South Carolina 9 The Citadel 4
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Blake Cooper struck out a career-high 12 batters, and South Carolina put together a late-inning rally to defeat cross-state rival The Citadel 9-4 in a winner’s bracket game of the NCAA Baseball Columbia Regional on Saturday. The Carolina Stadium crowd of 7,418 was treated to a spectacular pitchers’ duel through six innings before the Gamecocks exploded for seven runs over their final three at-bats.
Cooper (11-1) stymied the Bulldog hitters through 7.1 innings, hitting double-digits in strikeouts for the second time in his career and holding the Bulldogs to four runs, none of which were earned, on six hits while walking three. Citadel ace righthander Asher Wojciechowski (12-3) was equally impressive until late in the game, striking out 11 Gamecock hitters in 6.2 innings of work before giving up five runs in the seventh inning to be charged with the loss. Matt Price picked up his eighth save, tossing 1.1 innings of shutout ball to preserve the Carolina win.
Virginia Tech 16 Bucknell 7
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Virginia Tech used 16 hits and a productive effort from its bullpen to overcome two weather delays and defeat Bucknell 16-7 in an elimination game of the NCAA Columbia Regional on Saturday afternoon at Carolina Stadium.
The 16th-ranked and second-seeded Hokies (39-21) lived to play another day with their first NCAA Tournament victory since 1999, while fourth-seeded Bucknell saw its season come to an end (25-35). Tech will face the loser of Saturday night’s winner’s bracket game between South Carolina and The Citadel on Sunday at 2 p.m.
