Tennessee decisively ended Evansville's surprise run in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, Florida topped Clemson in a wild five-hour game and Texas A&M used a nine-run inning to pull away from Oregon.
The next stop for the three Southeastern Conference teams is the Men's College World Series.
The Volunteers hit seven home runs in the first five innings and cruised to a 12-1 victory over Evansville after the Purple Aces upset the No. 1 national seed Volunteers a day earlier to extend their best-of-three super regional to a third-place finish. game.
Michael Robertson, Florida's ninth hitter, slashed a ball to left-center to bring home two runs in the 13th inning for an 11-10 victory. Florida has won nine straight super regionals under coach Kevin O'Sullivan, the longest streak by any team since the round was added in 1999, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Tennessee and Florida are in the MCWS for the second straight year, and Texas A&M is in for the second time in three years after Kaeden Kent's grand slam in the nine-run seventh inning lifted the Aggies past Oregon 15-9.
North Carolina, Florida State and Virginia swept their super regionals on Saturday to secure spots at the MCWS in Omaha, Nebraska, starting Friday.
The other two MCWS locations remained open Sunday night. Georgia forced a decisive third game against North Carolina State, rebounding from a 17-run loss on Saturday to beat the Wolfpack 11-2. Oregon State was at Kentucky in Game 2.
The last time Tennessee was the No. 1 national seed, in 2022, it lost a three-game super regional to Notre Dame in Knoxville. The Volunteers weren't going to let that happen against the regional No. 4 seed Purple Aces.
They unleashed the power that has made them the nation's best home run team, with Christian Moore hitting his No. 34 leading off the bottom of the first and Dean Curley and Dalton Bargo back-to-back in the second. Bargo and Moore homered again and Billy Amick and Cal Stark also homered before the blitz ended. The seven home runs were a Tennessee postseason record in a single game.
The Vols have hit 26 home runs in six NCAA Tournament games and have 173 on the season, second to LSU's 188 in 1997.
Florida finally prevailed in their 5 hour, 3 minute game after the Tigers' Cam Cannarella kept the game going with a tying home run in the ninth and the defensive play of the tournament in the 10th. Alden Mathes hit a go-ahead home run in the top of the 13th.
The Gators led 9-6 with one out in the ninth when Cannarella came to bat with two runners on base. Cannarella launched Brandon Neely's first pitch to right field to tie the score.
In the next inning, Cannarella made an over-the-shoulder catch that ended the inning with Ashton Wilson's fly ball to center. Cannarella, playing shallow, turned and chased after him and the ball deflected off the heel of her glove and onto his chest as he left his feet to hit the wall. He was able to hold onto the ball and delay Florida's celebration.
The Gators, national runners-up last year, had to win their final regular-season series at Georgia to put together a winning record and qualify as an at-large selection for the tournament. As a regional third seed, they went to Stillwater, Oklahoma, and beat host Oklahoma State twice to advance. Their sweep at Clemson came in the programs' first meeting since 1983.
“Going through the struggles and having every game matter for the last two or three weeks of the year probably toughened us up a little bit,” O'Sullivan said.
Texas A&M, down 8-4, sent 13 batters to the plate in the seventh inning against Oregon. The Ducks' Brock Moore and Jaxon Jordan combined to walk seven and hit one batter in the inning. Kent, the second batter of the inning, singled. Nobody got another hit until he sent Jordan's pitch over the right-center field fence.
No. 7 Georgia got home runs from Slate Alford, Tre Phelps and Paul Toetz to take a 10-0 lead against NC State. Limited to four hits on Saturday, the Bulldogs had 15 on Sunday. Their starter, Leighton Finley, pitched a season-high 6⅔ innings, allowing one run and striking out five.
“For us, the turnaround was huge and we stayed focused on playing the game,” Georgia coach Wes Johnson said. “Obviously, scoring those two right there in the first got us off to a great start. Leighton threw the ball extremely well. It really calmed down our bullpen a little bit because you never know what you're going to have to do in a game like this.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
