Dogs go deep often, win big
ATHENS, Ga. — Tucker Bradley’s fourth-inning grand slam was one of four Georgia home runs as the Bulldogs beat Campbell 18-5 Saturday in their NCAA tournament opener.
Keegan McGovern, Adam Sasser and Cam Shepherd also homered to help the regional host win a game pushed back a day due to inclement weather.
Georgia (38-19) advanced to face Troy (42-19) at noon today, needing just two more wins without a loss to advance to this week’s super regionals.
Bradley’s line-drive slam keyed a seven-run inning that put the Bulldogs ahead to stay, and Tony Locey (7-2) allowed two runs in four innings of relief to earn the victory.
Wes Noble (7-7) allowed eight runs in 3 1/3 innings for Campbell, which got homers from Matthew Barefoot and Christian Jones.
The Camels (35-26) were eliminated later in the day with a 16-8 loss to Duke (41-16).
› Tennessee Tech 6, Missouri State 4
OXFORD, Miss. — Tennessee Tech scored twice after an errant throw in the eighth inning to win the opener of a regional pushed back a day because of heavy rain that flooded the dugouts and portions of the field at Ole Miss’s Swayze Field.
The Golden Eagles (49-9) had runners at second and third when Brennon Kaleiwahea bunted. Missouri State pitcher Jake Fromson fielded the ball, looked the runner back to third, then skipped a throw past first base into right field.
Ethan Roberts (5-1) struck out seven batters over the final 3 1/3 innings, and Chase Chambers hit his 16th homer of the season for Tennessee Tech, which led 4-0 after John Ham’s RBI single in the fifth.
Missouri State (39-16) got even with a four-run sixth, all after two outs. Golden Eagles starter Travis Moths, who struck out eight, was chased by a bases-loaded walk. Ben Whetstone greeted Roberts with a tworun single before the tying run scored on a wild pitch.
Fromson relieved Jake Lochner (1-1), who walked the first two batters in the eighth.
› Ole Miss 9, Saint Louis 2
OXFORD, Miss. — Ryan Rolison had a career-high 13 strikeouts in seven innings and Ole Miss got two-run homers from Cole Zabowski and Tyler Keenan as the Rebels rolled in their regional opener after falling behind 2-0 early.
Rolison (10-4), a sophomore left-hander, allowed four hits, walked three and hit two batters.
Zabowski hit a tying homer, his 10th, in a six-run second inning that put No. 4 national seed Ole Miss (47-15) ahead to stay. An inning later, Keenan hit his ninth homer to make it 8-2.
Billikens starter Miller Hogan (10-4) allowed nine runs, three of them unearned, in three innings.
Nick Reeser had two hits, including an RBI double that put Saint Louis (38-19) up 1-0 in the first inning.
Ole Miss plays Tennessee Tech today.
› Mississippi State 3, Florida State 2
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Elijah MacNamee hit a three-run homer to left field with two outs in the ninth as Mississippi State eliminated Florida State, the No. 7 national seed, in its own regional.
Jake Magnum and Hunter Stovall reached base via walks before MacNamee hit a 1-2 pitch from Florida State’s Drew Parrish off the scoreboard. Parrish had blanked the Bulldogs (32-26) for the first eight innings but came out for the ninth despite a 2 1/2-hour rain delay after the eighth.
Parrish (5-1), a sophomore left-hander, allowed four hits, struck out eight and walked two in 133 pitches, 93 of them strikes.
Riley Self (4-0) got the win with three shutout innings.
The Seminoles (43-19) scored their first run in the third when Nick Derr doubled, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a throwing error by catcher Marshall Gilbert. They added a run in the fifth when Rhett Aplin’s single drove in J.C. Flowers.
› Texas 8, Texas A&M 3
AUSTIN, Texas — Kody Clemens homered twice and Nolan Kingham pitched into the eighth inning and the Longhorns beat the Aggies to stay undefeated in their regional.
Clemens hit a three-run homer in the top of the first to put the Longhorns (39-20) ahead to stay before the game’s first out. The second baseman, the Big 12 player of the year and a son of seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, went deep again leading off the sixth for his 21st homer of the season.
Texas A&M (40-21), which had won 10 consecutive NCAA regional games since 2015, faces Indiana (39-18) in an elimination game today. The winner of that game plays the Longhorns tonight.
Kingham (8-3) struck out eight and walked one while allowing three runs, one of them unearned. Aggies starter Mitchell Kilkenny (8-5) was tagged for five runs in four innings with five strikeouts.
David Hamilton had three hits and scored twice for Texas, including an RBI single. D.J. Petrinsky homered in his second consecutive game.
The Aggies, now in the Southeastern Conference, won the regular-season meeting of the former Big 12 and Southwest Conference rivals from the Lone Star State. Their last postseason matchup had been four years ago, when the Longhorns beat A&M to clinch the regional at Rice and eventually made the College World Series.