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NCAA Baseball Super Regionals: Washington outlasts Fullerton; Oregon State routs Minnesota

by Jonathan Hawthorne
Jun 8, 2018
Oregon State Athletics/UW Athletics

Two Pac-12 teams, Oregon State and Washington, took the diamond Friday in the opening day of NCAA Super Regional action as the two teams look to punch a ticket to the College World Series in Omaha.

[Related: 2018 NCAA Baseball Championship bracket (NCAA.com)]

Washington

Fullerton Super Regional: Washington 8, Cal State Fullerton 5

Washington broke a 2-2 tie with a pair of runs in the fifth, seventh and ninth innings to hold off Fullerton and go up 1-0 in the first-ever Super Regional game in Washington history.

Nick Kahle, batting third in the lineup, went 3-for-5 and scored three runs. Levi Jordan and AJ Graffanino also had three-hit games for the Huskies, who overcame an early 2-0 deficit by plating two runs in the third. Mason Cerrillo looped a single to center leading off the inning and eventually made it to third on a two-base error by the Fullerton outfielder. In total, the Titans committed five errors during Friday's contest. Braiden Ward promptly brought him home in the next at-bat with a towering flyout to right, cutting the Titans' lead in half at 2-1.

But the Huskies didn't settle for just the one run in the third. One batter later, Kahle singled. The UW catcher scored Levi Jordan with a two-out single to left field. That made it 2-2.

Fullerton scored its first two runs early in the game. In the first, the Titans used a run-scoring double to take an early 1-0 lead. They followed it up with another run (unearned) in the second.

After the Huskies added two more runs in the seventh to go up 6-2, the Titans promptly responded with a three spot of their own, making it 6-5. Fullerton loaded the bases in the eighth with two outs, but Alex Hardy escaped the jam, setting UW up to collect some key insurances runs in the ninth. They certainly delivered. Kaiser Weiss roped a two-out, run-scoring double to make it 8-5 and Joe DeMers entered the game to earn the save.

Redshirt freshman Lucas Knowles was strong in his start, spinning five innings of one-run ball while striking out three. The win marks UW's first victory all-time against Fullerton. They were 0-8 entering Friday.

The Huskies will try to punch their ticket to Omaha during Game 2, set for Saturday at 3:30 p.m. PT on ESPNU.

Oregon State

Corvallis Super Regional: Oregon State 8, Minnesota 1

Back-to-back homers in the first inning Friday proved to be a good omen for the Beaver offense. 

Trevor Larnach and Adley Rutschman went yard in consecutive at-bats — a rally that began with two outs, no less — as Oregon State moved to one win shy of returning to the College World Series in Omaha. Larnach's homer in the first scored Nick Madrigal, who was drafted No. 4 overall in Monday's MLB Draft by the Chicago White Sox.

Oregon State padded its lead in the fifth with consecutive doubles that plated Jack Anderson and Zak Taylor. Rutschman doubled and Michael Gretler tripled in the seventh to score two more runs.

Luke Heimlich struck out eight and allowed seven hits over 8 2/3 innings of work. Sam Tweedt came on in relief with one out left in the game and closed the door after allowing a single. With the win, Oregon State improves to 11-2 all-time in Super Regionals games at Goss Stadium.

Game 2 of the Super Regional is Saturday at 6:30 p.m. PT on ESPN2. 

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