It was a good day for the nationally seeded Southeastern Conference teams in the NCAA Tournament, except for Florida.
No. 1 Arkansas, No. 3 Tennessee, No. 4 Vanderbilt, No. 7 Mississippi State and No. 12 Mississippi all won and all moved within one win of reaching the Super Regional phase of the NCAA baseball chammpionships on Saturday.
No. 15 Florida lost 19-1 at home to South Alabama. It was the most runs scored against the Gators in 15 years. South Florida is the first No. 4 regional seed to open the tournament 2-0 since Davidson in 2017. The Bulls beat Miami 10-2 and are one win away from their first super regional.
STARKVILLE, Miss. — Kamren James singled to open the sixth and homered his second time up in the inning as No. 7 overall seed Mississippi State batted around in a nine-run outburst to put an emphatic end to VCU’s 22-game win streak with a 16-4 victory in the winners bracket of the Starkville Regional. Logan Tanner’s RBI single capped a two-run first inning and the Bulldogs (42-15) never looked back. VCU starter Mason Delane (3-1) lasted just three innings. Jaden Griffin replaced Delane and promptly gave up back-to-back home runs to Brad Cumbest and Kellum Clark to stretch the MSU lead to 5-1.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Matt Goodheart led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run and top-seeded and top-ranked Arkansas never looked back in a 5-1 victory over Nebraska in the winners bracket of the Fayetteville Regional. The Razorbacks (48-10) added two more runs in the second on Braydon Webb’s RBI single and a sacrifice fly by Cayden Wallace. Nebraska pulled within 3-1 on a run-scoring single by Luke Roskam in the top of the sixth, but Arkansas answered with a pair of runs in its half of the inning on a bases-loaded walk to Christian Franklin and a wild pitch.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Liam Spence led off the game with a home run and hit another in the second inning, and No. 3 overall seed Tennessee beat No. 3 regional seed Liberty 9-3 in the winners bracket game of the double elimination Knoxville Regional. Tennessee set an NCAA Tournament program record with five home runs, all in the first three innings, to build a 7-0 lead. Tennessee starter Blade Tidwell gave up four hits and three runs, none earned, in 5 2/3 innings. Liberty starter Dylan Cumming gave up all five of Tennessee’s home runs and left the game after 2 2/3 innings.
OXFORD, Miss. — Doug Nikhazy tied a program record with 16 strikeouts and No. 12 overall seed Mississippi beat No. 3 regional seed Florida State 4-3 in the winners bracket game of the Oxford Regional. Nikhazy struck out every player in the Seminoles starting lineup at least once as he joined Robert Earl Siedell (1962), Jamey Price (1995) and Drew Pomeranz (2009) in the Ole Miss record book for strikeouts in a game. Taylor Broadway struck out the side in the ninth and earned his 15th save of the season with two perfect innings of relief for the Rebels. Logan Lacey and Isaiah Perry hit home runs in Florida State’s three-run fifth inning.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Tommy Bell walked on a 3-2 pitch from Thomas Farr with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the eighth inning and No. 11 overall seed Old Dominion slipped past South Carolina 2-1 in the winners bracket of the Columbia Regional. Kenny Lavari and Carter Trice opened the eighth with back-to-back singles for the Monarchs (44-14), advancing a base on a groundout by Brock Gagliardi. Farr (3-7) retired the next batter before walking Matt Coutney intentionally to load the bases for Bell.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Santi Montiel homered and drove in five runs and South Alabama collected 21 hits in a 19-1 win over stunned Florida in an elimination game in the Gainesville Regional. In the bottom of the sixth inning, following a walk, a ground out on a sacrifice bunt and fly out, with two away, South Alabama proceeded to erupt for 10 straight hits, scored 10 runs and sent the next 11 batters to the plate. Josh Rivera went 2 for 3 for the Gators and scored their lone run. The Jaguars handed Florida its second largest margin of defeat in program history. Mississippi State beat the Gators, 20-2 on May 5, 2000 in Starkville, Mississippi.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Kathryn Sandercock gave up two runs on five hits in a complete-game victory, and Florida State defeated fifth-seeded Oklahoma State 4-2 in an elimination game at the Women's College World Series. The game ended early Sunday after an earlier game was delayed about two hours by rain. The Seminoles will face No. 3 Alabama on Sunday in the semifinals. Florida State will need to beat the Crimson Tide twice to advance to the best-of-three championship series. Alabama will need just one win because it is unbeaten in the double-elimination format.
