College baseball notebook: Japanese star Rintaro Sasaki finds stroke right away in Stanford debut

Rintaro Sasaki certainly lived up to the yearlong hype surrounding his debut at Stanford.

The slugging first baseman went 6 for 14 with two doubles and a team-best eight RBIs in three weekend wins at Cal State Fullerton.

Sasaki set the Japanese high school record with 140 career home runs for Hanamaki Higashi High, the alma mater of superstar Shohei Ohtani and where Sasaki's father, Hiroshi, is head baseball coach.

Sasaki opted out of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league draft — he was the projected No. 1 pick — to play college ball in the United States. He considered Vanderbilt, California and UCLA before he signed with Stanford. He enrolled last March to get acclimated, learn English and work out with the Cardinal.

The 6-foot, 275-pound Sasaki, named Baseball America's preseason freshman of the year, was No. 3 in the batting order for the first three games. He was 2 for 5 with four RBIs in the opener, 1 for 4 with a double and RBI in the second game and 3 for 5 with a double and three RBIs in the third.

Texas A&M (3-0), Virginia (2-1) and LSU (3-0) remained the top three teams in the D1Baseball.com poll Monday.

The Aggies also are atop the Baseball America rankings, followed by LSU and Tennessee (3-0). The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association has Texas A&M, Tennessee and LSU as its top three.

Defending national champion Tennessee outscored Hofstra 46-2 in a three-game home sweep. The Volunteers, whose 184 home runs last season were the second most in Division I history, went deep seven times in the series with Reese Chapman and Hunter Ensley each hitting grand slams.

The Pride, picked ninth in the 12-team Colonial Athletic Association, managed just seven hits in the three games.

Cincinnati picked up its first series victory over a ranked opponent in six years by taking two of three at Duke, which had been as high as No. 10 in the polls.

The Bearcats won 8-3, lost 6-5 in 12 innings and won 19-5. Their previous series win over a ranked team was in April 2019, when they won two of three at UConn.

Indiana State, the two-time Missouri Valley regular-season champion, unloaded for 20 runs in the third inning of Sunday's 36-6 win over Wagner of the Northeast Conference in Gastonia, North Carolina. The Sycamores had 21 consecutive batters reach base with all nine players in the order either recording a hit, scoring a run, or driving in a run during the inning.

The 20 runs were the most all-time in a third inning by a Division I team, according to the NCAA. The most runs ever scored in any inning is 21 by several teams.

UNCW's Connor Marshburn pitched six no-hit innings in his first career start as the Seahawks beat a top-10 Georgia 6-2 Sunday. ... Ethan Kleinschmidt pitched six innings in his Oregon State debut in a combined one-hitter in a 6-0 win over Indiana on Sunday. The Hoosiers, expected to challenge for the Big Ten title, went 0-3 on opening weekend. They were held to a total of eight runs and 18 hits by UNLV, Xavier and the Beavers. ... Freshman Noah Franco homered twice in a nine-run fourth inning as TCU won 13-5 at San Diego on Sunday. ... Texas won the Shriners Children’s College Showdown in Arlington, Texas, riding an eight-run fifth inning in a 14-8 victory over Oklahoma State on Sunday. Four teams won two games in the tournament, but the Longhorns posted a tournament-best plus-15 run differential to take the title.

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Stanford baseball player Rintaro Sasaki is interviewed at the Sunken Diamond baseball field at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Stanford baseball player Rintaro Sasaki jogs toward the batting cage area at the Sunken Diamond baseball field at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Stanford baseball player Rintaro Sasaki swings in the batting cage area at the Sunken Diamond baseball field at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Kyle Busch died after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis, resulting in rapid and overwhelming associated complications, according to a statement released by his family.

Dakota Hunter, vice president of Kyle Busch Companies, said in a news release the family received the medical evaluation on Saturday.

Busch, a two-time NASCAR champion, died at 41 on Thursday, a day after passing out in a Chevrolet simulator.

Sepsis is considered a life-threatening medical emergency that occurs when the body has an extreme, overactive response to an infection, causing the immune system to damage its own tissues and organs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Typically the immune system releases chemicals to fight off pathogens like bacteria, viruses or fungi, but with sepsis the response goes into overdrive. The results can cause widespread inflammation, form microscopic blood clots and make blood vessels leak.

Busch was thought to have had a sinus cold while racing at Watkins Glen on May 10 and radioed in to his team saying that he needed a “shot” from a doctor after the race.

However, he bounced back to win the Trucks Series race at Dover last weekend, and then he finished 17th in the All-Star race on Sunday.

Busch, who was preparing to race Sunday at the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, was testing in the Chevrolet racing simulator in Concord on Wednesday when he became unresponsive and was transported to a hospital in Charlotte, several people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.

During the emergency call placed late that afternoon, an unidentified caller calmly told the dispatch: “I’ve got an individual that’s (got) shortness of breath, very hot, thinks he’s going to pass out, and is producing a little bit of blood, coughing up some blood.”

The caller said Busch was lying on the bathroom floor inside the complex and told dispatch “he is awake,” according to audio provided by the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office. The man then gave directions on where emergency responders should go and asked that they turn off any sirens upon arrival.

NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski said he knew Busch wasn’t feeling well recently.

“Yes, but I won’t go into any specifics," Keselowski said. “But then when he ran the Truck race last week, those (thoughts) were honestly kind of erased in my mind.”

Keselowski said running multiple races on the same weekend can be difficult on a driver's health — but most don't want to miss a race for fear of being replaced.

“There’s no shortage of drivers that would love to take my seat or anybody else’s seat if we weren’t feeling well, and I think every driver feels that pressure,” Keselowski said. “All athletes do. It’s not unique to NASCAR in that sense. We’re all thinking to ourselves, ‘I don’t wanna be replaced.’ ... So you try to power through it the best you can."

Busch won 234 races across NASCAR’s top three series over his two-decade career, more than any driver in history.

All 39 drivers in the field for Sunday’s race will race with a black No. 8 decal on their car to honor Busch.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

An in memoriam photo of former driver Kyle Busch is displayed on the video board of the backstretch at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Friday, May 22, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)

FILE - Kyle Busch waits for the start of a NASCAR Xfinity Series auto race Saturday, June 19, 2021, in Lebanon, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)