Mississippi St. nears finals berth

Freshman drives in seven runs as Bulldogs rout North Carolina, 12-2

Jordan Westburg hit a grand slam, doubled and drove in seven runs, and Mississippi State went on to beat North Carolina, 12-2, in the rain-plagued College World Series Tuesday at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb.

The Bulldogs (39-27) continued their surprise postseason run and, with two wins at the CWS, are off until Friday. They need one more victory to advance to the best-of-three finals.

Westburg, the freshman who two weeks ago came up with the “Rally Banana” that has become the Bulldogs’ good-luck charm in the NCAA tournament, connected on an Austin Bergner breaking pitch. The ball landed in the seats above the left-field bullpen for a 4-1 lead in the second inning.

Bergner (7-3) then retired 16 batters in a row until the start of the eighth, when the Bulldogs converted six hits, a walk, a hit batter and two errors into eight runs.

Carolina’s Kyle Datres doubled leading off the game against Konnor Pilkington (36) and came home on a sacrifice fly. The Tar Heels (44-19) didn’t score again until the seventh.

Florida 6, Texas 1: Jackson Kowar struck out a career-high 13 in 6⅔ innings, Jonathan India hit a three-run homer and defending national champion Florida eliminated Texas with a 6-1 win on Tuesday.

Kowar (10-5) held the Longhorns scoreless on five hits, mixing his changeup with a fastball still touching the mid90s deep into his 121-pitch afternoon.

The Kansas City Royals’ first-round draft pick struck out the side in the third and sixth innings and broke his previous high of 11 Ks.

Florida (48-20) had lost 6-3 to Texas Tech in its CWS opener.

Night game postponed

The game between Arkansas and Texas Tech was postponed because of the threat of rain in the Omaha area Tuesday night.

The Razorbacks and Red Raiders will play their Bracket 2 winners’ game on Wednesday.