NCAA baseball roundup: Washington stuns Cal State Fullerton in series opener

Levi Jordan and AJ Graffanino each had three hits and two RBIs as Washington registered an 8-5 victory over host Cal State Fullerton on Friday in the opening game of the NCAA Tournament best-of-three Super Regional.

Nick Kahle had three hits and scored three runs and Kaiser Weiss had two RBIs for the Huskies (34-23), who defeated the Titans for the first time in nine meetings. Left-hander Lucas Knowles (6-5) gave up two runs (one earned) and five hits in five innings.

Sahid Valenzuela had three hits and Daniel Cope drove in two runs for the Titans (35-24), who committed five errors. Right-hander Colton Eastman (10-4) allowed six runs (four earned) and 12 hits over seven innings.

North Carolina 7, Stetson 4

In one of only two Super Regionals featuring a pair of national seeds, the host Tar Heels (42-18) held off the Hatters (48-12) in the first contest of the best-of-three series at Chapel Hill, N.C.

Stetson, located in DeLand, Fla., hosted a regional for the first time in school history last week and is playing in the Super Regional for the first time. The Hatters entered the ninth inning trailing 7-3 but rallied to score a run and then loaded the bases with two outs.

But Tar Heels pitcher Austin Bergner — who has 12 starts this season but came on with two on and two out in the ninth Friday — got cleanup hitter Brooks Wilson to fly out a step short of the left field wall to end the game.

Oregon State 8, Minnesota 1

Beavers ace Luke Heimlich fell one out short of a complete game in a dominant performance against the Golden Gophers in Game 1 of the two teams’ best-of-three series at Corvalis, Ore.

Heimlich (16-1) allowed one run on seven hits, striking out nine and throwing 124 pitches (84 for strikes). Earlier this week, the controversial left-hander wasn’t selected in the MLB draft for the second year in a row, the result of the revelation last year of a sexual assault on his 6-year-old niece he admitted to at 15 years old.

Trevor Larnach and Adley Rutschman each homered and had two hits, two runs scored and two RBIs for Oregon State (48-10-1). Steven Kwan added two hits and two RBIs. Toby Hanson drove in the sole run for Minnesota (44-14) with a solo homer in the eighth.

–Field Level Media