No. 1 Wake Forest dominant, joins Oral Roberts and 7 others moving on in NCAA Tournament
No. 1 national seed Wake Forest completed one of the most dominant runs through an NCAA Tournament regional Sunday and joined Oral Roberts of the Summit League and seven others advancing to super regionals.
The Demon Deacons beat George Mason 15-1 in the final in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and outscored their three opponents by a combined 48-7.
Oral Roberts extended its win streak to 21 games and became the eighth No. 4 regional seed since 2006 to make a super regional when it held off Dallas Baptist 6-5 in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
No. 7 Virginia, No. 14 Indiana State, No. 15 South Carolina, No. 16 Alabama, Tennessee, Texas and Oregon also wrapped up regionals.
Virginia defeated East Carolina 8-3 in Charlottesville to make a super regional for the second time in three years. Indiana State, hosting a regional for the first time, won 11-8 over Iowa to make its first super regional. South Carolina, which entered the tournament with losses in 11 of 14 games, beat Campbell 16-7 and is back in supers for the first time since 2018.
Alabama beat Boston College 8-0 for its first regional title since 2010. The Crimson Tide has won 13 of 17 games under interim coach Jason Jackson, who took over after Brad Bohannon was fired for allegedly violating NCAA rules against sports wagering.
Tennessee and Texas are in supers for the third straight year. The Volunteers beat Charlotte 9-2 to finish a sweep through the Clemson Regional, and the Longhorns won 10-6 at No. 9 Miami for the second victory in two days over the Hurricanes. Oregon beat Xavier 11-2 to return to supers for the first time since 2012.
Top-eight seeds that win regionals are assured of hosting best-of-three super regionals. The NCAA will announce all sites Tuesday.
Wake Forest (50-10) will host Alabama (43-19) starting Friday or Saturday and advance to the College World Series for the first time since winning the 1955 national title if it wins the best-of-three super regional.
Oral Roberts (49-11) probably will go on the road to play Oregon (40-20); Virginia (48-12) hosts No. 10 Coastal Carolina or Duke; Indiana State (45-15) would play at Arkansas or possibly host TCU; South Carolina (41-19) visits No. 2 Florida or possibly hosts Texas Tech; Tennessee (41-19) could host Penn or visit Southern Mississippi; and Texas (41-20) visits Stanford or meets Texas A&M at a site to be determined.
No. 4 Clemson became the highest national seed eliminated, continuing a decade of postseason frustration for the Tigers, and No. 6 Vanderbilt was knocked out of regionals a second straight year.
Charlotte ended Clemson's season with a 3-2 win, making it 10 straight appearances since 2010 that the Tigers have failed to make it out of the regional round.
No. 2 Florida stayed alive with an 8-2 win over Connecticut and a 7-1 win over Texas Tech, forcing a winner-take-all game with the Red Raiders in Gainesville.
No. 3 Arkansas bounced back from a 20-5 loss to TCU to eliminate Santa Clara 6-4 and would have to beat the Horned Frogs twice on Monday to advance.
No. 5 LSU will face Oregon State, which eliminated Sam Houston State 3-1 a.
No. 8 Stanford knocked out Cal State Fullerton 6-5 and beat Texas A&M 13-5 to set up a rematch with the Aggies.
No. 12 Kentucky beat Indiana 16-6 to set up a second final. Southern Mississippi beat Penn 11-2 to force a second final at Auburn.
THAT'S CRAY, TRE
No one would have mistaken TCU's 165-pound second baseman Tre Richardson for a power hitter before Sunday. He sure was one against Arkansas, hitting two grand slams and another homer and tying the tournament record with 11 RBIs in the Horned Frogs' 15-run victory.
Richardson entered the game with two home runs in his first 60 games for TCU after going deep seven times in 115 games over three seasons at Baylor.
Richardson's first and second homers since April 16 were grand slams in the first and second innings, and he hit a solo shot in the sixth and finished the game 5 for 6.
Arkansas, which had won 31 of 35 home games, sustained its most lopsided home loss in two years.
BIG BATS
Wake Forest's Pierce Bennett homered and drove in five runs and Danny Corona connected twice against George Mason. ... Oregon scored six times in the sixth inning against Xavier on Rikuu Nishida's three-run double and Drew Cowley's three-run homer. ... Tommy Troy's grand slam came during a seven-run seventh inning for Stanford against A&M. ... Keegan Watson's three-run homer in the seventh put Indiana State in control against Iowa. ... Jalin Flores' grand slam highlighted Texas' nine-run third inning against Miami. ... Jac Caglianone homered twice against UConn and became the first Southeastern Conference player since LSU’s Brad Cresse in 2000 to hit 30 in a season.
MOUND MARVELS
Jacob McNairy struck out 11 in 7 2/3 shutout innings for Alabama. ... Tennessee's Drew Beam held Charlotte to two runs on four hits and struck out 10. ... Florida's Cade Fisher and Brandon Neely combined to strike out eight and hold Texas Tech to one run on six singles and a double.
AROUND THE HORN
Penn, leading 2-1, took a gut punch against Southern Miss when the fourth inning ended with the bases loaded when plate umpire Mike Morris called Calvin Brown out on full count for not being alert and ready when the pitch clock hit 10 seconds. ... West Virginia's JJ Wetherholt had three hits against Kentucky and finished the season with a .454 batting average, making him the first Power Five player over .450 since Florida State's Buster Posey (.463) in 2009. ... East Carolina has 33 tournament appearances without making a CWS, the longest streak of its kind.
___
More AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
