Posted by The Road to Omaha has begun. You have Bowl Season in December-January, March Madness, and then postseason baseball – the trifecta of ultimate college sporting events.
Sixty-four teams began their journey on Friday. In 16 Regionals across the country, the round-robin double-elimination tournament is underway, with lots of excitement for the next three to four days. Of these teams, 16 will win their Regional and advance to next weekend’s Super Regionals.
It was an absolutely crazy day. Six walk-offs were just part of the day. It was the most walk-offs on one day in NCAA Regionals history.
Both games in the Chapel Hill Regional ended with walk-offs. First, it was LSU who needed a bottom 9th home run to beat Wofford. Then, in the night game, Long Island came from behind to tie North Carolina and then hit a 3-run top 9th homer to take the lead. North Carolina would need a walk-off grand slam to win that game.
In the Corvallis Regional, Nicholls would take a lead over UC Irvine in the top of the 9th only to have UC Irvine get a 2-RBI single in the bottom of the inning to walk it off. South Carolina needed a 2-run bottom 9th home run to tie the game, then a sac fly RBI in the 10th for a walk-off. In the Charlottesville Regional, Mississippi State would hit a bottom 10th home run for yet another walk-off. Not to be outdone, Clemson needed a line drive into the outfield to get its runner on 2nd base across the plate to walk off against High Point.
In addition to the walk-offs, several games were won by just one run: Georgia over Army, VCU over Wake Forest, Oregon over San Diego, and UCF over Alabama.
No. 16 East Carolina was the first national seed to lose their first game. The Pirates fell to Evansville, the No. 4 seed in the Greenville Regional. In the night games, No. 13 became the second national seed to fall in its opening game when Arizona lost to Grand Canyon.
The Big 12 went 5-0 on Friday. Kansas State was up 9-4 in the top of the 6th when their game went into a rain delay. That game resumes on Saturday.
Here are the results of Friday’s first-round games:
(Teams in bold won their game)
Knoxville Regional
(1) #1 Tennessee (1-0) 9 – Northern Kentucky (0-1) 3
(2) Southern Miss (0-1) 4 – (3) Indiana (1-0) 10
(1) #2 Kentucky (1-0) 10 – (4) Western Michigan (0-1) 8
(2) Indiana State (0-1) 1 – (3) Illinois (1-0) 4
(1) #3 Texas A&M (1-0) 8– (4) Grambling (0-1) 0
(2) Louisiana (0-1) 5– (3) Texas (1-0) 12
(1) #4 North Carolina (1-0) 11- (4) Long Island (0-1) 8
(2) LSU (1-0) 4– (3) Wofford (0-1) 3
(1) #5 Arkansas (1-0) 17 – (4) Southeast Missouri State (0-1) 9
(2) Louisiana Tech – (3) Kansas State – Rain delay; will resume at 11am Sat with K-State up 9-4 Top 6th
(1) #6 Clemson (1-0) 4– (4) High Point (0-1) 3
(2) Vanderbilt (0-1) 3 – (3) Coastal Carolina (1-0) 13
(1) #7 Georgia (1-0) 8 – (4) Army (0-1) 7
(2) UNC Wilmington (1-0) 9– (3) Georgia Tech (0-1) 0
(1) #8 Florida State (1-0) 7 – (4) Stetson (0-1) 2
(2) Alabama (0-1) 7 – (3) UCF (1-0) 8
(1) #9 Oklahoma (1-0) 14– (4) Oral Roberts (0-1) 0
(2) Duke (0-1) 1 – (3) UConn (1-0) 4
(1) #10 NC State (1-0) 9 – (4) Bryant (0-1) 2
(2) South Carolina (1-0) 8 – (3) James Madison (0-1) 7 (10 innings)
(1) #11 Oklahoma State (1-0) 19 – (4) Niagara (0-1) 7
(2) Nebraska (0-1) 2 – (3) Florida (1-0) 5
(1) #12 Virginia (1-0) 4 – (4) Penn (0-1) 2
(2) Mississippi State (1-0) 5– (3) St. John’s (0-1) 2 (10 innings)
(1) #13 Arizona (0-1) 4– (4) Grand Canyon (1-0) 9
(2) Dallas Baptist (0-1) 1 – (3) West Virginia (1-0) 4
(1) #14 UC Santa Barbara (1-0) 9 – (4) Fresno State (0-1) 6
(2) San Diego (0-1) 4 (3) Oregon (1-0) 5 (11 innings)
(1) #15 Oregon State (1-0) 10– (4) Tulane (0-1) 4
(2) UC Irvine (1-0) 13 – (3) Nicholls (0-1) 12
(1) #16 East Carolina (0-1) 1 – (4) Evansville (1-0) 4
Wake Forest (0-1) 0– (3) VCU (1-0) 1
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BARRY LEWIS
Barry is the publisher/managing editor for KillerFrogs.com. He has been a Horned Frog since the Jim Wacker era and loves covering all of TCU's sports.
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