Triumph sends ECU to Super Regional
Bryson Worrell had a threerun homer and a bunt single in an eight-run seventh inning as No. 8 national seed East Carolina beat Coastal Carolina 13-4 Monday to win the Greenville Regional.
ECU (45-18), which advances to play host to Texas (45-19), had its 20-game win streak snapped Sunday with a 9-1 loss to Coastal Carolina, setting up a rematch with the winner advancing to the Super Regional (round of 16).
Worrell opened the scoring in the first inning with an RBI triple and he made a diving catch in the third. He finished 4 for 4 with four RBIs.
ECU had a hit in each of the first eight innings. Jacob Jenkins-Cowart was 3 for 4 with three RBIs, including a two-run single in the third for a 4-0 lead.
ECU starter Carter Spivey (8-0) struck out five in five innings.
Nick Lucky hit his third homer of the regional in the fourth and added a single in the seventh for Coastal Carolina (37-20-1).
Louisville 11, Michigan 9: Levi Usher hit a two-run single in the eighth, Cameron Masterman added a go-ahead homer in that inning and No. 12 national seed Louisville beat Michigan 1o win the Louisville Regional.
The Cardinals (42-19-1) won three straight regional games, after a loss to Michigan on Saturday, to advance to a Super Regional against Texas A&M (40-18).
Usher went 4 for 5 with four RBIs and Masterman added three RBIs, including his fourth homer of the regional.
Auburn 11, UCLA 4: Sonny DiChiara went 3 for 4 with four RBIs, Nate LaRue added three
RBIs and No. 14 overall seed Auburn won its home regional.
Auburn, which won its ninth straight NCAA regional contest, became the first team in SEC history to score 50-plus runs in its first three NCAA Tournament games.
The game was suspended Sunday due to lightning in the area, with Auburn leading 9-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning. In Monday’s resumed portion, UCLA scored four unanswered runs, but Auburn added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth on Cole Foster’s sacrifice fly and DiChiara’s run-scoring single.
Late Sunday
No. 1 national seed Tennessee, No. 5 Texas A&M, Texas and Notre Dame closed out their regionals and advanced to Super Regionals.
No. 6 Miami was the first top-eight seed eliminated, losing 4-3 to Arizona in Coral Gables, Florida.
Tennessee (56-7) beat Georgia Tech 9-6, never leading until it scored six runs in the ninth inning. Next up is a best-of-three series against Notre Dame.
Texas A&M took the lead with a seven-run ninth inning and firstyear coach Jim Schlossnagle’s Aggies knocked out TCU, his former team, 15-9.
Texas’ Ivan Melendez became the first NCAA player to hit 30 homers since San Diego’s Kris Bryant in 2013, connecting in a five-run first inning that sparked a 10-1 victory over Air Force. Notre Dame, which got 7
strong innings from John Michael Bertrand, is heading to a Super Regional for the second straight year after edging Texas Tech 2-1.