Texas A&M, UNC Win Thrillers, Highlighting Saturday’s NCAA Tournament Regionals Action

Image credit: Ryan Prager (Photo by Eddie Kelly / ProLook Photos)

While Saturday’s NCAA Tournament action wasn’t quite as dramatic as Friday’s, when there were six walk-offs, it was plenty exciting. A host was eliminated, as was the Preseason No. 1 team. There were plenty of close winner’s bracket games and star power throughout the day. In sum, it was everything you could want from the NCAA Tournament.

Here are 10 takeaways.

1. The rivalry showdown between Texas and Texas A&M in College Station lived up to the promise. The Longhorns and Aggies battled for 11 innings before Texas A&M came away with a 4-2 victory.

A&M found a way to win and is now one win away from super regionals. The Aggies should be commended for that, but the Longhorns will rue their missed opportunity.

Texas led, 2-1, after seven innings. A&M tied the game in the eighth thanks in part to two throwing errors on shortstop Jalin Flores. The game stayed deadlocked until the 11th when A&M loaded the bases with two outs. Ted Burton hit a grounder right down the third base line that hit the bag and took a bad hop. Peyton Powell couldn’t corral the ball to step on third base and the Aggies took the lead. A wild pitch then gave them an insurance run.

While Texas’ defense picked a bad time to have a bad day, its bats didn’t provide much margin for error. Lefthanders Ryan Prager (6.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 7 K) and Evan Aschenbeck (4.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K) silenced the Longhorns. Texas scored both of its runs on solo home runs – from Jared Thomas to lead off the game and Kimble Schuessler in the sixth. While that was enough for a lead, the Longhorns were never able to extend their advantage and ultimately paid the price.

A&M, which is now 33-3 at Blue Bell Park this season, needs just one win to reach super regionals for the second time in three years.

2. The difference between a win and a loss in the NCAA Tournament is usually just a few moments over the course of a game. Saturday, in one of the most anticipated games of the tournament so far, North Carolina beat LSU, 6-2, thanks in large part to Vance Honeycutt, its biggest star, coming through in the game’s biggest spots.

In the fifth inning, LSU had runners on first and second with no outs and All-American Tommy White coming to the plate. UNC made a pitching change, bringing Ben Peterson in for Shea Sprague. With his first pitch, he got White to ground into an inning-ending double play. In the bottom half of the inning, UNC started a rally at the bottom of the lineup with a bunt single and a double, bringing Honeycutt to the plate. He had struck out in his first two plate appearances against Luke Holman, but he didn’t miss on his opportunity in the fifth. He drove a first-pitch fastball out for a three-run home run, the first runs of the game, flipping the momentum.

In the seventh, when Honeycutt next game to bat, LSU had cut the deficit to one run. The Tigers had pushed across two runs in the top of the inning before another inning-ending double play ended their rally. After two quick outs to start the bottom of the inning, Honeycutt again homered off Holman, again flipping the momentum back to UNC. LSU didn’t threaten again, as it was set down in order in the eighth and the ninth by Dalton Pence.

Saturday was a full team win for UNC. The pitchers all had their moments, the defense played brilliantly and seven different Tar Heels collected at least one hit. But the Tar Heels’ biggest plays came from their best player and that’s usually a winning formula.

3. Virginia won a thriller against Mississippi State, walking off with a 5-4 victory to advance to the final in Charlottesville. The Bulldogs held the lead for much of the game, but the Cavaliers scored two runs in the seventh to tie the game at 4 and then scratched out a run in the ninth for the win.

Virginia’s offense is arguably the best in the country, but Mississippi State mostly held it in check. Jurrangelo Cijntje held the Cavaliers to four runs on seven hits in seven innings. That damage came in just two innings – the second and the seventh – when he twice gave up two runs on three hits.

But because Evan Blanco (6 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 7 K) limited the damage from Mississippi State and Virginia got three scoreless innings out of Matt Augustin and Angelo Tonas, the Cavaliers didn’t need a huge offensive day. They made do with timely hitting, especially from the bottom of the lineup. Freshman Eric Becker, the eight-hole hitter, drove in four runs and it was nine-hole hitter Bobby Whalen whose chopper in the ninth inning drove in the game winner.

Virginia has not bashed its way to the final, as might have been expected. Instead, its scored just nine runs in two games (it averages 9.5 runs per game) and has held Penn and Mississippi State to six runs. If it can continue to find a way to win pitcher’s duels, this looks like a more dangerous team in the tournament.

4. Clemson had to fight and scrap, but it scored a run in the ninth inning to edge past Coastal Carolina, 4-3. Things have not been easy for the Tigers this weekend (they needed a walk-off to beat High Point, 4-3, in Friday’s opener) and they’ve still found a way to win. What else is new?

For better or worse, this is who Clemson is. It’s a team that isn’t likely to blow teams out, but it is a team that can never be counted out. I’ve wondered all season long how that would play in the NCAA Tournament. So far, it’s playing fine.

Things are bound to get tougher, but Clemson is building important momentum and confidence in the early rounds of the tournament. The importance of that can’t be discounted.

5. Evansville advanced to the Greenville Regional final with a 17-11 victory against VCU. After relying on its pitching to on Friday upset host East Carolina, 4-1, the Purple Aces on Saturday broke out the big bats.

Evansville hit four home runs in the game and took a 13-0 lead in the fifth inning. While VCU battled back to make it something of a game, the Rams never cut the deficit to less than five runs.

The Purple Aces are one of six No. 4 seeds remaining and the only one that has started the tournament 2-0. They have never before won a regional but are now just one win away.

6. Kansas State had perhaps the best day of any team in the tournament. After its opening game against Louisiana Tech was suspended Friday night due to poor weather in Fayetteville, it finished off a 19-4 rout to start the day Saturday. That earned it a date in the winner’s bracket against host Arkansas and ace Hagen Smith, who has arguably been the best pitcher in the country this season.

For four innings, Smith stymied the Wildcats, holding them to a hit and two walks. But in the fifth inning, they batted around and exploded for six runs off the lefthander. It was just the third time in his career that Smith had allowed six runs in a game. K-State in the eighth inning added a crucial insurance run on a solo home run from freshman Nick English.

K-State got strong pitching of its own from Jackson Wentworth (5.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 3 K) and Tyson Neighbors (3.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 5 K). The Wildcats, who were a controversial bubble-in inclusion in the NCAA Tournament and have won a regional just once in program history, moved on to the regional final and are now one win away from super regionals.

7. One of the day’s most anticipated games was the elimination game in the Greenville Regional, which featured a matchup between East Carolina’s Trey Yesavage and Wake Forest’s Chase Burns. The two righthanders are both projected to be drafted in the first half of the first round and had their team’s season on the line.

Yesavage, who was making his first start in 16 days after missing last week’s conference tournament due to a partially collapsed lung, outdueled Burns. Yesavage held Wake to one run on one hit and four walks in 7.1 innings, striking out six. Burns, meanwhile, had arguably his worst start of the season. He gave up four runs on five hits and four walks in five innings, striking out seven.

The game got crazy once the two starters exited. Wake scored five runs in the ninth to erase a 4-1 deficit, but ECU answered with three runs of its own in the bottom half of the inning to walk-off with the victory. It wasn’t quite the pitcher’s duel that had been anticipated, but it was one of the more entertaining games of the day.

8. Arizona became the first host to be eliminated when it lost, 7-0, to Dallas Baptist. It was just the second time this season the Wildcats were shut out, as Jaron DeBerry (6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 K) and three Patriots relievers combined for a five-hitter.

Arizona on Friday night lost to Grand Canyon, 9-4. After winning both the regular season and conference tournament titles in the Pac-12, the Wildcats’ postseason stay lasted less than 24 hours.

So, what went wrong? Arizona’s success this season was thanks in large part to its rotation. This weekend, Clark Candiotti (6 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 5 K on Friday) and Cam Walty (4 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 1 BB, 2 K on Saturday) were not at their best. Meanwhile, the offense was held to 12 hits.

Arizona got arguably the toughest draw of any host. But a quick two-and-out is still not what anyone expected from the Pac-12 champs. I don’t think what happens in the tournament is evidence of the selection committee getting anything right or wrong, but after it reached all the way to No. 31 in RPI to host the Wildcats and they turned in that performance, I think it’s fair to ask some questions.

Arizona’s hosting premise was based on two key points (as it was explained by committee chairman Matt Hogue): 1) Arizona won both the regular season and conference tournament titles in the Pac-12 and 2) it ranked No. 1 in non-conference strength of schedule. Two solid points in Arizona’s favor, to be sure. But Arizona finished the year 25-11 against Pac-12 competition and 11-12 against everyone else. What if the Pac-12 just wasn’t that good? Arizona lost series to both Oregon and Oregon State, the two other teams from the conference that made the field. It ranked No. 31 in RPI and No. 30 in KPI, the selection committee’s two official metrics, and went just 3-9 in quad 1 games. Should trophies hold so much sway in the selection process?

It’s a moot point now, but maybe the computers had Arizona figured out better than the eye test.

9. High Point erased an early five-run deficit against Vanderbilt and walked off with a 10-9 victory in an elimination game in the Clemson Regional. It was the program’s first ever NCAA Tournament victory.

The Panthers fell behind, 5-0, after five innings. But their offense came to life for nine runs over the sixth and seventh innings, led by Adam Stuart, who drove in five runs. Vanderbilt tied the game with four runs in the eighth, however, and that’s where the game stood going into the bottom of the ninth, with High Point as the nominal home team.

Stuart led off the inning and got to second base on an error. He moved to third on a ground ball. After a walk, Miggy Echazarreta blooped a hit into shallow right field for the walk-off winner.

High Point is playing in its first ever NCAA Tournament. It will face Coastal Carolina in Sunday’s loser’s bracket game.

10. Here’s how every multi-bid conference fared through two days of regionals:

ACC: 12-4
Big 12: 9-3
Big East: 3-1
Missouri Valley: 3-1
Pac-12: 4-2
SEC: 13-9
Sun Belt: 4-4
Big Ten: 3-3
American: 2-2
Big West: 2-2
Conference USA: 1-3