Bulldogs, Beavers, UNC, Huskies win openers
Mississippi State, Oregon State, North Carolina and Washington won their openers in the NCAA Tournament best-of-three super regionals Friday and each is one win away from advancing to the College World Series.
Elijah MacNamee hit his second home run of the game, and second walk-off shot of the NCAA Tournament, to give Mississippi State a 10-8 win over Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee.
Luke Heimlich turned in another strong performance on the mound and Trevor Larnach and Adley Rutschman hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning to lead the No. 3 national seed Beavers to an 8-1 win over Minnesota in Corvallis, Oregon.
No. 6 North Carolina got home runs from Cody Roberts and Michael Busch, and Cooper Criswell held No. 11 Stetson to one run over five innings in the Tar Heels' 7-4 win in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Levi Jordan and AJ Graffanino each drove in two runs, and Washington survived All-Pac 12 closer Alex Hardy's shaky outing to beat Cal State Fullerton 8-5 in Fullerton, California.
Mississippi State won a wild game thanks to MacNamee again. MacNamee, who hit a three-run homer in the third inning, came up with a man on first and one out in the bottom of the ninth. He drove Zach King's 0-2 pitch over the leftfield wall and sprinted around the bases.
Last week, with the Bulldogs' down to their last strike in a regional elimination game against Florida State, MacNamee connected for a 3-2 win. MacNamee has eight homers in his last 15 games after hitting none in his first 32.
"Doing anything I can to put the ball in play and stay in any pitch," MacNamee said. "He threw it, I sat back, had my hands back and tried to put a good swing on it. Got under it. I can't even think right now, can't breathe."
Oregon State is on the cusp of a second straight trip to the CWS in Omaha, Nebraska, and sixth since 2005. Heimlich was dominant days after he was not selected in the Major League Baseball draft for the second straight year.
The two-time Pac-12 pitcher of the year appeared in a super regional for the first time. Last year he missed super regionals and the CWS after The Oregonian newspaper reported he had pleaded guilty to a child molestation charge when he was a minor.
Minnesota, in its first super regional, managed only four singles against Heimlich through seven innings. Toby Hanson homered leading off the eighth for the only run against Heimlich, who had struck out nine and walked none when he left with two outs in the ninth.
North Carolina ended No. 11 overall seed Stetson's nation'sbest 18-game win streak while winning its 17th straight at home.
Stetson ace Logan Gilbert went 5 1/3 innings, matching his shortest outing of the season. Gilbert gave up the homer to Roberts, the third off the Seattle Mariners' first-round draft pick over his last 10 innings.
The Hatters batted .311 and outscored their three regional opponents 29-7 but were just 6 of 33 (.182) against the Tar Heels in their super regional debut.
Washington, also playing in its first super regional, won for the 13th time in 15 games and the first time in nine all-time games with the Titans.
Fullerton, despite committing five errors, was within 6-5 in the eighth but left the bases loaded against Hardy. The Huskies' Kaiser Weiss, who entered as a defensive replacement in the sixth, hit a two-run double in the ninth to make it a three-run game.
Game 1s on Saturday: Auburn (42-21) at No. 1 Florida (45-18); South Carolina (36-24) at No. 5 Arkansas (42-18); Duke (4416) at No. 9 Texas Tech (42-17); Tennessee Tech (52-10) at No. 13 Texas (40-20).