CORVALLIS, Ore. - Sonny DiChiara hit a two-run homer, Brody Moore's sacrifice fly in the top of the third inning gave Auburn the lead for good and the Tigers' bullpen allowed just one run in 8 1/3 innings of relief in a 7-5 win over Oregon State on Saturday night to open the NCAA baseball tournament's best-of-three Corvallis Super Regional.
No. 14 seed Auburn (41-19) can clinch a berth in the College World Series with a win Sunday, while a win by No. 3 Oregon State (47-17) would force a deciding game Monday.
Cole Foster walked before DiChiara's opposite-field homer gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Auburn starter Trace Bright hit Justin Boyd with a pitch to lead off the bottom half, Wade Meckler walked and Garret Forrester followed with a three-run homer before Kyle Dernedde drew a bases-loaded walk to score Gavin Logan and give Oregon State a 4-2 lead.
Nate LaRue hit an RBI single and Kason Howell scored on a groundout by Mike Bello in the top of the second, and Foster scored on Moore's fly ball to right in the third to put Auburn ahead 5-4.
Bobby Peirce hit a leadoff homer in the top of the fifth and Bello scored when Foster grounded into a double play to make it 7-4 in the eighth.
Cooper Hjerpe, a finalist for both the Golden Spikes Award and Dick Howser Trophy, was originally scheduled to start for the Beavers but was replaced by Jake Phennigs due to an unspecified illness.
Tommy Sheehan (2-0) allowed two hits in 3 1/3 scoreless innings of reliefs for the win. Blake Burkhalter came on in the ninth and gave up an RBI double to Jacob Melton before earning his 14th save of the season.
Texas A&M 4, Louisville 3
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Dylan Rock drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh, and No. 5 Texas A&M beat No. 12 Louisville to win the College Station Super Regional and become the first team to earn a berth in this year's College World Series.
Texas A&M (42-18), which beat the Cardinals 5-4 in Friday's opener, is heading to its seventh CWS looking for its first championship. The eight-team event starts this Friday in Omaha, Nebraska.
The sweep in College Station came one year and two days after the Aggies hired away Schlossnagle from TCU, where he had led the Horned Frogs to five CWS berths in 18 years.
"At this time a year ago, I was waking up consistently at 3:30 in the morning in a full body sweat," he said. "I had just left a place that was so comfortable. To be sitting here going to the College World Series, every single ounce of credit goes to the players."
Louisville (42-21-1) has made five CWS appearances - four of them since 2013 - without a title, but the Cardinals will have to wait until next year for another chance.
Jacob Palisch took the mound in the ninth for the Aggies after Brad Rudis gave up a leadoff single to Christian Knapczyk. Palisch struck out Metzinger swinging on a full count for the first out, and Dalton Rushing flied out to left field for the second. Knapczyk took second on a wild pitch, but Palisch struck out cleanup hitter Jack Payton swinging to end the game with his fifth save of the year.
"I'm glad we won, but I'm really glad to see us win a game that's not 15-7," said Schlossnagle, who got a cooler of water poured over him as the team celebrated outside the dugout. "I've been saying all year long, you're going to run into great pitchers. It's good to see us match that up and play good defense."
Louisville jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first on Rushing's two-run homer. The Aggies pulled even in the third on Rock's bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly by Austin Bost.
The Cardinals took a 3-2 lead in the fifth on Payton's two-out RBI single, but Ryan Targac homered to left-center on the first pitch from Riley Phillips in the sixth to knot the score at 3.
The Aggies rallied in the ninth after Trevor Werner was hit by a pitch from Ryan Hawks (5-3) with one out. Jack Moss singled Werner to third, and Rock followed with his sac fly.
Will Johnston (3-1) worked a scoreless 1 2/3 innings to get the win.
Ole Miss 10, Southern Miss 0
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Tim Elko drove in the first run of the game with a single and added a two-run double in a seven-run sixth to power Ole Miss in a romp against No. 11 Southern Miss in the first game of the Hattiesburg Super Regional.
Ole Miss (36-22) and Southern Miss (47-18) will play again Sunday. Another win by the Rebels would send them to the CWS, while a Golden Eagles win would force a deciding game on Monday.
Ole Miss is aiming for its sixth CWS appearance but just its second since 1972; the Rebels have never won the event. Southern Miss has made just one appearance (2009).
The Rebels took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third on Elko's single and a sacrifice fly by Kemp Alderman. Garrett Wood made it 3-0 with a RBI double in the fourth.
Ole Miss broke the game open in the sixth. Justin Bench was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in the first run. Jacob Gonzalez singled in a run and back-to-back doubles by Elko and Kevin Graham pushed the lead to 9-0. Hayden Dunhurst singled in Graham for the final run.
Rebels starter Dylan DeLucia (6-2) pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing only four hits and two walks while striking out nine batters. Jack Dougherty permitted only one baserunner - he was hit by a pitch - in the final 3 1/3 innings to notch his second save of the year.
Hurston Waldrep (6-2) was tagged with the loss. He allowed five runs (four earned) on six hits and four walks in five innings. Twelve of the 15 batters Waldrep retired were by strikeouts.
Arkansas 4, North Carolina 1
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Peyton Stoval sparked a three-run fifth with a leadoff home run, Connor Noland threw 6 2/3 shutout innings and Arkansas upset No. 10 North Carolina in the first game of the Chapel Hill Super Regional.
Arkansas (42-19) and North Carolina (42-21), each making a 10th super regional appearance, will play again Sunday. A win by the Razorbacks would send them to their 11th CWS in search of their first title. A win by the Tar Heels would force a winner-take-all game Monday.
The Razorbacks took the lead for good in the top of the fifth. Stoval hit the first pitch out to right-center field for his ninth home run of the season. Zack Gregory walked, Braydon Webb singled and both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch by North Carolina starter Max Carlson (4-3). Slavens singled to center to drive in Gregory, and Evan Wallace followed with a sacrifice fly to plate Webb.
Gregory walked and scored on a single by Slavens in the seventh to make it 4-0. Vance Honeycutt drove in the lone run for the Tar Heels with a solo homer in the eighth.
Noland (4-2) yielded six hits and a walk, striking out six batters. Hagen Smith pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save this season.
North Carolina has been to a super regional in three of the past four seasons. The Tar Heels have made 11 CWS appearances but never won the title; they were the runners-up in 2006 and 2007. The Razorbacks have also never won the title, finishing second in 1979 and 2018.
The only other time these teams played was in the 1989 CWS - a 7-3 win by the Razorbacks.
Arkansas is the only team this season with four straight super regional berths. Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn has led the Hogs to 18 postseason appearances, including nine super regionals, in his 20 seasons.
Texas 9, East Carolina 8
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Dylan Campbell drove in the winning run on a bases-loaded single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and No. 9 Texas overcame a five-run deficit to beat No. 8 East Carolina and stay alive in the Greenville Super Regional.
The win by Texas (46-20) forces a Sunday showdown with East Carolina (46-20) with a CWS berth on the line. East Carolina (47-19), hosting a super regional for the first time, had won 23 of its past 24 games before faltering against the Longhorns. The Pirates beat the Longhorns 13-7 on Friday.
"There's a lot of fight in this team," Texas coach David Pierce said. "This team has proven it from the day we started it until right now. We're not going to give in, not going to go away."
Texas took a 2-0 lead in the first inning Saturday when Eric Kennedy reached on a one-out single and stole second with two outs. Murphy Stehly drove in Kennedy with a single, stole second and scored on a throwing error by Pirates third baseman Alec Makarewicz.
Bryson Worrell got East Carolina on the scoreboard and cut the lead in half with a leadoff homer in the fourth.
Worrell doubled in two runs to ignite a five-run fifth, capped by freshman Jacob Jenkins-Cowart's three-run homer to give the Pirates a 7-2 lead.
Texas stormed back. Leadoff batter Douglas Hodo III hit a two-run homer in the seventh to get the Longhorns within three. Murphy Stehly and Autin Todd led off the eighth with singles off new Pirates reliever Ben Terwilliger. Skyler Messinger followed with a three-run shot to end Terwilliger's day. Carter Spivey entered and retired his first batter before surrendering a solo shot to Campbell that put the Longhorns up 8-7.
Jacob Starling hit a two-out solo homer in the ninth off Texas reliever Andre Duplantier II (3-1) to tie the game.
Freshman Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman (1-1) took the mound in the bottom of the ninth for East Carolina and yielded a leadoff single to Ivan Melendez. Todd was walked intentionally after a successful sacrifice bunt by Mitchell Daly. Messinger popped out before Silas Ardoin drew a walk to load the bases and set the stage for Campbell.
Virginia Tech 14, Oklahoma 8
BLACKSBURG, Va. - Nick Biddison hit two of No. 4 Virginia Tech's five home runs, including one to lead off the game, and the Hokies stayed alive in the Blacksburg Super Regional.
The win by Virginia Tech (45-12) forces a winner-take-all game with Oklahoma (40-22) on Sunday for a berth in the CWS. The Sooners beat the Hokies 5-4 in Friday's opener. The Sooners are aiming for their 11th CWS appearance, having won the event in 1951 and 1994. Virginia Tech has never been to the CWS and just won a regional for the first time.
"I felt like it was an exercise in toughness for our guys," Hokies coach John Szefc said of Saturday's bounce-back win.
Gavin Cross and Cade Hunter hit two-run shots in the third to put Virginia Tech ahead 5-0.
Oklahoma scored three runs in the bottom half - on an RBI single by Blake Robertson and a two-run single by Jimmy Crooks - and added another run in the fourth on a solo homer by Brett Squires to get within 5-4.
The Hokies pulled away with a four-run fifth sparked by Tanner Shobel's leadoff homer. Carson Jones' two-run single in the sixth led to three runs and a 12-5 advantage. Biddison capped the scoring with a solo homer in the ninth.
Jonah Hurney (6-1) pitched four scoreless innings in relief to get the win. He allowed just two hits, striking out seven Sooners.
David Sandlin (8-4) took the loss, allowing five runs on six hits and two walks in 3 2/3 innings. He struck out six.
Connecticut 13, Stanford 12
STANFORD, Calif. - Casey Dana and Matt Donlan each drove in three runs, and the University of Connecticut held off a late rally to beat the No. 2 Cardinal in the opener of the Stanford Super Regional.
The Huskies (50-14) can clinch a CWS berth with a win Sunday, when Stanford (45-16) will be trying to force a third game Monday.
Korey Morton led off the top of the second with a double and scored when T.C. Simmons drove the next pitch to right for a double. Donlan hit a two-run homer, and Dana had a two-run double and scored two batters later on a double by Bryan Padilla - before Morton hit a towering two-run shot to left that gave the Huskies a 9-0 lead.
Brock Jones and Matt Barrera each hit a solo homer in the seventh to cut Stanford's deficit to 13-6, and the Cardinal hit four homers in the ninth before Justin Willis struck out Adam Crampton - with the tying run on first - to end the game. Jones and Braden Montgomery hit two-run shots before back-to-back two-out homers by Drew Bowser and Tommy Troy made it 13-12.
Dana reached on a fielding error with two outs in the first, Ben Huber followed immediately with a two-out RBI double to make it 1-0 and UConn led the rest of the way.
Pat Gallagher (11-3) gave up five runs on nine hits with a walk and eight strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings for the win.