BATON ROUGE, Sporting Alert — Florida State and North Carolina escaped early exits from the 2017 NCAA college baseball tournament after winning their respective Regional elimination games on Saturday.
LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY
Two of the tournament’s No. 1 seeds entered Saturday’s fixtures with their backs against the wall after losing their opening round games Friday evening, but they took care of business to stay alive.
After the shocking defeat to Davidson on Friday in the Chapel Hill Regional, the Tar Heels returned a day later to beat Michigan 8-1 on eight hits on the double-elimination tournament.
Michigan took an early 1-0 lead, but North Carolina scored eight straight runs, including three runs in the fifth and sixth innings to run home easily.
The Tar Heels will now face FGCU on Sunday.
Michigan has been eliminated from the NCAA Regionals.
Meanwhile, at Dick Howser Stadium, Florida State, the top-seed in the Tallahassee Regional, bounced back from a defeat to Tennessee Tech with a 6-1 victory over UCF in an elimination game.
The Seminoles will take on Tennessee Tech tomorrow in the elimination bracket.
UCF has been eliminated from the NCAA Regionals.
LSU OFFENSE SPARKS LATE AGAIN
In Baton Rouge, freshman Zach Watson hit two homers, went 3-for-5 overall with three runs and three RBI, and top-seeded LSU used another powerful offensive display to advance to the NCAA College Baseball Regional final with an 11-6 victory over Southeastern Louisiana.
After trading early blows, both teams entered the bottom of the fifth inning locked at 5-5, and that’s when the Tigers blasted away to extend their winning streak to 13 games.
Leadoff hitter Kramer Robertson, who was 0-for-5 in the opening game Friday evening, bounced back by going 4-for-4 and scoring twice on Saturday night.
EARLY SUPER REGIONAL SLOT
Elsewhere, Cal State Fullerton became the first team to move into the Super Regionals after beating Stanford in the regional final to go 3-0 in Stanford Regional play.
At the Corvallis Regional, Luke Heimlich dominated Yale with eight strikeouts and the No. 1 seeded Beavers advance to the regional final with a commanding 11-0 victory.
In the meantime, Hattiesburg Regional was affected by the weather and officials revealed the games between Mississippi State and Illinois at Chicago and Southern Mississippi vs. South Alabama, will have new starting times on Sunday.
After a weather delay on Friday, action in the Fort Worth Regional finally went off on Saturday, and it saw Virginia topping Dallas Baptist 6-3 in an opening round game.
Auburn marched into the final of the Tallahassee Regional with a 5-3 victory over Tennessee Tech.
Starring on the night for the Golden Eagles was Casey Mize, who tossed a complete game and finished with 12 strikeouts.
NCAA College Baseball Regionals Scores
Baton Rouge
Alex Box Stadium
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: No. 3 Rice 13, No. 4 Texas Southern 6
Texas Southern eliminated.
Game 4: No. 1 LSU 11, No. 2 Southeastern Louisiana 6
Chapel Hill
Boshamer Stadium
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: No. 1 North Carolina 8, No. 3 Michigan 1
Michigan eliminated.
Game 4: No. 4 Davidson 2, No. 2 Florida Gulf Coast 1
Clemson
Doug Kingsmore Stadium
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: No. 4 UNC Greensboro 3, No. 3 St. John’s 1
St. John’s eliminated.
Game 4: No. 2 Vanderbilt 9, No. 1 Clemson 4
Corvallis
Goss Stadium at Coleman Field
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: No. 4 Holy Cross 7, No. 2 Nebraska 4
Nebraska eliminated.
Game 4: No. 1 Oregon State 11, No. 3 Yale 0
Fayetteville
Baum Stadium
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: No. 4 Oral Roberts 14, No. 3 Oklahoma State 6
Oklahoma State eliminated.
Game 4: No. 2 Missouri State 5, No. 1 Arkansas 4
Forth Worth
Lupton Stadium
Saturday, June 3
Game 1: No. 2 Virginia 6, No. 3 Dallas Baptist 3
Game 2: No. 1 TCU 9, No. 4 Central Connecticut State 6
Gainesville
Alfred A. McKethan Stadium
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: No. 3 Bethune-Cookman 4, No. 4 Marist 2
Marist eliminated.
Game 4: No. 1 Florida 5, No. 2 South Florida 1 (12 innings)
Hattiesburg
Pete Taylor Park
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: No. 4 Illinois-Chicago (39-16) vs. No. 2 Mississippi State (36-25), postponed
Game 4: No. 3 South Alabama (40-19) vs. No. 1 Southern Miss (49-14), postponed
Houston
Schroeder Park
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: No. 1 Houston 17, No. 2 Baylor 3
Baylor eliminated.
Game 4: No. 3 Texas A&M 3, No. 4 Iowa 2
Lexington
Cliff Hagan Stadium
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: No. 2 Indiana 11, No. 4 Ohio 2
Ohio eliminated.
Game 4: No. 3 NC State 5, No. 1 Kentucky 4
Long Beach
Blair Field
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: No. 4 San Diego State 3, No. 3 UCLA 2 (13 innings)
UCLA eliminated.
Game 4: No. 2 Texas 5, No. 1 Long Beach State 3 (12 innings)
Louisville
Jim Patterson Stadium
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: No. 3 Xavier 3, No. 4 Radford 1
Radford eliminated.
Game 4: No. 1 Louisville 11, . No. 2 Oklahoma 1
Lubbock
Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: No. 2 Arizona 6, No. 4 Delaware 5 (12 innings)
Delaware eliminated.
Game 4: No. 1 Texas Tech 6, No. 3 Sam Houston State 0
Stanford
Klein Field at Sunken Diamond
Saturday, June 3
Game 5: No. 1 Stanford 9, No. 3 BYU 1
BYU eliminated.
Game 6: No. 2 Cal State Fullerton 4, No. 1 Stanford* 2
Stanford eliminated.
Fullerton advances to Super Regionals.
Tallahassee
Dick Howser Stadium
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: No. 1 Florida State 6, No. 2 UCF 1
UCF eliminated.
Game 4: No. 3 Auburn 5, No. 4 Tennessee Tech 3
Winston-Salem
David F. Couch Ballpark
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: No. 3 Maryland 16, No. 4 UMBC 2
UMBC eliminated.
Game 4: No. 1 Wake Forest 4, No. 2 West Virginia 3
