Gators advance to Series finals

Florida seeking 3rd NCAA championship in last four years.

Delaney Gourley struck out 10 batters while throwing a two-hitter, helping top-seeded Florida beat Washington 5-2 to advance to the finals of the Women’s College World Series.

Delaney Gourley was nearly perfect, giving Florida a chance for its third national championship in four years.

Gourley struck out 10 while throwing a two-hitter, helping the top-seeded Gators beat Washington 5-2 on Sunday in the semifinals of the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.

The Gators will face Oklahoma in the best-of-three championship series starting today. Defending champion Oklahoma advanced with a 4-2 victory over Oregon on Sunday.

Gourley (22-4) had two strikes on Julia DePonte with two outs in the seventh before DePonte hit a tworun homer for the Huskies (50-14). The two unearned runs were the first runs Florida has allowed in the World Series.

Gourley was fine with it. The senior was happy with Florida’s win in her first World Series start.

“Today, to just come out and start a game — my team had my back,” she said. “I was really excited. We were all really confident before the game. We just came out on fire.”

Kayli Kvistad homered and drove in three runs for the Gators (58-8).

Oklahoma 4, Oregon 2: Shay Knighten singled in two runs in the fifth inning for Oklahoma.

The Sooners (59-9) will play top-seeded Florida tonight to start the best-ofthree championship series. The teams have combined to win the past four national titles, but are meeting for the first time in the championship series.

Paige Parker (26-5) earned the win and Paige Lowary got the save against Oregon.

The Ducks would have needed to beat Oklahoma twice on Sunday, and for a while, it looked like they might force a second game. Danica Mercado’s two-run homer in the top of the fifth put the Ducks (54-8) up 2-0.

Baseball

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 late Sunday 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 had to lose Sunday night and again today to be denied a trip to the 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 was 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. Other Sunday highlights: ■ 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.

■ 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 go-ahead single in the eighth inning, to lead West Virginia to an 8-5 come-from-behind 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.