Tennessee shook off upstart Evansville in the middle innings Friday and moved within a win of a third College World Series appearance in four years.
But Florida State turned in the most eye-opening performance on the first day of NCAA super regionals.
The No. 8 national seed Seminoles set records for the most runs and largest winning margin in the 25-year history of the super regionals in their 24-4 victory over UConn at Dick Howser Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida.
Five of FSU’s 18 hits were home runs, and six UConn pitchers combined to walk 15.
“We got boat-raced,” Huskies coach Jim Penders said before saying the lopsided final score. “I thought we were in Doak Campbell (Stadium next door) because that looked like a football score, but that doesn’t matter for tomorrow.”
The Volunteers looked every bit the part of a No. 1 national seed, launching four more home runs and getting another solid performance from AJ Causey after starter Chris Stamos was pulled early for a second straight game in an 11-6 win over Evansville.
Two other super regionals opened Friday night. West Virginia was at No. 4 North Carolina and West Virginia visited No. 12 Virginia.
The winners of the best-of-three series will advance to the CWS in Omaha, Nebraska, beginning next Friday.
Since the NCAA Tournament went to its current format in 1999, the winner of a super regional opener advanced to the CWS 78% of the time (148 of 190).
