Wright State hangs on late to win 5-4, knocks No. 1 national seed Vanderbilt out of NCAA regionals
Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Griffen Paige gave up one run on one hit across eight innings, Boston Smith and Luke Arnold hit back-to-back homers early, and Wright State held off Vanderbilt in the ninth to knock the No. 1 national seed out of the NCAA Tournament with a 5-4 victory in the Nashville Regional on Sunday.
The Commodores (43-18) became the first No. 1 national seed to fail to reach their regional final since the tournament went to its current format in 1999.
Wright State (39-20), the No. 4 regional seed out of the Horizon League, play Louisville in the final Sunday night. The Raiders would have to beat the Cardinals in that game and again Monday to reach a super regional for the first time.
Paige (2-3) walked six, struck out two and allowed Brodie Johnston's second-inning home run during his 113-pitch outing.
'Biggest game I've ever pitched in, and I showed up and went out there trying to get guys out, one out at a time, one pitch at a time. You can't do anything else,' Paige said.
He went out to start the ninth but issued a four-pitch walk to start the inning. That's when things got interesting. Max Whitesell walked the bases loaded with one out to bring on Warren Hartzell, who had allowed three homers as Vanderbilt rallied late to beat the Raiders 4-3 in Friday's regional opener.
Hartzell got a pop-out for the second out before Mike Mancini singled up the middle to cut the lead to 5-3. Rustan Rigdon then sent a ball deep to right center that bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double. Had the ball not left the field, Mancini likely would have scored the tying run on the play. But he was required to go back to third, and RJ Austin then flew out to right to end the game.
Austin Nye (2-1) faced only seven batters, with Smith and Arnold taking him deep with two outs in the first for a 4-0 lead.
Vanderbilt was the fourth national seed to be eliminated and became the first No. 1 to get bounced out in regionals since UCLA in 2015.
___
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