NCAA DIVISION I REGIONAL TOURNAMENTS Virginia’s offense unloads on Mississippi pitchers

— John Barr had four RBI to highlight a 17-hit attack as Virginia beat Mississippi 13-7 on Saturday in the winners’ bracket of the NCAA Charlottesville Regional

The Cavaliers (49-11) matched their single-season record for victories and will play St. John’s or the Rebels tonight with a chance to win the regional. The Red Storm beat Virginia Commonwealth 8-6 earlier and will play Mississippi in an elimination game.

Danny Hultzen (10-1) earned the victory despite one of his worst performances of the season. The top pitcher in the Atlantic Coast Conference allowed 7 hits and a seasonhigh 6 runs, all earned, in 6 innings that took nearly 2 1 /2 hours to complete.

A lot of that was because of Virginia’s offense. The Cavaliers have scored at least 10 runs in three consecutive games and have 28 runs and 33 hits in two tournament games.

Virginia started hot, scoring once in the first, twice in the second and four times each in the third and fourth, leaving Hultzen sitting idle for long stretches between every inning.

Aaron Barrett (7-5) lost for Mississippi (39-23) after allowing 7 runs, just 3 of them earned, in 2 2 /3 innings. The Rebels made three errors while every Virginia starter had at least one hit by the sixth inning. All but one had an RBI, and all but one had scored.

Matt Wessinger homered twice and drove in four runs as

St. John’s

(35-25-1) beat

Virginia Commonwealth

(40-20) 8-6 in an elimination game. The Red Storm hit three consecutive home runs in the bottom of the first against Rams starter Blake Hauser, who lasted 2 innings and allowed 4 home runs and 5 runs.

ATLANTA REGIONAL

Tide tumbles

ATLANTA - Deck Mc-Guire pitched eight strong innings, Jacob Esch had three RBI and Tony Plagman drove in the go-ahead run to help Georgia Tech (47-13) beat Alabama (38-23) 5-2 and advance to the title game.

Alabama has lost 2 of 3 after playing its way into an atlarge bid with an eight-game winning streak that ended in the SEC title game.

McGuire (9-4) allowed 8 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks and struck out 6.

Thomas Carroll and Joe Winker had four RBI apiece as

Mercer

(38-23) used six pitchers to beat

Elon

(38-24) 13-7 in the losers’ bracket. Winker’s two-run doubles in the first and third helped the Bears take a 6-1 lead. Carroll’s ninth home run, a three-run shot, fueled a four-run fourth that put Mercer ahead 10-1.

LOUISVILLE REGIONAL

Louisville tops Vandy

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Phil Wunderlich homered and drove in four runs to lead Louisville (50-12) to a 7-1 victory over Vanderbilt (42-18) in the winners’ bracket game.

Wunderlich’s team-leading 21st home run in the firstinning off Vanderbilt starter Sonny Gray (9-5) gave Louisville a 3-0 lead.

The Cardinals added another run in the third before Vanderbilt’s Jason Esposito homered to make it 4-1.

Louisville freshman Matt Koch (3-0) gave up 1 run and 3 hits in 6 innings. Neil Holland pitched the final three innings for his 17th save.

In an elimination game, Evan Kohli hit two of

Illinois State

’s five home runs to help the Redbirds (32-23) defeat

Saint Louis

(33-29), 8-3. Chad Hinshaw went 4 for 4 and Kevin Tokarski had four RBI for third-seeded Illinois State.

GAINESVILLE REGIONAL

Florida starts fast

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Nolan Fontana, Josh Adams and Matt den Dekker homered, lifting Florida (44-15) to a 10-2 victory over Oregon State (32-23).

The Gators jumped in front with Fontana’s leadoff home run, pulled away with a sevenrun third inning and cruised to their 30th victory in 33 home games this season.

In an elimination game, Sean Bukovich and Anthony Mesa drove in three runs apiece as

Florida Atlantic

(36-23) ousted

Bethune-Cookman

(35-22) with a 12-6 victory. The Owls had 18 hits, including eight for extra bases.

COLUMBIA REGIONAL

Gamecocks rally

COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina (45-15) scored five runs in the seventh inning to rally for the second consecutive game and take control of the Columbia Regional with a 9-4 victory over The Citadel (43-21).

Trailing 4-2 entering the seventh, Evan Marzilli’s pinchhit, two-run single tied it. He scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch before Adrian Morales and Christian Walker added RBI doubles.

Blake Cooper (11-1) struck out a career-high 12 in 7 1 /3 innings for South Carolina.

Buddy Sosnoski homered twice and drove in six runs, and Ronnie Shaban added four RBI as

Virginia Tech

(39-21) eliminated

Bucknell

(25-35) with a 16-7 victory. The Hokies had 16 hits against six Bison pitchers.

AUBURN REGIONAL

Harmon carries load

AUBURN, Ala. - Casey Harman pitched a five-hitterto lead Clemson (40-21) past Auburn (41-20) 5-2.

Clemson got its second consecutive dominant pitching performance to follow Scott Weismann’s strong outing.

Mike Freeman hit a two-run home run to highlight a threerun first, and Clemson added two more in the fourth.

Taylor Walker, Adam Doleac and B.A. Vollmuth each hit three-run home runs and drove in four runs to help

Southern Miss

(36-23) stay alive with a 19-6 rout of

Jacksonville State

(32-26). Walker went 4 for 4 with 4 runs and a 2 stolen bases. Vollmuth’s three hits included a blast over the center-field scoreboard in the seventh. Leadoff man Kameron Brunty scored four times.

LOS ANGELES REGIONAL

Larson big again

LOS ANGELES - Francis Larson homered and had his second four-RBI game in as many days, and Casey Stevenson had five hits as UC Irvine (38-20) cruised to a 19-9 victory over Kent State (39-25).

UC Irvine will play the loser of the late game between defending national champion LSU and top-seeded host UCLA today in an elimination game. UC Irvine scored in every inning and had 21 hits.

Christian Bergman (9-3) was pulled after five scoreless innings so he could come back today as a possible starter.

TEMPE REGIONAL

Ferraro gets in swing

TEMPE, Ariz. - Mike Ferraro went 4 for 6 with a home run and six RBI as San Diego (37-21) crushed Milwaukee (33-26) 22-1 in an elimination game.

The Toreros had 25 hits and will face the Hawaii-Arizona State loser in today’s first game.

Ferraro hit a three-run home run in the first inning, singled in a run in the second and doubled home runs in the fourth and fifth innings.

NORMAN REGIONAL

Oral Roberts hangs on

NORMAN, Okla. - Tyler Garewal homered to lead off the bottom of the ninth and give Oral Roberts (36-26) a 9-8 victory over California (29-25) in a losers’ bracket game.

Garewal’s home run was his fourth of the season. SethFurmanek hit his 24th and 25th home runs of the season, his second and third in the tournament, for Oral Roberts.

Sean Johnson (3-4) pitched an inning of relief for the victory.

AUSTIN REGIONAL

Longhorns in control

AUSTIN, Texas - Kevin Keyes and Kevin Lusson hit home runs in the fourth inning as Texas (48-11) defeated Louisiana-Lafayette (38-21) 4-2 to take control of the Austin Regional.

Lusson and Keyes had a combined five hits and drove in three of Texas’ four runs. Starter Cole Green (11-1) gave up 2 earned runs on 6 hits while striking out 5.

Louisiana-Lafayette cut Texas’ lead to one with a sacrifice fly in the eighth. But with runners on first and second and one out, Chance Ruffin got back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.

Anthony Rendon hit three home runs to lead

Rice

(39-22) to a 19-1 victory over

Rider

(36-23) in an elimination game. After striking out looking and grounding out in his first two at-bats, Rendon hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning, athree-run home run in the seventh and another two-run shot in the eighth. He finished with seven RBI.

FORT WORTH REGIONAL

Weik delivers

FORT WORTH - Joe Weik had two home runs and six RBI, Taylor Featherston hit a three-run home run and TCU (48-11) defeated Arizona (34-23) 11-5.

Weik and Jason Coats added run-scoring singles, and Bryan Holaday scored on a wild pitch for the Horned Frogs.

Logan Vick had a two-run double, Max Muncy added a two-run single and

Baylor

(35-24) held on to eliminate Lamar (35-26) with a 6-4 victory. Joey Hainsfurther and Gregg Glime also had run-scoring singles for the Bears. Trailing by five runs in the ninth, Lamar got a three-run home run from Joey Latulippe for the final margin.

MYRTLE BEACH REGIONAL

First for Stony Bridge

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Tyler Johnson pitched eight innings of six-hit ball and Stony Brook (30-26) used a big first inning to record its first-ever NCAA Tournament victory as it eliminated North Carolina State (38-24) with a6-2 victory.

The Seawolves got six runs off first-time Wolfpack starter Anthony Tzamtzis, who gave up three hits, hit two batters and walked a third before leaving with just one out in the game.

NORWICH REGIONAL

Gilmartin solid

NORWICH, Conn. - Sean Gilmartin struck out eight over seven innings and Stephen Cardullo and Sherman Johnson each hit home runs as Florida State (44-17) defeated Oregon (39-23) 6-4.

Florida State awaits the winner of the elimination game this afternoon between Oregon and Connecticut (48-15).

Gilmartin (8-7) gave up a two-out home run to Jack Marder in the first and then held the Ducks scoreless until the eighth. Geoff Parker relieved Gilmartin after KC Serna and Danny Pulfer singled to start the eighth. The Ducks (7-5) scored three runs but stranded runners at second and third when Parker struck out Andrew Mendenhall.

Mike Olt homered twice and drove in eight runs as

Connecticut

(48-15) defeated

Central Connecticut State

(33-23) 25-5 in an elimination game. Olt, a junior third baseman, went 4 for 4. His previous career high for RBI in a single game had been five.

CORAL GABLES REGIONAL

Lawson powers Miami

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - Scott Lawson homered three times to tie a school postseason record and had six RBI as Miami (42-17) cruised into the Coral Gables Regional final with a 14-1 victory over Texas A&M (41-20-1).

FULLERTON REGIONAL

Colon hits 2 HRs

FULLERTON, Calif. - Christian Colon hit a pair of two-run home runs as Cal State Fullerton (42-16) eliminated Stanford (31-25) with a 6-5 victory.

Noe Ramirez struck out eight in earning his 11th victory for the Titans, who have won 24 of 27 games.

Sports, Pages 29 on 06/06/2010

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