S. Florida upsets top-seeded Gators
South Florida posted the biggest upset on the first day of the NCAA baseball tournament, knocking off the Florida Gators as the bottom seed in the Gainesville Regional.
Four of the seven No. 3 regional seeds that played early Friday also won. But no game more than the Bulls’ 5-3 win over Florida portended surprises sure to come in a year when fallout from the COVID19 pandemic made it difficult for the Division I Baseball Committee to evaluate teams and set up the bracket.
The Bulls ended the regular season 24-26 after being picked last in the American Athletic Conference, and they had to win their league tournament to get into the NCAAs.
The Gators had won 19 of 21 meetings with the Bulls in Gainesville, Fla., and had beaten them in the national tournament in 1996, 2015 and 2017.
But Florida (39-20), which also lost its regional opener in 2019, couldn’t sustain any offense against four USF pitchers. The Bulls (2927) have won seven of their last eight.
“We’re definitely playing well at the right time,” catcher Jake Sullivan said. “What we’re doing more than anything is playing for each other. We’re not worried about who’s on the other side of the field, who’s in the stands, where we’re playing.”
It was the second straight NCAA Tournament that opened with a No. 4 regional seed from the American Athletic Conference winning its opener. Cincinnati beat Oregon State in 2019. There was no tournament in 2020 because of the pandemic.
Arkansas (47-10) and Texas (4315), the top two national seeds, won their openers in the double-elimination regionals. The Razorbacks erased an early three-run deficit and beat NJIT 13-8. The Longhorns won 11-0 over Southern.
The No. 3 regional seeds to win were Liberty, Dallas Baptist, Florida State and UC Santa Barbara.
Brady Gulakowski homered twice and drove in six runs as Liberty beat ACC tournament champion Duke 11-6. The Flames, who had lost 5-4 and 7-0 to the Blue Devils in the regular season, ended Duke’s 12-game win streak.
Dallas Baptist won 6-5 over Oregon State, with Peyton Sherlin and Kragen Kechely finishing the game with 2 2/3 innings of one-hit shutout relief.
Four Florida State pitchers combined to surrender no earned runs in a 5-2 win over Southern Mississippi. Marcos Castanon went 5 for 6 with a homer and five RBIs in a 14-4 win over Oklahoma State.
ARIZONA STATE 7, FAIRFIELD 6
Sean McLain had an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth inning and a walk-off single in the ninth as Arizona State beat Fairfield 7-6 on Friday at the Austin Regional.
Arizona State (33-20) plays No. 2 overall seed Texas in the winner’s bracket, and Fairfield (37-4) plays Southern in a loser-out game, on Saturday.
Joe Lampe singled to center field and Kai Murphy followed with a pinchhit single before Drew Swift walked to load the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Lampe scored when pinch-hitter Blake Pivaroff was hit by pitch to make it 6-all.