With the NCAA Regionals getting officially underway Friday afternoon, the ACC sent seven teams to the NCAA Tournament including three teams serving as Regional hosts (Louisville, Miami, Florida State). Lets take a look at all seven ACC teams that are participating this weekend and take a look at how they did on the first day of Regional Play.
Champaign Regional
Notre Dame 13 Wright State 7 — Box Score
A six run eighth inning broke the game wide open for the Irish as it propelled Notre Dame to their first ever NCAA Tournament win in program history as they defeated the Wright State Raiders 13-7 in Champaign, Ill.
Last week during the ACC Tournament, Notre Dame head coach Mik Aoki stated “It was just another stepping stone for the program,” in regards to the Irish picking up their first ACC Tournament win in program history when they defeated No, 30 Virginia 8-2 in Durham, N.C. Friday, the Irish took another step forward in the right direction. where Aoki would like to see the program to be.
Ryan Bull lead the Irish, going 3-for-4 with four RBI and a home run. Robert Youngdalh also had three hits and four RBI, going 3-for-5 on the day. Ryan Bielak pitched 2.1 innings and picked up the win as the Irish take another step in the right direction.
Notre Dame improves to 37-21 and will face Regional host No. 4 Illinois Saturday at 8:00 pm.
Coral Gables Regional
No. 8 Miami Hurricanes 6 Florida International 2 — Box Score
David Thompson added three more RBI to his NCAA leading 83 RBI’s this season as he went 3-for-4 en route to leading the Hurricanes to a 6-2 victory over the Florida International Panthers 6-2 in Coral Gables, Fla.
The Hurricanes scored six runs in the first two innings jumping out to an early 6-0 lead. Miami scored four runs in the first inning and two runs in the second.
Starter Andrew Suarez pitched seven plus innings giving up two runs on seven hits and five strikeouts as he picked up the win and improved to 8-1 on the season.
Miami improves to 45-14 and will face Columbia University Saturday night at 7:00.
Fort Worth Regional
NC State Wolfpack 3 Stony Brook 0 — Box Score
After falling short of winning an ACC Championship last week, the NC State Wolfpack bounced back with a Regional opening win defeating the Stony Brook Seawolves 3-0 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Logan Ratledge led the Wolfpack hitting 2-for-4 with two RBI in the game. Ratledge started the scoring in the fifth inning with a two-run home run to give NC State a 2-0 lead. Josh McLain added an insurance run in the eighth inning to give the Pack a 3-0 lead.
Curt Britt pitched 5.1 innings of four hit shutout ball and picked up the win to improve to 3-0 on the year. Will Gilbert pitched the remaining 3.2 innings to pick up his third save of the year.
The Wolfpack improve to 35-21 will face Regional host, No. 5 TCU Saturday at 8:00 pm.
Fullerton Regional
No. 21 Arizona State 7 Clemson 4 — Box Score
After sneaking into the NCAA Tournament by sweeping Florida State the last weekend of the regular season and a decent showing in the ACC Tournament, including an impressive 7-2 win over then, No. 5 Louisville, the Tigers found themselves on the short end of the stick on the first day of regional play, falling to No. 21 Arizona State, 7-4.
The Tigers were the only ACC team to lose on the first day of Regional play.
Steven Duggar led the Tigers going 3-for-5 while both Eli White and Andrew Cox both went 2-for-4 with two RBIs today. Matthew Crownover suffered just his third loss of the season after going seven innings giving up four runs on five hits and nine strikeouts. Crownover falls to 10-3 on the year after picking up the loss.
The Tigers got on the board first in the fifth inning scoring two runs on a RBI single by Cox.
Arizona State took the lead in the seventh inning on a two run home run by Joey Bielek to take a 3-2 lead. Brian Serven followed that up with a solo shot of his own to extend the Sun Devil lead to 4-2 and Arizona State never looked back after that. Ryan Kellogg picked up the win for Arizona State to improve to 9-2 on the year while Ryan Burr picked up his 14th save of the season.
Clemson falls to 32-28 and will face Pepperdine on Saturday at 7:00 pm.
Lake Elsinore Regional
No. 30 Virginia Cavaliers 6 No. 17 Southern California 1 — Box Score
After a disappointing showing in the ACC Tournament, Connor Jones was able to get the Cavaliers on the winning track in the Regionals with a dominating performance against USC in Lake Elsinore, Calif.
Jones pithed 7.2 innings gave up one run on five hits and struck out four to pick up the win and improve to 6-2 on the season. Josh Sborz, who nearly pitched a perfect game in the first game of the ACC Tournament against Georgia Tech, came in to pitch the last 1.1 to record his 13th save of the season.
Adam Haseley went 2-for-4 from the lead-off spot with one RBI and Ernie Clement went 1-for-4 with two RBIs to lead the Cavaliers.
Virginia improves to 35-22 on the year and will face San Diego State tonight at 10:00.
Louisville Regional
No. 7 Louisville Cardinals 7 Morehead State 2 — Box Score
The Cardinals got back on the winning track after a tough ACC Tournament, defeating Morehead State 7-2 on their home field in their first game of the NCAA Regionals in Louisville, Ky.
Kyle Funkhouser was dominant after getting roughed up in his last start against Clemson in the ACC Tournament. Funkhouser went seven innings pitched, gave up two runs on six hits and six strikeouts.
Devin Hairston and Logan Taylor, the eighth and ninth batters in the lineup combined to hit 6-for-7 with three RBIs in the game. Hairston went 4-for-4 with one RBI and Hairston went 2-for-3 with two RBI.
Louisville improves to 44-16 on the year and will face Michigan this afternoon at 4:00.
Tallahassee Regional
No. 12 Florida State Seminoles 5 Mercer 4 (10 innings)
Head coach Mike Martin has been at the helm of the Florida State Seminoles for 35 years. The Seminoles have won 40 games and made the NCAA Tournament in every single one of them. The one accomplishment that has eluded the great Coach Martin is the Baseball National Championship, a title that has eluded the ACC as a whole since Wake Forest won the National Title in just the Conference’s second year of existence. The Seminoles got off on a good start in their quest for Omaha as they escaped Mercer, defeating the Bears 5-4 on a walk-off RBI single by Josh Delph.
Delph and Taylor Walls both went 2-for-5 with an RBI and John Sansone went 2-for-5 with two RBIs to lead the Seminoles offense. Billy Strode picked up the win pitching 1.2 innings of two hit scoreless baseball and improved to 3-0.
Mercer got on the board first, scoring on a throwing error by Walls to take a 1-0 lead. The ‘Noles came back with four runs of their own in the bottom half of the second inning to go up 4-1.
Mercer tied the game back up at 4-4 with three runs of their own in the third inning.
Seminoles starter Mike Compton pitched five innings gave up four runs (three earned) on nine hits and just two strikeouts. Compton received a no-decision.
Florida State improves to 42-19 and will face College of Charleston today at 6:00 pm.
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