Thanks to quality pitching and a big swing by Henry Godbout, Virginia (42-15) captured a 4-2 win over Penn (24-24) in the opening game of the NCAA Charlottesville Regional on Friday at Disharoon Park in Charlottesville.
Mississippi State and St. John’s were playing Friday night, and the Cavaliers — seeded 12th in the 64-team field — will play at 6 Saturday night against the winner of that game. The MSU-St. John’s loser will face Penn at noon Saturday in an elimination game.
Joe Savino and Chase Hungate combined to pitch a four-hitter. Savino logged a season-high 5 2/3 innings and struck out a season-high eight batters. Hungate got the final 10 outs of the game, needing just 33 pitches to earn his first college save.
Henry Godbout blasted a three-run homer in the second inning, which proved to be the difference. It was his third homer in his last five games.
Henry Ford began that inning with a single, and Western Branch High graduate Harrison Didawick drew a walk. Both scored on Godbout’s blast.
Penn plated both of its runs in the fourth inning, the first on a double by Davis Baker and the other on a two-out single from Nick Spaventa.
Virginia added an insurance run in the seventh inning, with an RBI double from Cox High graduate Ethan Anderson that plated Griff O’Ferrall. The double was Anderson’s 20th of the season and 58th of his career. O’Ferrall had two hits for the day.
Raleigh Regional
South Carolina 8, James Madison 7 (10 innings): Making their first NCAA regional appearance since 2011, the Dukes were one strike from victory but suffered a gutting defeat at North Carolina State’s stadium.
With JMU ahead 7-5, two out, none on base and a 1-2 count in the bottom of the ninth inning, JMU reliever Joe Vogatsky hit Blake Jackson in the back with a fastball. Cole Messina, one of the nation’s top-hitting catchers, then belted Vogatsky’s next pitch over the wall in left field to tie the game at 7. Messina, who had been walked three times by the Dukes, hit four homers in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
After JMU hitters went down 1-2-3 in the top of the 10th, South Carolina’s Kennedy Jones, a former star for Maury High who transferred from UNC Greensboro, drew a walk. After a strikeout, Jones reached third when Vogatsky threw away a bunt by Talmadge LeCroy, leaving runners at second and third with one out.
Pinch runner Dylan Brewer replaced Jones at third and easily scored the winning run on Will Tippett’s sacrifice fly to deep center.
JMU first-team All-Sun Belt performer Fenwick Trimble, a Cox High alum, was 3 for 5 with a run and three RBIs. He grounded a two-run double down the left-field line that gave JMU a 7-4 lead in the sixth inning.
Mason Dunaway, from Hickory High, scored twice for the Dukes. Kyle Langley was 2 for 4 and also scored twice.
Jones, a former travel-ball teammate of Fenwick, belted a home run to center in the bottom of the sixth.
At 6 p.m. Saturday, South Carolina (37-23) will play top seed N.C. State. At noon, JMU (34-24) will play Bryant in an elimination game.
N.C. State 9, Bryant 2: Alec Makarewicz had four hits and drove in three runs, Jacob Dudan threw three dominant innings of relief, and the Wolfpack won.
Makarewicz had three doubles and also scored twice. He had an RBI double in the third, an RBI single in the sixth and an RBI double in the eighth. Noah Soles hit a two-run home run to kick-start the Wolfpack’s four-run sixth inning that put them in control 7-2.
Dudan entered with two on and nobody out in the seventh and retired nine of the 10 batters he faced, six of them with strikeouts.
Greenville Regional
Evansville 4, East Carolina 1: Freshman Kenton Deverman allowed one run and three hits over eight innings to lead the Purple Aces past the host Pirates, who are seeded first in their regional and 16th natiolnally.
Deverman struck out four and didn’t walk anyone for Evansville to lead the upset. The Purple Aces advanced to the regional field with their first Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship since 2006 in a hot streak that included three run-rule victories.
Evansville will face VCU at 6 p.m. Saturday, and ECU will meet the Demon Deacons in an elimination game at noon.
Zach Root (6-1) took his first loss of the season despite a strong outing for East Carolina (43-17), the regular-season American Athletic Conference champion. He allowed three hits and two runs through five innings.
Carter Cunningham led ECU with a 2-for-4 performance, including a solo homer in the fourth.
VCU 1, Wake Forest 0: Christian Gordon allowed two hits and struck out 13 in 7 2/3 innings for the Atlantic 10 champion Rams (38-21), and Cooper Benzin’s sacrifice fly in the fifth inning was the only run of the game.
Gordon (8-2), a senior left-hander, recorded his career highs for strikeouts and innings for VCU, the region’s No. 3 seed. Brian Curley gave up one hit in the final 1 1/3 innings for his third save.
Wake Forest, the second seed in Greenville, never advanced a runner past second base and went three-up, three-down in four of the first six innings.
Chapel Hill Regional
North Carolina 11, Long Island 8: Gavin Gallaher’s walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth rescued regional top seed North Carolina, who rallied from three runs down in that inning.
The Tar Heels trailed 8-5 after LIU’s Jacob Pipercic had a go-ahead three run blast. But UNC is seldom out of it at home, where it was 32-2 before regional play. Gallaher’s shot to left field with one out landed in front of the large scoreboard and sent the Tar Heels into a winners’ bracket matchup with No. 2 regional seed LSU.
LSU 4, Wofford 3: Steven Milam hit two solo home runs, including a game-deciding shot to right-center in the bottom of the ninth, and the defending champion Tigers overcame a two-run deficit.
LSU’s Michael Braswell and Jared Jones also hit solo home runs, both coming in the eighth inning to tie the game, and reliever Griffin Herring picked up the win by striking out the side in the top of the ninth.
Wofford scored twice in the second inning and Jack Renwick added a solo home run in the eighth for a 3-1 lead.
