Oklahoma St., Louisville win, head to NCAA super regionals
Oklahoma State and Louisville are on their way to super regionals in the NCAA Tournament, and four more teams will punch their tickets Monday night.
OSU beat Connecticut 3-1 to win the Oklahoma City regional and earn a spot in super regionals for the first time since 2016.
Louisville beat Illinois State 4-3 and is on to the next round for the sixth time in seven years.
Other regional finals being played Monday night: Loyola Marymount at No. 1 national seed UCLA, Connecticut at No. 9 Oklahoma State, Campbell at No. 10 East Carolina, Fresno State at No. 11 Stanford and Michigan vs. Creighton in Corvallis, Oregon.
SUPER REGIONAL MATCHUPS
The best-of-three super regionals will be played this weekend, with the eight winners advancing to the College World Series starting June 15.
The matchups: Oklahoma State vs. No. 8 Texas Tech; No. 6 Mississippi vs. No. 5 Arkansas; Florida State vs. No. 13 LSU; Duke vs. No. 2 Vanderbilt; East Carolina or Campbell vs. Louisville; No. 11 Stanford or Fresno State vs. No. 6 Mississippi State; Auburn vs. No. 14 North Carolina; and Michigan or Creighton vs. UCLA or Loyola Marymount.
The higher seeded team plays at home for super regionals. If the participants have the same seeding, a bid process is used to determine the home team. The NCAA will make sites official Tuesday.
QUICK RECOVERY
Trey Leonard could have saved Louisville some drama in its 4-3 win over Illinois State if he had been able to make a play in center field with two outs in the ninth inning. Leonard, who entered in the seventh inning as a pinch runner, misplayed Joe Aeilts’ line drive and the Redbirds went on to score the tying run.
Leonard redeemed himself in the bottom half, reaching on a bunt and scoring the winning run on Alex Binelas’ bases-loaded single up the middle.
“So, you gotta forget about it. You gotta flush it,” he said of his error. “We can’t let your bat go to your defense, or your defense go to your at-bats. So you just gotta make a positive out of everything.”
BIG BATS
— Carson McCusker hit a tiebreaking double in the sixth inning to lift Oklahoma State past Connecticut 3-1.
— Alec Burleson had three hits, including a two-run double in a four-run fifth inning that broke open the game in East Carolina’s 10-3 win over Campbell in the afternoon.
MOUND MARVELS
— Joe Lienhard, who struggled in his previous start against TCU in the Big 12 Tournament, allowed one run on five hits in six innings for Oklahoma State.
— Sam Lanier, Cam Colmore and Garrett Saylor combined for 3 2/3 innings of shutout relief for East Carolina in the first game against Campbell.
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