Former Dunwoody Pitcher Catching Attention at College World Series

Though his University of Florida baseball team lost the championship series opener to South Carolina Monday night, it marked a fine hour for former Dunwoody High pitcher Hudson Randall in a College World Series.

The sophomore, whose team-best 11-3 record has Florida in contention for its first national championship, kept the Gators in the game much of the way, before two throwing errors in the 11th inning helped the Gamecocks win 2-1 and enter tonight's Game 2 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., with opportunity to repeat as champions.

Randall pitched the first 7 2/3 innings and allowed only three hits, while striking out six and walking only one. He had the Gators (52-18) ahead 1-0 and potentially on their way to a fifth consecutive victory and fourth in the World Series, following his opening win against Texas and the Gators' twin victories over Vanderbilt to reach the best-of-three championship series.

Randall struck out the first two Gamecocks he faced before a crowd of 25,851, before surrendering a double, South Carolina's first hit against him in 22 batters dating back to March 26. The former Dunwoody Wildcat rebounded from that extra-base hit by throwing out the next batter to end the top of the first inning. He retired the side in order three times and eight batters consecutively at one point, a showing reminiscent of setting down 13 straight and battling back from a three-run deficit to notch the series-opening win against Texas.

"Everything was seeming to work for me," Randall said of the third World Series game of his career. "All my off-speed pitches I was throwing for strikes. I was on a good roll through the seventh inning there.

"I was just trying to get off the field as soon as possible to give our offense a chance to score some more runs for me," he added. "It was a close ballgame all the way through the end. It just didn't work out for us."

Randall seemed on cruise control until an out remained in the eighth and South Carolina leadoff hitter Scott Wingo singled a curve ball up the middle to make it 1-1. That chased Randall in favor of reliever Steven Rodriguez.

"I had good success earlier in the ballgame against (Wingo), especially that curve ball," Randall said. "It thought I was going to get him with it, but it turns out he saw too many of them and got a good piece of the bat on the ball."

But Randall can only watch and hope the Gators rebound in today's 8 p.m. game and force a deciding one Wednesday night. A national championship would bolster Randall's star-studded baseball career, which included winning a state championship at Dunwoody as a sophomore, his 10-1 record and 1.00 ERA there as a junior, and becoming an all-state player and DeKalb County Pitcher of the Year there as a senior.

Dunwoody assistant baseball coach Tom Bass, the Wildcats' head coach in Randall's years, said his lanky right-hander continues to amaze, as talk of his 21-2 career pitching record at Dunwoody still has the community abuzz.

"He continues to show he's a big-game pitcher," Bass said. "When you think about it, all things being said, he absolutely dominated the (defending) national champions Monday night.

"It's been a treat to watch him go from a star high school player to an upper-echelon (Southeastern Conference) player pitching in the World Series as a sophomore," Bass added. "It's a true testament to kid he is."

For more, here's a video of the post-game press conference given by the Gators, including Hudson Randall.