KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Luc Lipcius hit two home runs in an eight-run fifth inning and No. 1 overall seed Tennessee rolled to a 12-4 victory over Notre Dame on Saturday to stay alive in the Knoxville Super Regional.
Tennessee (57-8) and Notre Dame (39-15) will play a third game Sunday with a berth in the College World Series on the line. The Fighting Irish beat Tennessee 8-6 on Friday. Tennessee is looking for its second straight and sixth CWS appearance overall. The Vols have never won the event, finishing second in 1951. Notre Dame has made two CWS appearances — 1957 and 2002.
Tennessee was clinging to a 1-0 lead — on Trey Lipscomb’s RBI double in the first inning — heading into the top of the fifth. Lipcius homered off Notre Dame starter John Bertrand (9-3) on a 1-1 pitch to lead off. Cortland Lawson doubled and moved to third on a single by Seth Stephenson. One out later, Jordan Beck hit a three-run shot to make it 5-0. After Lipscomb popped out, Evan Russell homered to left field. Jackson Dennies relieved Bertrand and walked Jared Dickey before yielding a single to Christian Moore. Lipcius made it 9-0 with a three-run shot.
Jorel Ortega had an RBI double in a three-run seventh to cap the scoring for the Volunteers.
Jack Zyska hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth for Notre Dame. The Irish were held to seven hits — two for extra bases — after hitting four homers in their first-round win.
Chase Dollander allowed just two runs on five hits in seven innings to up his record to 10-0 on the season. He struck out five.
Tennessee played without its cleanup-hitting center fielder Drew Gilbert. Gilbert was suspended for a game after being ejected for arguing a strike call in the fifth inning Friday. Pitching coach Frank Anderson, who was tossed for running onto the field, also missed the game.
TEXAS A&M 4, LOUISVILLE 3: The Aggies posted a second straight one-run win and will return to the College World Series for the first time since 2017, the next step in a turnaround season under first-year coach Jim Schlossnagle.
A year after failing to even qualify for the Southeastern Conference tournament, Texas A&M posted the second-best record in the conference and now has won five straight in the NCAA tournament.
The super regional sweep in College Station, Texas, came one year and two days after the Aggies hired away Schlossnagle from TCU, where he had led the Horned Frogs to five CWS in 18 years.
“At this time a year ago I was waking up consistently at 3:30 in the morning in a full body sweat,” he said. “I had just left a place that was so comfortable. To be sitting here going to the College World Series, every single ounce of credit goes to the players.”
Relievers Will Johnston, Brad Rudis and Jacob Palisch combined to limit Louisville to five singles in 4 1/3 shutout innings, and the Aggies scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
“I’m glad we won, but I’m really glad to see us win a game that’s not 15-7,” said Schlossnagle, who got a cooler of water poured over him as the team celebrated outside the dugout. “I’ve been saying all year long, you’re going to run into great pitchers. It’s good to see us match that up and play good defense.”
VIRGINIA TECH 14, OKLAHOMA 8: Nick Biddison hit two of the Hokies’ single-game record five homers, and six Tech pitchers combined to strike out 14 Sooners.
“I felt like it was an exercise in toughness for our guys,” said Hokies coach John Szefc, whose team bounced back from a 5-4 loss in Game 1.
TEXAS 9, EAST CAROLINA 8: The Longhorns came back from a five-run deficit to edge the Pirates on Dylan Campbell’s bases-loaded single in the bottom of the ninth in Greenville, North Carolina.
Campbell also hit a tiebreaking homer in the bottom of the eighth for the Longhorns, who entered the inning trailing 7-4.
“There’s a lot of fight in this team,” Texas coach David Pierce said. “This team has proven it from the day we started it until right now. We’re not going to give in, not going to go away.”
OLE MISS 10, SOUTHERN MISS 0: The Rebels scored seven runs on five hits in the sixth inning on their way to a 10-0 win over the Golden Eagles in Hattiesburg.
Dylan DeLucia and Jack Dougherty combined on the shutout, with DeLucia allowing four hits in 5 2/3 innings and Dougherty giving up no hits the rest of the way.
ARKANSAS 4, NORTH CAROLINA 1: Connor Noland threw 6 2/3 scoreless innings in the Razorbacks’ victory over the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Noland threw 61 of 89 pitches for strikes while allowing only six hits and a walk.
Peyton Stovall homered to start the Razorbacks’ three-run fifth inning, and Brady Slavens followed with the first of his RBI singles.
UCONN 13, STANFORD 12: The Huskies scored eight runs in the second inning and then survived No. 2 Stanford’s home run barrage to hold off the Cardinal 13-12 in the Stanford Super Regional opener, matching the most runs scored against the Cardinal this season.
The Huskies, trying to get to Omaha for the first time since 1979, withstood Stanford’s four homers in the ninth after entering the inning up 13-6. The Cardinal finished with eight homers, their most in a game since 2004, with Brock Jones connecting three times.
AUBURN 7, OREGON STATE 5: Sonny DiChiara hit a two-run home run, Brody Moore’s sacrifice fly in the top of the third gave Auburn the lead for good and the Tigers bullpen allowed just one run over 8 1/3 innings of relief in their 7-5 win over Oregon State in Game 1 of the best-of-three Corvallis Super Regional.
No. 14 seed Auburn (41-19) can clinch a berth in the College World Series with a win in Game 2.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.