At least five of the 10 Southeastern Conference teams that tied the NCAA Tournament record have won regionals and will take the next step on the “Road to Omaha.”
National seed No. 2 Florida and No. 5 LSU wrapped up regionals Monday and join SEC members No. 15 South Carolina, No. 16 Alabama and Tennessee in super regionals beginning Friday.
The SEC could pull two more teams out of regionals. No. 12 Kentucky and Texas A&M played finals on Monday night. The SEC sent a record six teams to super regionals in 2004 and 2018.
TCU and Southern Mississippi also won regionals on Monday.
Florida advanced with a 6-0 win over Texas Tech. The Gators had been eliminated from three straight regionals at their home field and this time they had to win three straight elimination games to reach the super regionals for the first time since 2018.
Ryan Slater and two relievers combined in the four-hit shutout and BT Riopelle, who had gone 0 for 15 with eight strikeouts in regional, hit a pair of two-run homers.
“Last year left a bad taste in our mouths and we didn’t want to overlook any team in this regional no matter what, and that’s exactly what we did,” Gators shortstop Josh Rivera said. “We came here and we treated each team like it was the best team we were going to face all year and we just competed every at-bat, every pitch. It is a blessing to be where we are now and to understand that the work is not finished”.
The winners of the best-of-three super regionals will go to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, beginning June 16.
The top eight national seeds are assured of hosting super regionals if they win their regionals. The NCAA will announce other sites on Tuesday.
Pairings: Alabama (43-19) at No. 1 Wake Forest (50-10); South Carolina (42-19) at Florida (48-15); TCU (40-22) vs. No. 14 Indiana State (45-15); South Mississippi (45-18) vs. Tennessee (41-19); Oral Roberts (49-11) vs. Oregon (40-20); Texas (41-20) vs. Stanford or Texas A&M; No. 10 Coastal Carolina or Duke at No. 7 Virginia (48-12); and Kentucky or Indiana at LSU (46-15).
BIG BATS
Hayden Travinski and Cade Beloso hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning to help LSU beat Oregon State 13-7. … Kurtis Byrne went 4 for 5 with two home runs to lead TCU past No. 3 Arkansas 12-4. Tre Richardson went deep and drove in three runs one day after hitting three home runs, including two grand slams, and tied the NCAA Tournament record with 11 RBI. … Dustin Dickerson homered for the second straight game, this time hitting a tiebreaking three-run homer in the sixth inning to help Southern Mississippi beat Penn 11-7.
WONDERS OF THE MOUND
TCU’s Cam Brown and Ben Abeldt combined to allow three hits against Arkansas but walked six. … Will Armistead struck out five as he pitched 2 2/3 innings of one-hit shutout relief to end Southern Miss’s victory. … Florida’s Ryan Slater pitched five shutout innings in his third start of the season, giving up two runs in eight innings in three regional appearances.
AROUND THE HORN
The state of Indiana announced Monday that it would not be able to host its super regional due to a prior commitment to host the Indiana Special Olympics for the 51st consecutive year. Indiana State, as the national seed, would have been in line to host against an unseeded TCU. … LSU is in super for the eighth time since 2012 and 16th overall, the second-most after Florida State’s 17. …TCU is in super for the first time since 2018. …Arkansas failed to make it out of regionals for the first time since 2017. …Southern Miss is in super for the second straight year with Scott Berry, who retires after the season.
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