COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The University of Mississippi baseball team took an early lead Monday night, but Texas Christian University rallied for a 7-4 victory in the deciding game of the NCAA tournament’s College Station Regional at Blue Bell Park.
The defeat marked only the fourth time this season the Rebels (37-26) lost when scoring in the first inning.
TCU (40-20) will advance to face UCLA in a Super Regional next weekend in Los Angeles.
The Horned Frogs won four straight elimination games in the College Station regional, including two straight against the Rebels, after dropping their opener against Mississippi on Friday.
“This is a big day in the history of our program,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said, “just by the way we went about it.”
Ole Miss’ Andrew Mistone and Tanner Mathis were named to the All-Regional team.
It marks the ninth time in the past 10 seasons Ole Miss has played in an NCAA Regional, and the sixth time the Rebels have played for the regional title. Four of those times, the Rebels have advanced to a super regional.
Bobby Wahl (7-4) took the loss, working on two days rest after picking up the win against TCU in the regional opener Friday night. Wahl allowed four runs on five hits with a walk and five strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.
“Those were just a couple of bad pitches on my part,” Wahl said. “I left two fastballs up high and they got good swings off of them.”
Justin Scharf (4-2) picked up the win in relief. He held the Rebels to one run in the final 4 2/3 innings. He allowed four hits with a walk and a strikeout in that time.
“They just played better than we did,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “We showed a lot of guts out there tonight with Bobby (Wahl) and Mike Mayers pitching on short rest. They really gutted it out for us and gave us what they had. TCU was just a better club tonight and last night. They found themselves here at this regional.”
Ole Miss scored first, pushing a single run home in the top of the first inning when Matt Snyder grounded out to second to drive in Tanner Mathis from third. Mathis opened the game with a double before taking third on a groundout from Alex Yarbrough to set up the score on the Snyder hit.
TCU tied things up in the fourth with a solo home run from Josh Elander that knotted the score at one. A second solo shot put the Horned Frogs in the lead when Jantzen Witte sent one over the wall in left field with one out on the board.
The Rebels moved back in front with two runs in the fifth inning as Ole Miss got an RBI single from Yarbrough that scored Andrew Mistone from second and moved Mathis from first to third. Singles from Mistone and Mathis put the two men on board for the Yarbrough hit to tie the game.
TCU then changed pitchers and intentionally walked Snyder to load the bases and bring Zach Kirksey to the plate. Kirksey then hit a sac fly to left field to bring home Mathis and put Ole Miss on top 3-2.
The Horned Frogs tied it up in the bottom half of the inning with a groundout to third from Keaton Jones that scored Josh Gonzales from third. Gonzales reached on a walk and stole second before advancing to third on a single from Brance Rivera to set up the score on the groundout from Jones.
A single up the middle from the next Horned Frog batter drove in Rivera and put TCU up 4-3. Ole Miss then turned to its bullpen for Mike Mayers. The sophomore right-hander got the Rebels out of the inning with no more damage and held Ole Miss within striking distance down only one run after five complete.
TCU pushed the lead out to two runs in the sixth inning with an RBI double from Rivera with two outs to make it 5-3 in favor of the Horned Frogs.
Momentum continued to be on the side of the Frogs in the seventh as TCU plated two more runs to push the lead out to 7-3.
Ole Miss mounted a rally in the ninth inning, pushing a run across after back-to-back singles to open the inning and a fielder’s choice put men at the corners with one out. Mathis then singled through the right side to score a pinch running Blake Newalu and make it 7-4. TCU turned a double play to end the game, however, and picked up the win.
Raleigh Regional
n N.C. State 9, Vanderbilt 7: At Raleigh, N.C., After blowing two leads in regional games against Vanderbilt, North Carolina State put on its own comeback to clinch a trip to the super regionals.
Tarran Senay hit a three-run homer in the eighth and a two-run single in the ninth that helped the Wolfpack rally to beat Vanderbilt for the Raleigh Regional championship Monday night.
Top-seeded N.C. State (43-18) trailed 7-3 after five innings, but rallied behind a player who hadn’t tallied a hit in the regionals before Monday night. Now Elliott Avent’s program will head to the super regionals for the first time since 2008 and will face No. 1 national seed Florida.
“If you don’t believe in yourselves all the way through, no matter how it looks, then it’s never going to happen,” Avent said. “That’s what this team’s been all about.”
Senay, a junior, was 0-for-3 in the regionals and came in batting .213. But after entering the game in the seventh inning, Senay came up to bat in the eighth with one out and smacked a 3-2 pitch from Philip Pfeifer over the right field wall to bring the Wolfpack within a run.
An inning later, he came through again, knocking a two-run single off Will Clinard (7-3) to right-center that gave N.C. State an 8-7 lead.
“This team never gives up,” Senay said. “It’s so fun to play for. I’m at a loss for words, but luckily, my teammates … they put me in the opportunity to do it.”
Trea Turner added an RBI single to push the lead to 9-7, which was enough for N.C. State reliever Ryan Wilkins (5-2) to earn the win.
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