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LOUISVILLE 6, KENTUCKY 2
The Kentucky Wildcats were eliminated in two games from the Super Regionals, as the Louisville Cardinals are bound for Omaha following their 6-2 win on Saturday.
Like Friday’s contest, early output from the Cards helped guide them to victory. Kentucky had no answers offensively against Louisville pitchers Brendan McKay and Sam Bordner, amounting just two runs on eight hits in 33 at-bats. Only one batter - 1st baseman Evan White - amounted more than one hit and while seven different Wildcats collected a hit in the contest, they could not capitalize or get big hits as only one XBH was tallied all day.
Kentucky exhausted five pitchers in the final game of their season, as Sean Hjielle got smacked around. The SEC Pitcher of the Year lasted just 5.1 innings, allowing seven hits, four earned runs, two walks and punched out just three batters. Hjielle allowed two home runs, both off the bat of Drew Ellis who went off in this series to say the least.
TEXAS A&M 12, DAVIDSON 6
For the first time since 2011, the Texas A&M Aggies are going to the College World Series!
This Super Regional featured two of the weirdest games in recent memory. In Friday’s opener, A&M blew a huge lead and still managed to win. Saturday, it was Davidson’s turn to blow the big lead, unfortunately for them, they couldn’t overcome it.
After a pair of solo homers from Logan Foster and George Janca got A&M on the board in the third inning, Davidson answered with a pair of runs of their own to knot the game at two.
This would remain the score until the fifth, when Davidson tacked on three runs to take a 5-2 lead. A solo homer in the sixth put the Wildcats up 6-2, seemingly in the driver’s seat.
By the time the eighth inning rolled around, A&M desperately needed to rally. And, rally they did.
Ten Aggies came to the plate en route to a seven run eighth inning to give A&M a 9-6 lead just minutes after being down 6-2. There were hits, errors, and everything in between as A&M provided an inning to remember forever. Then, for good measure, they piled on three runs in the top of the ninth to extend the lead to 12-6, the eventual final score.
FLORIDA 2, WAKE FOREST 1
After a four hour rain delay and two extra innings, the Florida Gators came out on top after beating the Wake Forest Demon Deacons 2-1 in Game 1 of the NCAA Super Regionals.
Alex Faeda started the game on the mound for Florida. He pitched four innings, allowing four hits, walked one and struck out nine. Michael Byrne won the game after three innings pitched, with one run allowed on three hits, two walks and six strikeouts.
The Gators only allowed one run out of nine hits against the top hitting team in the ACC.
Offensively, Florida was limited with only four hits in the game. After scoring in the third inning with a groundout to first by Dalton Guthrie to allow Mike Rivera to score, the Gators did not score until the 11th inning or produce a hit after fifth inning.
Wake Forest tied the game in the ninth inning with a homer by Ben Breazeale.
In the bottom of the 11th inning, Wake Forest pitcher Griffin Roberts loaded the bases by hitting a batter. Colin Peluse came in to replace Griffin to heal the wound and keep the game intact with one out. Peluse struck out pinch hitter Mark Kolozsvary afterwards, but with only one batter to go to get the Demon Deacons out of trouble, Ryan Larson came up to bat and hit a walk-off single to lead the Gators to victory.
The two will face each other again tomorrow in Gainesville, FL at 3 p.m.
OREGON STATE 9, VANDERBILT 2
The Oregon State Beavers advanced to the College World Series with their 9-2 win over the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday night.
The Beavers made quick work of the Commodores in Corvallis, sweeping the three game series in two, hardly being tested in either contest.
The Commodores saw things break open in the third inning when Oregon State erupted for four runs in the frame. After Vandy cut the deficit to 4-2 after the sixth, Oregon State tacked on three in the seventh and an additional two in the eighth to widen the gap. With the Commodore offense being held to just five hits in the contest, there was simply nothing they could do to make it happen.
KJ Harrison socked a three-run home run in the third inning that proved to be the biggest bop of the game. Cadyn Grenier laced a two-run triple in the eighth inning, meanwhile, as OSU’s offense did just about everything.
The lone runs for Vandy were scored by Jeren Kendall and Julian Infante, who hit an RBI single and a sacrifice groundout in the sixth.
LSU 4, MISSISSIPPI STATE 3
It took until the eighth inning, but LSU’s bats came alive as they came from behind to take a 4-3 win in the Baton Rouge Super Regional opener over Mississippi State. The Bulldogs took a first inning lead and led throughout until LSU plated four wins in the bottom of the eighth inning.
While the Bulldogs capitalized on some of their opportunities, they could have broken the game open in the top of the first inning. After a game opening fly out, LSU pitcher Alex Lange let four straight batters reach base with a pair of walks, a hit batter and a single leading to Brent Rooker plating the first run of the game. Lange would limit the damage with a pair of bases loaded strikeouts, but the Bulldogs were up 1-0 early.
LSU had a good chance to level the game in the bottom of the fourth inning, but left a runner on third after Konnor Pilkington forced a pop out and fly out, both with a 3-2 count.
The Bulldogs stretched their lead and looked to put the game out of sight in the top of the eighth. Brent Rooker was intentionally walked and scored his second run of the night on a Cody Brown double that also scored Hunter Stovall to stretch the lead to 3-0. After Jake Mangum was intentionally walked, Lange’s night was brought to an end before Zack Hess got out of the inning with runners stranded on first and second.
Down to their last six outs of the game, LSU responded in the bottom of the eighth inning. Greg Deichmann hit a double to bring home two runs before being brought home on a Zach Watson base hit. Later in the inning, Watson scored on a sac fly by catcher Michael Papierski to take the game ending 4-3 lead.