Florida State and Virginia finished two sweeps of their NCAA Super Regionals on Saturday to become the first teams to advance to the College World Series.
No. 1 nationally ranked Tennessee will have to wait another day to punch its ticket to Omaha, Nebraska. If not, that means Evansville’s plucky Purple Aces will have pulled off one of the great upsets in college baseball history.
The Aces forced a decisive game in the best-of-three series with a 10-8 victory in Knoxville, Tennessee. This made them the first No. 4 regional seed to beat a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The No. 4 regional seeds were 0-30 in such matchups.
“It will, without a doubt, be the biggest win in the history of our school, a program I am extremely proud of,” said coach Wes Carroll. “I’m bleeding and it’s great to be able to experience that as a UE head coach.”
Florida State followed its 24-4 defeat of UConn on Friday with a 10-8 victory in 12 innings, and Virginia finished off Kansas State with a 10-4 win. Their wins will give the Atlantic Coast Conference at least two teams in the CWS for the second year in a row.
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 innings of shutout relief.
The Seminoles will be in their 24th CWS, and the first under second-year head coach Link Jarrett. Last year, they finished with a losing record for the first time in program history and did not participate in 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 singled 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 super regional openers.
Jac Caglianone’s three-run home run 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 on 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 came from behind to beat Oregon 10-6 in College Station.
Evansville didn’t force a third game without enduring some late-game tension. The Volunteers, who gave up five runs, scored twice and drew three walks from Nick Smith to start the ninth. Shane Harris drew 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 for a 6-5 lead in the fifth. Brendan Hord, who was 0-for-18 in the tournament, and Kip Fougerousse each hit two-run home runs in the sixth to make it 10-5.
Evansville has taken on a nothing-to-lose attitude during its first six games in the NCAA Tournament. That changes on Sunday in a winner-take-all game.
“The stakes are high for us, too,” Carroll said. “As a coach, it’s very challenging to get here. You don’t know if you’ll get here again. It’s going to be one of those things that might be one game away (from Omaha) for the rest of my life, so I’m going to cherish it and embrace it.” there and, most importantly, I want to make sure our boys are ready to compete like they did today – loose and with a lot of belief.”
Montgomery dove head first trying to score from second base on a hit to left field. He was tagged and grabbed his right leg immediately. Coach Jim Schlossnagle said he did not know the exact nature of the injury, but added that Montgomery will not play again this season.
“That was pure luck,” he said, “but I was confident and hoping to get a pitch to hit — and luckily I did.”
