Texas, No. 1 Florida power to CWS
Relying on strong pitching and sufficient hitting, Texas advanced to the College World Series.
Kody Clemens, son of former major league pitcher Roger Clemens, and DJ Petrinsky hit home runs, Matteo Bocchi was effective in a rare appearance as a starting pitcher, and Texas defeated Tennessee Tech, 5-2, Monday in Austin, Texas, to secure one of eight spots in the CWS.
Texas (42-21), and second-year coach David Pierce return to the CWS for the first time since 2014.
“It feels awesome,” Pierce said. “We’re not always. A lot of times we’re ugly. But we just figure out how to keep playing. That’s what so special about this group.”
Texas took the super regional series by winning the final two games after losing Saturday in Game 1.
Clemens hit his 24th home run of the season — one less than the national leader Spencer Torkelson of Arizona State. Clemens has 11 home runs in his past 15 games.
Tennessee Tech finished 53-12. The matchup of starting pitchers seemed to favor Tennessee Tech. But left-hander Alex Hursey (85), the No .3 starter for Tennessee Tech (53-12), lasted just three innings, allowing four runs.
Other games
Florida 3, Auburn 2: Austin Langworthy’s home run off Steven Williams’ glove in the 11th inning gave overall top seed Florida (47-19) a victory against Auburn (43-23) in the deciding game of this super regional, sending the defending national champion Gators to the CWS for the fourth consecutive year.
Texas Tech 6, Duke 2: Gabe Holt, Michael Davis and Brian Klein homered for Texas Tech (44-18), which is going to the CWS for the third time in five seasons after beating Duke (45-18) in Lubbock, Texas. The Red Raiders went ahead to stay when Davis hit a two-run homer in the fourth to break a 1-1 tie. It was the 12th homer of the season for the senior shortstop, the only current position player who started a game in their previous trip to Omaha two years ago.
Arkansas 14, South Carolina 4: Eric Cole had three hits, a home run and scored five runs to help No. 5 national seed Arkansas (44-19) advance to the CWS with a victory against visiting South Carolina (3726) in the deciding game of the series.