Florida State and Virginia completed two-game sweeps in their NCAA super regionals on Saturday to become the first teams to advance to the College World Series.
Tennessee, the national number one seed, will have to wait one more day to get its ticket to Omaha, Nebraska. If not, that means the plucky Evansville Purple Aces will have pulled off one of the greatest upsets in college baseball history.
The Aces forced a deciding game in the best-of-three series with a 10-8 victory in Knoxville, Tennessee. That made them the first No. 4 regional seed to beat a No. 1 national seed in the NCAA Tournament. The regional No. 4 seeds had gone 0-30 all-time in such matchups.
“It will go down without a doubt as the biggest win in the history of our school, a program I am very proud of,” coach Wes Carroll said. “I bleed purple and it’s great to be able to experience that as an EU head coach.”
Florida State followed its 24-4 loss over UConn on Friday with a 10-8 win in 12 innings, and Virginia finished off Kansas State with a 10-4 victory. Their wins will give the Atlantic Coast Conference at least two teams in the CWS for the second straight year.
FSU’s James Tibbs III hit his third home run of the game, a two-run shot, to break an 8-all tie in the 12th and Conner Whittaker pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief.
The Seminoles will be in their 24th CWS, and their first under second-year coach Link Jarrett. Last year, they finished with a losing record for the first time in program history and did not make the tournament.
“I couldn’t be more grateful to be here and help put Florida State baseball back on the map,” Tibbs said. “It’s been a wild ride.”
Virginia’s Casey Saucke homered in the first inning and Jacob Ference’s triple and Luke Hanson’s double highlighted a five-run ninth that opened the game against K-State. The Cavaliers will make their second consecutive CWS appearance, third in four years and seventh overall under Brian O’Connor.
Florida, North Carolina State and Texas A&M won their first super regional games.
Jac Caglianone’s three-run homer highlighted a seven-run fifth inning that powered the Gators’ 10-7 victory at No. 6 Clemson.
The No. 10 Wolfpack defeated No. 7 Georgia 18-1 in Athens, with Jacob Cozart hitting two of his team’s five home runs and Noah Soles driving in five runs and two doubles in the 11-run second inning.
No. 3 Texas A&M got 7 1/3 innings of shutout relief from Chris Cortez and Evan Aschenbeck and rallied to beat Oregon 10-6 in College Station.
Evansville didn’t force a third game without enduring some tension late in the game. The Volunteers, down five runs, had two singles and three walks off Nick Smith to start the ninth. Shane Harris issued a one-out walk to load the bases before striking out Cal Stark and getting Christian Moore to fly out to end the game.
The Purple Aces converted four singles and a double to take a 6-5 lead into the fifth. Brendan Hord, who was 0 for 18 in the tournament, and Kip Fougerousse each hit two-run homers in the sixth to make the score 10-5.
Evansville has adopted a nothing-to-lose attitude through its first six games in the NCAA Tournament. That changes Sunday in a winner-take-all game.
“There’s a lot at stake for us, too,” Carroll said. “As a coach it is a great challenge to get here. You don’t know if you’ll get here again. It’s going to be one of those things that could be one game away (from Omaha) for the rest of my life, so I’ll appreciate it and embrace it and, most importantly, I want to make sure our guys are ready to compete like they did. today: relaxed and with a lot of faith.”
AGGIES STAR INJURED
Texas A&M’s Braden Montgomery, projected to be one of the first players selected in the amateur draft, was injured on a play at the plate in the first inning and had his right in an air cast when he left the field and was later on crutches in the shelter.
Montgomery dove in trying to score from second base with a hit to left field. They pulled him out and immediately grabbed him by the lower part of his right leg. Coach Jim Schlossnagle said he did not know the exact nature of the injury, but added that Montgomery will not play again this season.
TAKING YOUR SHOT
Florida State’s Tibbs, who had already hit two home runs in the game, said he approached teammate Daniel Cantu and others in the dugout before the 12th inning to tell them he was going to do it again to win.
“That was just luck,” he said, “but I was confident and hoping to find a pitch to hit, and luckily I did.”
AROUND THE HORN
Evansville issued 10 walks, the third-most in a game this season. … Georgia managed just four hits against Sam Highfill and Andrew Shaffner, the fewest of the Bulldogs this season aside from consecutive three-hit games against Kentucky in March. … The Florida-Clemson meeting was the first since 1983 and the first at Clemson since 1930. Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan was an assistant for nine years before being hired at Florida after the 2007 season.
___
KeynoteUSA College Sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
2024 The KeynoteUSA. Copyright © 2024 Keynote USA All rights reserved.. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keynote USA
For the Latest Local News, Follow Keynote USA Local on Twitter.