Having just watched TCU come unhinged and allow four runs in the eighth, NC State sat on an 8-1 lead just four outs away from clinching the Fort Worth Regional. And then the Wolfpack completely forgot how play the sport of baseball. Two disaster-filled innings (and seven unearned runs) later, they watched as the Horned Frogs walked off for a shocking 9-8 extra-innings victory and a reservation in the super regionals.
The sheer ineptitude of NC State’s collapse is mind boggling. In the span of just seven outs, the Wolfpack defense walked five batters, committed three errors, had two passed balls and balked twice.
The Wolfpack walked and balked their way through the bottom of the eighth, letting the Frogs pile up seven quick runs to pull within one. In the bottom of the ninth, a team that came into the night 30-0 when leading after eight innings let the tying run score from third on a passed ball-strikeout.
Then, with men on second and third and no outs in the bottom of the 10th, TCU’s Elliot Barzilli singled through the right side to end it, setting up a super regional showdown between the Horned Frogs and Texas A&M in Fort Worth.
Speaking of the Aggies …
Texas A&M 3, California 1
This was a close, competitive game, but let’s be honest: a nine inning contest between these two seemed like a rather bland way to cap this trilogy. After A&M and Cal combined for 26 innings in their two matchups over the weekend, we were all hoping for some legendary marathon in the rubber game. Well, most of us anyway.
For a while there it looked like we’d indeed get extras. After a solo shot by Cal’s Chris Paul in the top of the seventh, the game headed into the bottom of the frame squared at one apiece. But the Aggies didn’t wait long to retake the lead, using two walks and consecutive sac plays to go up 2-1 without so much as a hit. They hammered in the final nail an inning later when Hunter Melton singled in a third run — the first time in 34 innings that either team led the other by more than one run.
LSU 2, UNC-Wilmington 0
LSU’s athletic director pitched a fit when the NCAA made a controversial decision to postpone this game until Monday, effectively giving Wilmington an unscheduled rest day. His concerns turned out to be well-founded: after the Tigers plated a pair of runs off the starter in the second inning, the well-stocked Wilmington bullpen held them to just four hits and no runs the rest of the way.
But it doesn’t much matter how well the opponent’s pen is throwing when your own starter is a fire-breathing hell beast. Jared Poche was incendiary, burning through the Wilmington lineup for 8 2/3 innings while giving up just six hits and no runs. A double with two outs in the ninth was the only thing that separated him from a complete game.
He did have some help with his friends, though. With a man on first and no outs in the fourth, Wilmington hammered a liner into the right-center gap. But then Andrew Stevenson happened.
LSU’s Andrew Stevenson takes flight! #RoadToOmaha #SCTop10 https://t.co/dAZUa3dNkf
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) June 1, 2015
Here’s a look at the rest of the day’s scores.
Monday scoreboard
Baton Rouge
LSU 2, UNC-Wilmington 0 (LSU advances to super regionals)
Champaign
Illinois 8, Wright State 4 (Illinois advances to the super regionals)
College Station
Texas A&M 3, California 1 (Texas A&M advances to the super regionals)
Coral Gables
Miami 21, Columbia 3 (Miami advances to the super regionals)
Dallas
VCU 3, Dalls Baptist 1 (VCU advances to the super regionals)
Fort Worth
TCU 9, NC State 8 (TCU advances to the super regionals)
Houston
Louisiana-Lafayette 5, Rice 2 (Louisiana-Lafayette advances to the super regionals)
Los Angles
Maryland 2, UCLA 1 (Maryland advances to the super regionals)
Nashville
Vanderbilt 21, Radford 0 (Vanderbilt advances to the super regionals)
Tallahassee
Florida State 8, Charleston 1 (Florida State advances to the super regionals)
Super regional bracket
