CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Henry Godbout hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning, and NCAA tournament No. 12 seed Virginia came from behind to beat Kansas State 7-4 in the Charlottesville Super Regional opener Friday night.
The Cavaliers (45-15) can advance to the College World Series for the seventh time in program history with a win on Saturday. Kansas State (35-25), which has never won a super regional or played in the CWS, must beat Virginia twice to advance next week’s eight-team championship event in Omaha, Nebraska.
Kaelen Culpepper’s two-run double in the top of the third inning gave the Wildcats a 3-0 lead in the opener.
Virginia used a sacrifice fly and a groundout to score twice in the fifth and get within a run, and the Cavaliers took a 4-3 lead the next inning on Griff O’Ferrall’s two-out two-run double. The visitors struck back and tied the game in the seventh on David Bishop’s one-out solo homer.
Godbout’s go-ahead shot to left field on a 1-0 pitch in the home half of the inning was the sophomore second baseman’s ninth home run of the season, and it was the only hit the Cavaliers had in the seventh. Godbout is a former Baylor School standout from New York who helped the Chattanooga program win its third consecutive TSSAA Division II-AA state championship in 2021, and then as a senior in 2022 was the classification’s state Mr. Baseball honoree.
“I kind of blacked out, I’m going to be completely honest with you,” he said in the postgame news conference when asked about his reaction to hitting the homer. “It was a pretty special moment.”
Godbout, batting seventh in the lineup, finished 2-for-4 after striking out in the second and fourth innings.
“That’s kind of how the game goes sometimes,” he said. “You’ve got to rally back from those types of at-bats, and kind of relying on our approach and what we do in practice and just kind of settling myself down and not trying to do too much.”
Virginia’s lineup also included Baylor alum Henry Ford, with the freshman first baseman batting cleanup and going 2-for-5 with a first-inning single that drove in the game’s first run.
Evan Blanco (8-3) got the start and the win for Virginia on the mound. He allowed four runs on five hits and a walk in seven innings, striking out nine batters. Matt Augustin got the final two outs for his first save.
Blake Dean (4-4) took the loss after giving up two runs on a hit and a walk.
Virginia most recently appeared in the CWS last season. The Cavaliers won their only championship in 2015, when they beat Vanderbilt a year finishing as runners-up to the Commodores.
The Cavaliers’ victory was part of a good start to this round of NCAA tourney competition for the Atlantic Coast Conference. Fellow ACC programs Florida State and North Carolina also won super regional openers to move within a victory of the College World Series, which means as many as three league members could secure tickets to Omaha on Saturday.
If a third game is necessary in any of the super regionals that started Friday, it would be played on Sunday.
AP file photo by Gary McCullough / Florida State’s Jaime Ferrer homered twice Friday as the Seminoles routed Connecticut in the Tallahassee Super Regional opener.Florida State 24, UConn 4
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Jaime Ferrer hit two of Florida State’s five home runs, Marco Dinges and James Tibbs III added four RBIs apiece, and the eighth-seeded Seminoles cruised past the University of Connecticut in the Tallahassee Super Regional opener.
Florida State set NCAA super regional records for the most runs scored in a game and largest margin of victory. It was Florida State’s most runs in an NCAA tournament game since a 37-6 rout of Ohio State in a 2008 regional.
Florida State (46-15), which is hosting a super regional for the first time since 2017, is one win away from a 24th College World Series appearance. The Seminoles hadn’t faced UConn since the 1957 CWS.
The hosts drew 15 walks and struck out just once. Five of their 18 hits were homers, including two-out shots by Dinges and Max Williams. Cam Smith and Tibbs each drew two-out, bases-loaded walks in the third inning for an 8-0 lead.
Ferrer hit a two-run homer in the sixth, and Smith and Tibbs added RBI singles for a six-run inning. The Seminoles added nine runs in the seventh, started by McGwire Holbrook’s bases-clearing double.
Florida State starter Carson Dorsey (7-4) allowed just one earned run and struck out six batters in 5 1/3 innings pitched.
Ian Cooke (5-2) took the loss on the mound for UConn (35-25) after allowing five runs in 1 2/3 innings.
“We got boat-raced,” Huskies coach Jim Penders said before saying the lopsided final score and then making a reference to Florida State’s adjacent football stadium. “I thought we were in Doak Campbell, because that looked like a football score, but that doesn’t matter for tomorrow.”
Link Jarrett, in his second season as Florida State’s coach, would agree.
“We have to go deliver the goods,” he said of finishing off the series.
AP file photo by Gary McCullough / Florida State second-year head coach Link Jarrett has the Seminoles within a win of reaching the College World Series.North Carolina 8, West Virginia 6
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Luke Stevenson hit a tying home run leading off the bottom of the ninth, Vance Honeycutt followed with a two-out, two-run shot, and No. 4 North Carolina rallied behind three hitless innings from reliever Matt Poston to beat West Virginia in the Chapel Hill Super Regional opener.
North Carolina (46-14) can earn the program’s 12th CWS berth with a victory on Saturday. West Virginia (36-23), playing this far in the NCAA tourney for the first time in program history, must win twice to advance to Omaha.
North Carolina improved to 36-3 at home this season.
Kyle West, who homered in the third to drive in West Virginia’s first run, added a two-out RBI single in the fourth to get the Mountaineers within 4-2.
Reed Chumley homered after Sam White reached on an error leading off the sixth, and West followed with a two-run shot to give West Virginia a 6-4 lead. West is the third player in program history to hit two home runs in a postseason game. Chumley’s homer was his team-high 16th of the season.
Colby Wilkerson, batting ninth in the lineup, hit a one-out solo shot in the seventh to get the Tar Heels within a run.
Honeycutt’s home run was his 25th of the season and the 62nd of his career, a school record.
Derek Clark (8-3) nearly went the distance for West Virginia. He left the mound with one out in the ninth and a runner on first after throwing 144 pitches. Aidan Major surrendered Honeycutt’s homer after striking out Wilkerson for the second out.
Poston (5-2) retired all nine batters he faced, striking out four.
North Carolina has made 11 CWS appearances but never won it. The Tar Heels were the runners-up to Oregon State in back-to-back seasons (2006-07).
AP photo by Ben McKeown / North Carolina’s Vance Honeycutt hit a two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Tar Heels to a comeback win over West Virginia on Friday.