The Atlantic Coast Conference advanced three teams to the College World Series on Saturday with Florida State, Virginia and North Carolina sweeping their NCAA super regionals.
Tennessee, the SEC's No. 1 national seed, will have to wait one more day to punch 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 greatest win in the history of our school, a program that 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 up its 24-4 loss over UConn on Friday with a 10-8 win in 12 innings; Virginia finished off Kansas State with a 10-4 victory; and North Carolina defeated West Virginia 2-1 to retire Mountaineers coach Randy Mazey.
The ACC will have at least three teams in the CWS for the first time since 2008, and the league still has North Carolina State and Clemson alive in the super regionals. The ACC sent four teams to Omaha in 2006. No conference has ever had five teams among the eight in a CWS.
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.
“They played their best baseball the last two weekends,” O'Connor said. “We certainly have more to do ahead of us. We're going to enjoy today and tonight and regroup tomorrow and prepare for our plan of what we have to do in Omaha to keep this going.”
North Carolina closer Dalton Pence worked his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the ninth to send the Tar Heels to their 12th CWS and first under Scott Forbes.
Pence covered first on a Ben Lumsden grounder that took first baseman Parks Harber out of the bag. Pence was able to get Lumsden on base and catch Harber's throw to end the game.
Vance Honeycutt, whose home run gave the Tar Heels a win on Friday, hit Tyler Switalski's first pitch of the game out of the park and Harber's hit in the third brought in the go-ahead run.
“What a team, what a team,” Honeycutt said. “I'm not done yet, though.”
Kentucky, Florida, North Carolina State and Texas A&M won their first super regional games.
Trey Pooser limited Oregon State to one hit and four walks in seven innings and Jackson Nove retired all six batters he faced in a 10-0 victory over No. 2 national seed Kentucky. Pooser allowed one run and struck out 18 in 19 innings over his last three starts.
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, the pride of the Missouri Valley Conference, had to endure some late-game tension to extend its series with Tennessee to a third 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's a big challenge to get here. You don't know if you're going to 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. life, “So I'm going to 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.”
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.
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.”
