Notre Dame pushed national No. 1 seed Tennessee into an NCAA Baseball Tournament elimination game on Friday night. Texas A&M, East Carolina and Oklahoma moved within one of the College World Series.
The Irish have created the biggest upset of the tournament so far, taking a big early lead and holding off the Volunteers 8-6 in the opener of their best-of-three regional super in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Troy Claunch’s bases-loaded single in the ninth inning gave No. 5 Texas A&M a 5-4 win over Louisville. The No. 8 East Carolina opened their game against Texas with a five-run eighth inning and won 13-7.
Oklahoma, in the supers for the first time since 2013, held off No. 4 Virginia Tech 5-4 for its eighth win in nine games.
Notre Dame was the No. 2 regional seed in Statesboro, Ga., last week and scored just 11 total points while sweeping three games to advance.
The Irish led 8-1 in front of the orange full at Lindsey Nelson Stadium after Jack Brannigan’s three-run homer in the fourth inning. Notre Dame hit a season-high four homers, and Jordan Beck’s homer in the ninth was rookie Jack Findlay allowed the final two innings.
Only one national No. 1 seed has won the championship under the tournament’s current format, and that was in 1999. Vols coach Tony Vitello said he was confident his players could cope with the pressure of a playoff game on Saturday.
The Irish will pitch their ace, John Michael Bertrand, and the Volunteers will be without All-SEC outfielder and .365 hitter Drew Gilbert, who is scheduled to sit out after being ejected in the fifth inning.
Texas A&M left the bases loaded in four of the first eight innings against Louisville before loading them again in the ninth against Michael Prosecky. This time, Claunch drove Prosecky’s first pitch down the right side to put the Aggies one win away from the CWS after even failing to qualify for the SEC Tournament last year.
East Carolina has never made it to the College World Series in 31 previous NCAA Tournament appearances. No team has failed so many times in the tournament.
The Pirates won for the 22nd time in 23 games. But coach Cliff Godwin hasn’t forgotten 2016, the year his team won Game 1 of their super regional at Texas Tech and then lost the next two.
“I take it day to day,” said Godwin, now 2-6 in four super regional appearances. “It’s been a great group for me and I’m not going to look too far ahead.”
“I really think the score would have been different if we had played Texas,” Godwin said. “I’m grateful that we can play on our pitch and play in front of all our fans. They’ve been waiting for this for a long time, going back to when I played here.
Oklahoma jumped on Virginia Tech starter Griffin Green in Blacksburg, Va. Green lasted just one inning plus two batters for his shortest start of the season, and OU was up 5-0 in the sixth.
The Hokies tried to come back, Carson Jones and Jack Hurley each hitting two-run homers, but OU right fielder John Spikerman made a diving fly catch from Gavin Cross to end the game and put the Sooners out in a win to play in the CWS in Omaha, Nebraska next week.
East Carolina was clinging to an 8-7 lead in the eighth inning when Alec Makarewicz led the bottom half with a home run that likely would have been a flyout had it not been for the mix-up.
Left fielder Eric Kennedy looked ready to catch near the fence, but center fielder Douglas Hodo III cut in front of him and the ball flew off Hodo’s glove and went into the stands.
“I knew it would be a wall scraper,” Makarewicz said. “Fortunately, the fans were screaming as loud as them and [Kennedy et Hodo] got up and hit each other and off we went.”
The game reminded Texas coach David Pierce of Carlos Martinez’s famous home run for Cleveland against Jose Canseco and the Texas Rangers in 1993. Canseco went against the wall and the ball bounced over his head and over the fencing.
Tennessee All-SEC outfielder Gilbert and pitching coach Frank Anderson were ejected for discussing a strike call with plate umpire Kellen Levy.
Gilbert stood speechless after Levy threw him, and Anderson got out of the dugout to protest.
NCAA rules provide that Gilbert, who beat team best .373, and Anderson will be suspended for Game 2.
Team manager Billy Van Raaphorst said in a statement that Gilbert disputed several pitches from center field in the top of the second inning. Van Raaphorst said he warned Gilbert to direct his comments at his team and not at the referees or Notre Dame.
“He said OK and he’s just excited,” Van Raaphorst said. “During the fifth inning after the first strike, Tennessee batter Gilbert yelled an expletive, followed by another expletive as he came out of the box and was then ejected.”
The other four super regionals open Saturday: UConn (49-14) at No. 2 Stanford (45-15); Arkansas (41-19) at No. 10 North Carolina (42-20); Mississippi (35-22) at No. 11 South Mississippi (47-17); and No. 14 Auburn (40-19) at No. 3 Oregon State (47-16).
