The first weekend of play in Omaha concluded, and for the ACC it was a great start as both North Carolina State and Virginia came away with opening game wins. This is important because 35 of the last 39 winners of the college world series have won their first game en route to the championship. It also helps to get a couple of days off before your next game. Staying in the winner’s bracket is key to having success in Omaha.
NC State got things started on Saturday afternoon by playing the very first game of the event versus the Stanford Cardinal (38-16) out of the Pac-12. The Wolfpack (36-18) received solid starting pitching from Reid Johnson who went the first six innings. The offense was led by Jonny Butler, who homered and drove in five runs on the day. State would get some help from a Cardinal defense that was shaky, committing three errors in the afternoon. The Wolfpack took game one by a 10-4 count.
Butler got the bats jump-started in the very first inning facing Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year, Brendan Beck taking him to right for a two-run home run to give his team an early 2-0 advantage. Beck would be victimized by the long ball again in the fourth, this time by Devonte Brown to right-center field to make it a 4-0 game in the fourth. Butler would bring home two more with an RBI single to give NC State a 6-0 lead.
The Wolfpack finished the game with 12 hits, five of them went for extra bases, two of them left the park. The HR’s give North Carolina State 17 two-HR games in their last 21 overall. The last time Johnson took the mound it was not pretty. He was the starting pitcher vs Arkansas in Game 1 of the Super Regionals. On the night, he gave up seven runs in three innings of work in what turned out to be a 21-2 loss to the Razorbacks. On Saturday, Johnson was much better pitching into the seventh. He allowed six hits, three earned runs, and two home runs. Evan Justice came out of the bullpen to calm things down in the seventh and would finish the game for the Wolfpack to get the win. Next up for State is a Monday night date with the defending national champs the Vanderbilt Commodores.
The Virginia Cavaliers (36-25) rode six strong innings from their number one starter Andrew Abbott on Sunday afternoon. Their offense was supplied by an unlikely source in Logan Michaels, who homered for just the second time in 343 at-bats since he joined the team in 2019. It was enough to shut down a powerful Tennessee (50-17) lineup and win their first game by a 6-0 verdict.
For Virginia, the shutout was their sixth of the season, and second in the postseason. Abbott (9-6), the senior left-hander, allowed just five singles, walked two and struck out 10. The Vols had no extra-base hits in the game and were shut out for the first time since April 16. Michaels, the light-hitting senior catcher, came into the contest hitting just .242 on the year. In the tournament, he was batting .240 (6-for-25) in seven games. In the second he took Tennessee starter Chad Dallas deep to left. Then in the seventh, he ripped an RBI single to center as part of a four-run inning. He ended his day by scoring the final Virginia run in the ninth. Virginia gets Mississippi State on Tuesday night.
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