UC Santa Barbara and Texas Tech clinched regional titles in the NCAA Tournament, leaving four spots open for the best-of-three super regionals set for this weekend.
Santa Barbara (40-18-1) eliminated No. 4 regional seed Xavier with a 14-5 victory in the Nashville Regional. The Gauchos will play at No. 2 national seed Louisville in their first super regional.
No. 5 national seed Texas Tech (44-17) defeated Dallas Baptist 5-3 in the Lubbock Regional to advance for the second time in three years. The Red Raiders will host East Carolina.
At least two other super regional spots were to be clinched Monday night in these games: Coastal Carolina at North Carolina State and Arizona at Louisiana-Lafayette.
LSU was playing Rice in Baton Rouge needing one win to clinch the regional. A Rice win would force a second game Tuesday.
South Carolina’s regional final against UNC-Wilmington was postponed until Tuesday because of rain, meaning there will be at least one regional extending to Tuesday for the first time since 2011.
The top six national seeds have advanced, with the possibility of a seventh if No. 8 LSU wins. No. 7 Clemson was eliminated Sunday.
Santa Barbara assures the West of having at least one team in super regionals. Nine of the 11 teams from the Rocky Mountains westward were knocked out in regionals, with Arizona still alive Monday night.
BIG BATS
– Austin Bush and Clay Fisher each hit three-run homers in UC Santa Barbara’s nine-run fourth inning against Xavier.
– Texas Tech’s Orlando Garcia hit a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning to break a 3-3 tie against Dallas Baptist. Garcia, batting out the No. 9 hole, finished with two doubles and three RBIs.
– Hunter Kopycinski was 3 for 3 with five RBIs in Rice’s 15-0 elimination-game win over Southeastern Louisiana in Baton Rouge.
MARVELOUS ON MOUND
– Arizona’s Nathan Bannister, coming off two days’ rest following a 96-pitch outing Friday, threw 102 pitches over seven innings in a 6-3 win that forced a second game against Louisiana-Lafayette. Bannister allowed five hits and three runs.
– Will Gilbert pitched a career-long eight innings of relief, striking out nine and allowing one earned run on five hits and a walk in NC State’s 8-1 win over Coastal Carolina, which forced a second final.
– Rice’s Ricardo Salinas and Willy Amador combined on a three-hit shutout against Southeastern Louisiana.
AVENT TOSSED, SUSPENDED
North Carolina State coach Elliott Avent was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the third inning of the Wolfpack’s day game against Coastal Carolina. He continued to argue after getting tossed, which led to a two-game suspension under college baseball rules. The Wolfpack scored six runs the next inning and won 8-1 to force a second game for the regional title.
Avent sat out the night game and, if the Wolfpack won, would have to miss the first game of super regionals. A Wolfpack loss would mean he would have to sit out the first game of the 2017 season.
HOME RUN BINGE
More home runs have been hit in regional play than in the entire 2015 tournament. There were 166 homers in 96 games Monday. That compares to 150 in 136 tournament games through the College World Series last year.
This year’s total also is the highest since new bat standards went into effect in 2011. This is the second season a flat-seam ball has been used. The new ball was put into play to increase the amount of offense in the college game. In 2014, the last year for the raised-seam ball, a total of 87 home runs were hit in 139 tournament games.
Clemson, eliminated Sunday, led the regionals with 12 home runs in four games.