic-shortened season. Texas owns the second-longest streak, at 13 games.</p>
<p>SAVES RECORD</p>
<p>Jake Mulholland became Oregon State’s all-time saves leader when he pitched a perfect ninth inning against California on Saturday. Mulholland also got the save Sunday and has 39 in his career, two more than previous record holder Kevin Gunderson (2004-06). Mulholland has nine saves this season, tied for third nationally.</p>
<p>OFFENSIVE OUTBURST</p>
<p>Long Beach State scored its most runs in 23 years in a 28-10 win over Pacific on Sunday. The Dirtbags’ run total came against 10 pitchers and was their highest since they hung a school-record 30 on Nevada in 1998.</p>
<hr />
<p>More AP sports: <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports">https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Sports">https://twitter.com/AP_Sports</a> </p>