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Omaha bound: Vanderbilt, Texas Tech wrap up super regionals

Omaha bound: Vanderbilt, Texas Tech wrap up super regionals
5 years 4 months 3 days ago Sunday, June 09 2019 Jun 9, 2019 June 09, 2019 9:21 PM June 09, 2019 in Sports - AP - National

By ERIC OLSON
AP Sports Writer

Vanderbilt and Texas Tech won Game 3s in their super regionals Sunday and joined Louisville in earning spots in the College World Series.

Austin Martin hit two of Vanderbilt's five home runs in a 13-2 win over Duke the day after the Commodores' Kumar Rocker threw the first no-hitter in the 20-year super regional era.

Texas Tech's Kurt Wilson hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning for the fifth and final lead change in an 8-6 win over Oklahoma State.

Mississippi and North Carolina also won and evened their series to force Game 3s on Monday.

No. 1 national seed UCLA and Michigan played a Game 3 late Sunday, and Florida State was at LSU and Stanford was at Mississippi State in Game 2s.

No. 2 Vanderbilt (54-11) rebounded from an embarrassing 18-5 loss on its home field in Game 1 on Friday to dominate the Blue Devils. Rocker struck out 19 in his no-hitter Saturday, and the Commodores were up 9-1 in the third inning on their way to punching their ticket to Omaha, Nebraska, for the first time since 2015 and fourth since 2011.

No. 8 Texas Tech (44-18) is in the CWS for the second straight year and fourth time since 2014 after prevailing at home in a back-and-forth series with its Big 12 rival. Tech, down 6-4 in the eighth, pulled within a run when first-round draft pick Josh Jung hit his second homer of the game to bring on Ben Leeper. He walked two batters before Wilson launched a high breaking pitch over the right-field wall.

No. 7 Louisville clinched the first CWS berth on Saturday when it finished a two-game sweep of East Carolina.

The eight-team CWS opens Saturday at TD Ameritrade Park.

In other super regionals, Tyler Keenan tripled, hit one of Ole Miss' four home runs and had four RBIs to lead the Rebels past Arkansas 13-5, and North Carolina's Austin Bergner and Austin Love combined for a shutout in a 2-0 win over Auburn.

IT ONLY TAKES TWO

The last time North Carolina won a NCAA Tournament game scoring two or fewer runs was in 2006, when the Tar Heels beat Clemson 2-0 in the College World Series. Pitching coach Robert Woodard threw a complete game shutout that day.

BIG BATS

- Martin was 4 for 10 with six RBIs in the super regional and heads to the CWS with a .410 batting average.

- Pat DeMarco, Stephen Scott and Julian Infante homered for Vanderbilt.

- Texas Tech's Braxton Fulford homered, doubled and drove in two runs.

- Ole Miss' Cole Zabowski went 3 for 4 with a homer and three RBIs.

- Ike Freeman's two-RBI single in the first inning produced the only runs for North Carolina in its win over Auburn.

- Duke's Michael Rothenberg was 3 for 4 with a home run and double.

MOUND MARVELS

- Vanderbilt starter Mason Hickman allowed three hits and two runs and struck out nine in four innings.

- Ole Miss' Houston Roth pitched four innings of two-hit shutout relief against Arkansas.

- North Carolina's Bergner and Love combined to limit Auburn to five hits and strike out 11.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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