Florida, Vandy Cruise in First Day of Super-Regionals

Both Florida and Vanderbilt earned national seeds for the NCAA Baseball Tournament.

Yesterday, they both looked like teams to be reckoned with in Omaha.

Florida scored four times in the first inning and cruised past Mississippi State 11-1.  The Gators chased freshman starter Evan Mitchell after two innings.  The Gators had eleven hits and took advantage of six walks issued by Bulldogs' pitching.

Florida can clinch their berth in the College World Series with a win today (11am, CDT)

Meanwhile, Vanderbilt also scored four times in the first inning and added four more in the fourth and beat Oregon State by the same 11-1 score.  It was a bit of a surprise since the Beavers were pitching ace lefty Sam Gaviglio.  But the Commodores hammered him for nine hits and ten runs in less than six innings.

Mike Yastrzemski and Jason Esposito homered for the Commodores.

The other two Super-Regional games were much closer:

Patrick Johnson allowed only five hits over 7 2/3 innings to lead North Carolina over Stanford 5-2.  Trailing 3-0, the Cardinal scored twice in the eighth on an infield single to cut the deficit to one run.  But Seth Baldwin countered with a two run homer in the bottom of the inning to ice it for the Tar Heels.

Meanwhile, in Austin, Arizona State took advantage of two Texas errors to score two unearned runs in a 3-1 win over the Longhorns.  The Sun Devils only got five hits in the game, but made them count.  ASU was the only visiting team to win on Friday.