COLLEGE BASEBALL TOURNAMENT – ROAD TO THE CWS

Jeremy Eierman’s two-run home run in the sixth inning lifted Missouri State to a 3-2 win over Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament on Monday night, earning the Bears their third super regional appearance in school history.

Missouri State (43-18), the second seed, last reached a super regional in 2015 — losing in three games to the Razorbacks. The school also advanced in 2003, when it made its only appearance in the College World Series.

Doug Still (8-2) started and allowed one run in five innings to earn the win for the Bears, pitching just three days after Missouri State’s opening win over Oklahoma State.

Jared Gates homered and went 2 for 4 for top-seeded Arkansas (45-19), while Eric Cole had three hits in the loss.

Kacey Murphy (5-1) took the loss while pitching for the second straight day, allowing two runs and striking out eight in five innings.

 

Brent Rooker and Cody Brown each had three RBIs, and Mississippi State beat host Southern Miss 8-6 early Tuesday in Game 7 of the Hattiesburg Regional to advance to the super regional.

Mississippi State (40-25) won four games in two days — including two against Southern Miss — to advance to play No. 4 national seed LSU.

Rooker hit his 23rd home run of the season in the first inning, but Southern Miss answered with four runs in the bottom half to chase Bulldogs starter Cole Gordon. In the fifth, Brown hit a three-run homer with two outs to pull to 5-4.

Mississippi State loaded the bases in the seventh without a hit, but only scored one run to get within 6-5. They took a 7-6 lead with two outs in the eighth on Rooker’s high pop-up that found space in shallow right field, and Elijah MacNamee added an insurance run in the ninth with his first hit of the game.

Spencer Price (4-1) got the win for Mississippi State, and Riley Self picked up his eighth save.

Nick Sandlin (10-2) took the loss for Southern Miss (50-16), which was seeking its second super regional appearance.

 

Zak Baayoun escaped a sixth-inning jam with back-to-back strikeouts and five Long Beach State pitchers combined on a four-hitter to beat Texas 2-1 on Monday night and reach its first super regional since 2004.

Long Beach State (41-18) will play Cal State Fullerton in a best-of-three series for a chance at the Dirtbags’ first College World Series appearance since 1998.

Dave Smith opened with four scoreless innings on 51 pitches, and Baayoun (3-0) stranded two runners in scoring position with his strikeouts in the sixth. Chris Rivera threw an inning of relief for his 12th save.

Leadoff hitter Jarren Duran opened the scoring in the first for LBSU. He singled and advanced to second on an error, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a throwing error. Lucas Tancas made it 2-0 in the third inning when he scored from third during Ramsey Romano’s rundown between first and second.

Texas (39-24) starter Nick Kennedy (8-2) allowed two runs in 2 2/3 innings. Bret Boswell scored on a wild pitch in the fourth to get to 2-1 after he singled, stole second and advanced to third on a groundball out.

 

Hunter Hearn scored twice and drove in two more runs to lead Sam Houston State to a 4-3 victory over host Texas Tech, and the Bearkats are going to an NCAA super regional for the first time.

After Hearn reached on a fielder’s choice in the sixth inning to drive in a run and tie the game at 3-all, he scored from first on second baseman Brian Klein’s throwing error that ricocheted down the right field line.

Sam Houston State (44-21), the Southland Conference tournament champ, will play Florida State in the super regional.

The Bearkats dropped into the loser’s bracket after a 6-0 loss to Texas Tech on Saturday night. But the Bearkats then beat Arizona for the second time in the Lubbock Regional and won twice against the Red Raiders (45-17), the No. 5 national seed and a College World Series team last season.

Nick Mikolajchak worked the ninth for his 13th save, striking out clean-up hitter Hunter Hargrove with two runners on base to end the game. Hargrove had three hits.

Riley Cooper (4-3), the third of five Bearkats pitchers, allowed three runs in 4 2/3 innings. Parker Mushinski (3-2) took the loss.

 

Kole Cottam’s go-ahead, two-run double highlighted a three-run seventh inning as Kentucky rallied past North Carolina State 10-5 to clinch the Lexington Regional early Tuesday and earn their first NCAA super regional berth.

After a thunderstorm delayed the game’s start by 2 hours, 16 minutes, the top-seeded Wildcats (43-21) rallied twice with a four-run fourth before taking the lead for good in the seventh. After Tristan Pompey scored on one of four N.C. State errors for a 5-all tie, Cottam drove a 2-1 pitch off the right-field screen for the lead. Kentucky added three more runs in the ninth with the help of two more miscues to seal its place in next weekend’s super regional at in-state rival Louisville.

Marcus Carson had three RBIs while Evan White, Becker, Tyler Marshall and Connor Heady had one each for the Wildcats, who managed just six hits but drew nine walks.

Staff ace Sean Hjelle (11-3) pitched 3 1/3 innings of perfect relief with five strikeouts for the victory.

Cody Beckman (0-2) took the loss for the Wolfpack (36-25), who managed just five hits.

 

Will Toffey had two homers and five RBIs to lead Vanderbilt into the NCAA Tournament’s super regional with an 8-0 victory over No. 1 seed Clemson in the Clemson Regional on Monday night.

The Commodores (36-23-1) advanced to the super regional round for the fourth time in five years and will play the best-of-three series at Oregon State, the NCAA’s No. 1 overall seed.

Vanderbilt hopes to bring some of the punch it showed in Clemson to that series. The Commodores, seeded second, had 30 runs and 49 hits in four tournament games. Toffey hit .473 (9-of-19) with 10 RBIs and was named the regional MVP.

Clemson (42-21) lost a home regional for a second straight season. The Tigers fell behind on Toffey’s two-run homer in the third inning. He added a three-run homer in the fifth.

Matt Ruppenthal (3-3) pitched six scoreless innings for Vanderbilt.

 

Evan Skoug and Josh Watson both homered to back a strong outing by Brian Howard, and TCU advanced to its fourth straight NCAA super regional with a 15-3 win over Dallas Baptist on Monday night.

The Horned Frogs (45-16) swept through the Fort Worth Regional and will remain at Lupton Stadium next weekend to play Missouri State in a best-of-three series. TCU, the No. 6 national seed, is trying to get to the College World Series for the fourth year in a row.

After beating Virginia in an elimination game earlier Monday, the Patriots (42-21) led TCU 2-0 on Matt Duce’s two-run homer in the first inning. Those were the only runs Howard (10-3) allowed in 6 2/3 innings.

DBU starter Gavin Fritz (0-1) was lifted after two walks and a hit batsman loaded the bases without an out in the second. Reliever Jimmy Fouse was greeted by Connor Wanhanen’s two-run single, and the Frogs went ahead when another run scored on a double-play grounder.

TCU added six runs in the third, including Watson’s two-run homer and Nolan Brown’s two-run single. Skoug’s three-run shot in the sixth was his 18th homer of the season.

Devlin Granberg led off the ninth with a home run, Dallas Baptist’s 13th in four regional games and 97th of the season.