Hours after Wright State held off Vanderbilt in the ninth inning to knock the No. 1 national seed out of the NCAA tournament with a 5-4 victory Sunday in the Nashville Regional, No. 2 national seed Texas was eliminated by UTSA in the Austin Regional championship.
This is the second time since national seeds were introduced in 1999 that the top two seeds were both eliminated in regionals, 2014 being the other (No. 1 Oregon State, No. 2 Florida).
In Nashville, Tennessee, Griffen Paige gave up two runs on one hit across eight-plus innings, and Boston Smith and Luke Arnold hit back-to-back homers early to propel Wright State, the No. 4 regional seed out of the Horizon League, into the final, where the Raiders fell to Louisville 6-0 later Sunday night.
Paige walked six, struck out two and gave up 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.
The Commodores became the first No. 1 national seed to fail to reach its regional final since the tournament went to its current format in 1999.
Austin Nye 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 the regionals since UCLA in 2015.
In Austin, Texas, the Longhorns were hosting a regional for the 38th time in program history.
Norris McClure went 3-for-5 with a two-run homer in the first inning, and UTSA added five runs in the third to advance to the program’s first super regional. The Roadrunners were 0-6 in their first three NCAA tournament appearances before winning three straight this season, including a 9-7 victory over the Longhorns on Saturday.
McClure’s sixth home run of the season went over the right-field wall for a 2-0 lead.
The UTSA defense came up big on multiple occasions, beginning in the third. James Taussig made a catch at the warning track in left field and quickly got it to the cut-off man for a rocket to third to end the inning on a double play.
Ty Hodge lined a shot to center that went off the center fielder’s glove to clear the bases for a 6-0 lead. Mason Lytle added a two-out single for a seven-run lead.
Lytle, the American Athletic Conference defensive player of the year, made a diving catch on the warning track in center to save a run in the fourth.
Gunnar Brown gave up only one earned run and six hits in a five-inning start for UTSA. Robert Orloski struck out four in three innings to earn his ninth save.
Hudson Hamilton went only one inning in his start for Texas.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
