The 2022 NCAA Tournament is well underway with a lot of surprises and great performances. We’ll break it all down from days one and two.
LSU with a pair of comebacks
The Tigers looked dead against Kennesaw St on Friday down 11-4 going into the bottom of the eighth, but then the bats exploded for a 10-run inning.
They were down 6-2 against host Southern Miss on Saturday before scoring 4 in the 9th to tie it, and then they walked it off in the 10th.
Host teams take some hits on Saturday
After a lot of chalk on Friday, we started to see a lot of host seeds take some surprising losses on Saturday. LSU over Southern Miss was one.
UConn took down Maryland, holding that offense to just 4 runs after the Terps had scored 23 on Friday.
Michigan had a huge win over Louisville scoring 3 in third, 2 in the fourth, and 2 in the fifth and then held on for a 7-3 win.
Oklahoma is one of the hottest teams on the planet and proved that with a 9-4 win over Florida. Peyton Graham had a home run for the Sooners.
Speaking of teams who are hot, VCU has won 17 in a row with an upset over North Carolina who has been on fire themselves.
The Tar Heels almost came back scoring 1 in the eighth and 2 in the ninth, but came up short in the 4-3 loss.
Because of bad weather, host Georgia Southern had to play two games on Saturday. Ty Fisher pitched a complete game shutout in their first game – a win over UNCG. But they came up just short against Notre Dame that night falling 6-4.
Stanford, winners of 17 straight games, saw their streak come to an end at the hand of Texas State in a 5-2 loss. They’ll face UC Santa Barbara in the losers’ bracket.
Oklahoma State Falls Apart in Loss to Arkansas
Another host that went down was Oklahoma St. in one of the crazier games of the weekend.
The Pokes were up 10-5 going into the 7th. Then Arkansas scored 3 runs to cut into the deficit.
But it was the 8th inning where the wheels really fell off for Oklahoma St. The inning started with a weak single up the middle, then it went hit by pitch, hit by pitch, strikeout, walk, walk, hit by pitch, walk, and then Jalen Battles hit a grand slam.
The Hogs would be up a four-spot in the ninth as well and finish with a 20-12 victory.
Runs galore in the NCAA Tournament
Offense has been up around college baseball this year, specifically with the long ball. Fourteen teams scored double-digits on Friday, and as of this writing there have been 16 teams that scored double-digit runs on Saturday.
A lot of it is coming from some big innings. Arkansa had the 8-run eighth against Oklahoma State, LSU scored 10 in an inning against Kennesaw St., and Georgia scored 13 in an inning against Hofstra.
With all these great offenses, it may come down to the teams who have the depth at pitching to get through the grind of regionals.
Top seeds taking care of business
Tennessee, Oregon State, and Virginia Tech have looked strong; although, the Beavers needed extra-innings to get past New Mexico State on Friday.
Texas A&M and Miami had to work to get by Louisiana and Canisius respectively (the Hurricanes were playing their day 1 game on Saturday because of weather).
East Carolina had a tough test against Virginia but escaped with a 4-2 win to advance to the regional finals.
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