Xavier routs Sooners, makes regional final 2nd year in row

St. John’s carried the Big East banner most of the season, but it’s Xavier that will represent the conference in a regional final for the second straight year.

The No. 3 regional seed Musketeers beat Oklahoma 11-0 on Sunday afternoon to set up a meeting with No. 7 national seed Louisville at night.

The Musketeers knocked out Kyle Tyler during an eight-run first inning. Rylan Bannon was 4 for 4 with a home run and three RBIs, and left-hander Trent Astle and Jason Hall combined on the shutout, with Astle working a season-high eight innings.

It was an ugly ending for the Big 12’s Sooners. Louisville and Xavier outscored them 22-1 in their last two games.

The lowest regional seed to advance to a final is No. 4 Davidson , which won its first two games and would have to lose Sunday night and again Monday to be denied a trip to super regionals in its first tournament appearance.

In addition to Xavier, No. 3 regional seeds making it to finals were North Carolina State, Sam Houston State, Bethune-Cookman, Auburn, Texas A&M, Rice and Yale.

Yale, in the tournament for the first time since 1993, has made its deepest postseason run since the Bulldogs’ 1948 team was national runner-up and had former President George H.W. Bush as team captain.

Yale is the second Ivy League team in three years to get to a regional final. Columbia did it in 2015, losing to Miami.

A look around the country:

MARVELOUS ON MOUND

— Konnor Pilkington carried a one-hitter into the eighth inning for Mississippi State, which beat Illinois-Chicago 5-4 in an elimination game.

— Tyler Baum and three relievers held Florida Gulf Coast to four singles, with four walks and eight strikeouts, as North Carolina ended the Eagles’ first NCAA Tournament appearance with a 10-1 victory.

— Florida State closer Drew Carlton pitched two scoreless innings and, with two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth, got Chris Brown to look at strike three to end a 5-3 win.

BIG HITTERS

— Riley Mahan was 4 for 6 with a home run and five RBIs as No. 1 regional seed Kentucky ousted Indiana 14-9. The Hoosiers’ Logan Sowers, who homered three times against Ohio on Saturday, went deep again and finished the regional 8 for 14 with eight RBIs in three games.

— Braden Zarbnisky had two hits, including the goahead single in the eighth inning, to lead West Virginia to an 8-5 come-frombehind win over Maryland in an elimination game. The Mountaineers are in a regional final for the first time since 1982.

— Dane Myers blasted a three-run homer and finished with four RBIs for Rice, which eliminated Southeastern Louisiana 9-5.