There are a few things that don’t happen in life, and scoring runs on TCU’s Riley Ferrell is one of them. As one of college baseball’s most dominant closers climbed the mound in the top of the ninth with a one-run lead over NC State on Saturday night, he’d allowed just two earned runs over roughly 27 innings in 2015. So with the bases uninhabited and the Wolfpack down to their last out, the Frogs were already making plans for how they were going to spend their early Sunday afternoon.
And then the universe shifted and the laws of physics were temporarily altered. After a two-out walk put one man on, NC State’s Chance Shepard somehow managed to get around on one of Ferrell’s blistering 97 mph flame balls, sending it on a gravity-defying flight over the dead center wall of Williams-Reilly Field and stunning to silence what had been a raucaus home crowd. The Frogs had no answer in the bottom of the ninth and the Wolfpack moved past the tournament’s No. 7 seed and into the Fort Worth regional finals with a 5-4 win.
Late-game heroics were the theme of the NCAA Baseball Tournament’s second day, a Saturday that saw Dansby Swanson carry Vandy past Indiana, Cal walk it off against A&M in the 14th, Louisville sneak by Michigan and Maryland topple No. 1 overall seed UCLA.
Here’s a look at the rest of Saturday’s action:
Vanderbilt 6, Indiana 4
Dansby Swanson is not human. He’s a robotic assassin sent from the future to destroy baseballs and the dreams of anyone that dares get in his way.
Having watched his Commodores rally back from an early 3-0 deficit only to give up a game tying run in the sixth, the likely No. 1 pick in the upcoming MLB Draft decided it was time for a plot twist. With a runner on and one out in the top of the ninth, Swanson went all T-800 on Indiana’s Luke Harrison.
.@LieutenantDans7 does it AGAIN! Vandy goes up in the top of the 9th on the 2-run blast. #RoadToOmaha http://t.co/RKNAB7VPqN
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) May 31, 2015
With the scouts still rubbing the stars from their eyes, Swanson made an even more stupefying play in the field to help close the bottom of the ninth.
In case you’re wondering, this play gets better each time you watch it. http://t.co/Cvc7LMJBmD @davidprice14 #Swansby #DansbySwanson
— VU baseball tweeting (@VUHawkTalk) May 31, 2015
Someone must stop Dansby before he destroys us all.
California 2, Texas A&M 1 (14 innings)
The Aggies, who rank top 10 nationally in batting average and homers, have that flash flood ability to pour on runs at any time. So when they got on the board just one out into the game against Cal, you started to head to higher ground.
But the rains never came. Cal starter Ryan Mason has had a solid but not remarkable year (6-3, 3.01), pitched the game of his life, giving up just six hits over eight innings. And it wasn’t even like he had to keep escaping jams, either — the only real drama came in his final inning after a wild pitch moved an Aggie to third with two outs and Mitchell Nau, the SEC’s fourth-best hitter by average, at the dish. But Mason stayed cool, coaxing an ending to the inning with a ground out.
A&M, on the other hand, played Houdini all night. The Aggies escaped a second and third jam in the sixth, a bases-loaded jam in the eighth and stranded a man on second in the bottom of the ninth.
But their luck finally ran out in the 14th. With Cal’s Mitchell Kranson sitting curveball on a 2-1 count, he connected for a towering solo blast to walk it off in College Station.
Mitchell Kranson (aka El Gaucho) says GOODNIGHT! #RoadToOmaha #WalkOff http://t.co/bH2dR7efKx
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) May 31, 2015
Washouts galore
The figurative storm in College Station never broke, but there was plenty of literal water around the rest of Texas. Both games in Dallas (Dallas Baptist vs. Texas, Oregon State vs. VCU) were pushed to Sunday by rain. In Houston, Rice vs. Houston Baptist will pick up in the fourth inning (Rice leads, 1-0) on Sunday and will be followed by the postponed Houston vs. Louisiana-Lafayette.
Weather also interfered in Champaign, Ill., where Wright State vs. Ohio was suspended (Wright State leads, 5-2, in the third) and Illinois vs. Notre Dame was postponed. Both games will take place on Sunday.
The rest of the scores
Maryland 4, #1 UCLA 1
#2 LSU 2, UNC-Wilmington 0
#3 Louisville 4, Michigan 3
#4 Florida 8, South Florida 2
#5 Miami 8, Columbia 3
#8 Missouri State 5, Iowa 3
Florida State 3, Charleston 2
Cal State Fullerton 3, Arizona State 2 (14 innings)
Virginia 3, San Diego State 1
Arkansas 7, Oklahoma State 5
Missouri State 14, Canisius 1
Oregon 12, Canisius 6 (Canisius eliminated)
Bradley 9, Morehead State 4 (Morehead State eliminated)
Auburn 1, Mercer 0 (Mercer eliminated)
St. John’s 10, Oral Roberts 4 (Oral Roberts eliminated)
FIU 2, ECU 0 (ECU eliminated)
Coastal Carolina 4, Texas Southern 1 (Texas Southern eliminated)
Stony Brook 11, Sacred Heart 6 (Sacred Heart eliminated)
Florida Atlantic 8, Florida A&M 1 (Florida A&M eliminated)
Tulane 15, Lehigh 3 (Lehigh eliminated)
Radford 5, Lipscomb 2 (Lipscomb eliminated)
USC 12, UC Santa Barbara 3 (UC Santa Barbara eliminated)
Pepperdine 10, Clemson 8 (Clemson eliminated)
CSU Bakersfield 2, Ole Miss 1 (Ole Miss eliminated)
Updated bracket
