Texas Tech-Arkansas latest rain delay in Omaha
OMAHA, Neb. — With heavy thunderstorms in the forecast Tuesday night, NCAA officials opted to play it safe and move the College World Series winners’ bracket game between Texas Tech and Arkansas to 11 a.m. Wednesday.
Texas Tech advanced after knocking off top-seeded Florida 6-3 Sunday at TD Ameritrade Park. Arkansas defeated Texas 11-5 that same day to set up the matchup with Texas Tech.
The loser of Texas TechArkansas will face Florida, which eliminated Texas on Tuesday afternoon, at 7 p.m. Thursday. MISSISSIPPI ST. 12 NORTH CAROLINA 2
Jordan Westburg hit a grand slam, doubled and drove in seven runs as the Bulldogs went on to beat the Tar Heels.
Mississippi State continued its surprise postseason run and, with two wins at the CWS, is off until Friday. The Bulldogs need one more to advance to the best-of-three finals.
Westburg, the freshman who two weeks ago came up with the “Rally Banana” that’s become the Bulldogs’ good-luck charm in the NCAA Tournament, connected on an Austin Bergner breaking pitch to give his team the 4-1 lead in the second inning.
Bergner (7-3) then retired 16 batters in a row until the start of the eighth inning, when the Bulldogs converted six hits, a walk, a hit batter and two errors into eight runs.
“If you're going to do all the shenanigans in the dugout,” Westburg said, “you might have to step it up on the field and back that up. It was nice to do that today.”
It's been an improbable run for the Bulldogs so far. Thencoach Andy Cannizaro resigned on Feb. 20 for off-field conduct, pitching coach Gary Henderson took over on an interim basis, and the Bulldogs got out to a 14-15 start and lost seven of their first nine Southeastern Conference games.
A sweep of defending national champion Florida in the last regular-season series earned them an NCAA at-large bid, and they've won three postseason games in walk-off fashion.
Thanks to Westburg's grand slam and Carolina's eighthinning meltdown, no fantastic finish was needed this time.