South Alabama 6, Mississippi State 3
HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Randy Bell threw a six-hitter to help South Alabama beat Mississippi State 6-3 on Friday night in the Hattiesburg Regional.
Bell (7-3) threw 132 pitches and retired the Bulldogs in order in the fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth innings. Travis Swaggerty went 3 for 4 and had four RBIs for South Alabama (40-19).
Dylan Hardy hit a homer on the first pitch of the game and South Alabama added two more runs in the first on RBIs from Swaggerty and Drew LaBounty. The Jaguars scored three more in the fifth on Swaggerty's opposite-field home run for a 6-1 lead. It was Swaggerty's 11th homer of the season.
Cody Brown tripled in a run in the sixth for Mississippi State (36-25) and later scored. Bulldogs starter Cole Gordon (2-3) walked five in two innings.
Texas A&M 8, Baylor 5
HOUSTON — Freshman Braden Shewmake hit a two-run homer, Nick Choruby had four hits with two RBIs and Texas A&M beat Baylor 8-5 in the opener of the Houston Regional on Friday.
The third-seeded Aggies (37-21) will play the Houston-Iowa winner Saturday, and the Bears (34-22) will face the loser in an elimination game.
Aaron Dodson had a grand slam in the third inning for No. 2 seed Baylor, but Texas A&M responded with a five-run sixth to erase a 4-2 deficit in a battle of former Big 12 rivals. Shewmake's team-leading 11th homer was the tying blow, and Hunter Coleman scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch.
Kaylor Chafin gave up one hit in 3 2/3 scoreless innings for his first save and starter Brigham Hill (8-3) allowed five runs in 5 1/3 innings with six strikeouts.
Baylor starter Montana Parsons (5-4) surrendered five runs — four earned — in five innings with three walks and four strikeouts.
Choruby had a run-scoring single in the sixth and an RBI double in the eighth.
Auburn 7, UCF 4
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Keegan Thompson had a season-high nine strikeouts and Auburn opened the NCAA baseball tournament's Tallahassee regional with a 7-4 victory over UCF on Friday.
Thompson, a junior right-hander, allowed two runs and four hits in eight innings with one walk as he improved to 7-4 on the season. The lone run he gave up was a Rylan Thomas home run in the second inning.
Will Holland put the game out of reach in the eighth for the third-seeded Tigers (36-24) with a three-run homer to left field. Daniel Robert added three hits and Josh Anthony drove in a pair of runs.
It was UCF's Robby Howell's first loss of the season. The senior right-hander (10-1) allowed four runs (three earned) on 10 hits in seven innings with five walks and four strikeouts. Kam Gellinger had a two-run homer in the ninth for the second-seeded Knights (40-21).
Kentucky 6, Ohio 4
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Riley Mahan knocked in two runs on three hits, right-hander Sean Hjelle allowed Ohio eight hits while top-seeded Kentucky got 13 in a 6-4 victory Friday in the opener of the NCAA Tournament Lexington Regional.
Hosting their first regional since 2006, the Wildcats (40-20) gave Hjelle a two-run cushion in the first inning when Luke Becker and Mahan each delivered RBI hits. Kentucky added four runs in the middle innings, scoring twice in the sixth on bases-loaded walks to make it 6-0. Every Kentucky batter had at least one hit to help the Wildcats end a two-game slide.
That offense came in handy as No. 4 seed Ohio (31-27) finally broke through on Hjelle (10-3) in the eighth on Rudy Rott's three-run homer. Logan Salow gave up a run in the ninth but earned his 11th save.
Kentucky will face North Carolina State on Saturday, while the Bobcats (31-27) will meet Indiana.
LSU 15, Texas Southern 7
BATON ROUGE, La. — Zach Watson homered twice and Michael Papierski added another for LSU, which overcame a sloppy defensive performance for a 15-7 victory over Texas Southern on Friday in the Baton Rouge Regional.
The Tigers (44-17), winners of 12 straight, committed five errors to help Texas Southern (20-33) score six unearned runs and knock starter Jared Poche from the game in the fifth inning.
LSU trailed 7-5 before taking the lead for good with a four-run rally in the fifth, highlighted by Josh Smith's run-scoring double.
LSU built on the lead with back-to-back homers by Papierski and Watson, who each drove in four runs. Cole Freemen doubled, tripled and scored three times.
Jose Camacho had three hits and an RBI for Texas Southern.
Caleb Glbert (5-1), who relieved Poche, pitched 2 2/3 innings for the win. TSU starter Anthony Martinez (4-4) received the loss.
Florida 10, Marist 6
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Mike Rivera and JJ Schwarz each drove in three runs and Florida defeated Marist 10-6 on Friday night in the Gainesville Regional of the NCAA baseball tournament.
Rivera had a two-run single as Florida scored four runs in the second inning. With the Gators leading 7-6 in the eighth, Schawrz provided some breathing room with a three-run homer to left.
Florida starter Jackson Kowar went 5 1/3 innings, allowing five runs — two earned — on eight hits. Michael Byrne went 2 2/3 innings, retiring the first six batters he faced, for his 15th save.
Marist's Randy Taveras went 2 for 4 with two RBIs. Sean Keenan (6-1) took the loss, allowing seven runs (five earned) on five hits in 4 1/3 innings.
Florida (43-16), who is the No. 3 national seed, takes on South Florida on Saturday. Marist (32-22) will try to stave off elimination against Bethune-Cookman.
Vanderbilt 13, St. John's 4
CLEMSON, S.C. — Vanderbilt third baseman Will Toffey had four hits including a three-run homer as the Commodores defeated St. John's 13-4 in the Clemson regional of the NCAA baseball tournament on Friday.
Vanderbilt (34-22-1) will face either top-seed Clemson or No. 4 seed UNC Greensboro on Saturday with the winner playing for the regional championship. St. John's (42-12) will face an elimination game Saturday against the Clemson-UNCG loser.
The Red Storm led 3-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth when Vanderbilt began its half of the inning with six straight hits. Toffey's homer put the Commodores ahead for good.
Vanderbilt had 18 hits. First baseman Julian Infante had three hits and three RBIs while centerfielder Jeren Kendall had two hits and drove in four runs.
Patrick Raby (10-3) gave up six hits and three runs over seven innings for the win. Sean Mooney (8-2) allowed six earned runs in the loss for St. John's.