SEC teams start 5-0 in regionals; Big Ten labors
Southeastern Conference teams went 5-0 in early NCAA baseball tournament regional games Friday. The Big Ten, which tied its record with five teams in the national tournament, got off to an 0-3 start.
No. 4 national seed LSU erased an early 3-0 deficit to beat Texas Southern 15-7 in Baton Rouge, La.
Kentucky won its NCAA opener for the first time since 1988, 6-4 over Ohio in Lexington. The Wildcats got a strong outing from SEC pitcher of the year Sean Hjelle, who allowed three runs or less for the eighth time in nine starts.
Vanderbilt, behind Will Toffey’s big day, beat St. John’s 13-4 in Clemson, South Carolina. Auburn won 7-4 over UCF in Tallahassee, Florida, and Texas A&M turned two hits, five walks and an error into five runs in the sixth inning IN an 8-5 win over Baylor in Houston.
The Big Ten struggled. Michigan, the No. 3 seed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, lost 10-6 to Florida Gulf Coast. Nebraska, the No. 2 seed in Corvallis, Oregon, got nothing going offensively in a 5-1 loss to Yale. Maryland, No. 3 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, gave up six home runs in a 9-1 loss to West Virginia.
GAME OF THE DAY
Missouri State 6, Oklahoma State 5, in Fayetteville, Ark. Jeremy Eierman’s second homer of the game was a two-run shot in the ninth for a walk-off win. Oklahoma State had taken a 5-4 lead in the top half on a wild pitch.