Washington wins wild one to earn 1st CWS appearance
Before Sunday, Washington was the only team in the tradition-rich Pac-12 to never make it to the College World Series.
The Huskies finally are going to Omaha.
Kaiser Weiss’ bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning gave Washington a 6-5 win over host Cal State Fullerton in a wild Game 3 of their NCAA Tournament best-of-three super regional.
The Huskies join fellow Pac-12 member Oregon State and North Carolina in the CWS starting Saturday.
“This weekend, we’ve been working this whole year for it,” said Weiss, wearing a “Destination Omaha” cap moments after the game. “We always say, ‘Omaha no matter what.’ We grind it and we just wanted the opportunity. We had the opportunity and we seized it. It’s a team effort, all around, everyone.”
Mississippi State and Vanderbilt also played a Game 3 on Sunday night. North Carolina and Oregon State won their super regionals Saturday.
The rest of the eight-team CWS field will be filled out Monday after four winnertake-all Game 3s. Auburn, Texas, South Carolina and Duke won Sunday to force those deciding games.
Washington was cruising along against Fullerton with Joe DeMers carrying a perfect game until Hank LoForte doubled leading off the seventh inning.
The Titans scored three runs in the ninth to go up 4-3, but Washington got the run back in the bottom half. LoForte barely cleared the right-field wall with two outs in the top of the 10th for his second home run of the season and a one-run lead for Fullerton. But two errors in the bottom half allowed Washington to load the bases before Weiss lifted his winning sacrifice fly to left.
Luke Jarvis’ walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning gave Auburn a 3-2 win over the defending national champion and No. 1 overall seed Gators in Gainesville, Florida.
Kody Clemens homered and doubled, and Texas pitchers held Tennessee Tech to a season-low three hits in a 4-2 win in Austin.
LT Tolbert hit a grand slam for one of South Carolina’s three homers in an 8-5 win over Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Joey Loperfido and Max Miller each doubled and tripled, and Duke combined for 10 runs in the fourth and fifth innings in an 11-2 win over Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas.
Auburn is bidding for its first CWS appearance since 1997; Florida is trying for a fourth straight. The Gators go into the winner-take-all game 30-6 at home, and they haven’t lost back-to-back games in Gainesville since April 2017.
Tennessee Tech, which came into Sunday batting a nation’s-best .337 and averaging 10.1 runs, managed only two runs and three hits against Texas’ Chase Shugart and Blair Henley. The Golden Eagles are trying to make the CWS for the first time. No team has made it to Omaha more than Texas. The Longhorns are looking for their 36th trip and first since 2014.
South Carolina, hoping to get to the CWS in coach Mark Kingston’s first year and for the first time since 2012, never trailed against the Razorbacks. The Gamecocks broke things open in the fifth on back-to-back homers — Tolbert’s slam to right and Hunter Taylor’s solo shot to left. It was Tolbert’s second grand slam against Arkansas this season.
Arkansas is looking to return to Omaha for the first time since 2015. The Hogs go into Game 3 with a 34-5 record at home.
Duke, playing for its first CWS appearance since 1961, had six extra-base hits and scored double-digit runs for the third time in seven NCAA Tournament games.