The 2011 NCAA baseball tournament kicked off the super regionals round as sixteen teams are doing battle for eight spots in the 2011 College World Series. Friday afternoon saw half the teams start playing. These teams will battle in potential elimination games on Saturday while the other half of the field plays their first set of games.
The day started off with Florida destroying Mississippi State 11-1. The Gators jumped on top early with a four run first inning and were powered to victory by three home runs and Hudson Randall throwing eight innings of one run ball.
The second game of the day saw the North Carolina Tarheels defeat the Stanford Cardinal 5-2. UNC took an early 1-0 lead after a Stephen Piscotty error led to an unearned run. The teams traded zeros from there before Seth Baldwin hit a two-run home run to give UNC a 3-0 lead. Stanford put up two runs in the eighth but gave them right back in the bottom of the inning in the 5-2 loss.
Arizona State and Texas followed that with the closest contest of Friday. The Sun Devils were the only road team to win as Joey Demichele had a pair of RBIs. Brady Rogers was solid over 6 2/3 innings while Mitchell Lambson threw 2 1/3 innings of perfect ball.
Friday wrapped up with Vanderbilt having no trouble with the Oregon State Beavers, winning 11-1. The Commodores jumped on top with a four-run first inning and didn't really let up. They got a solid 6 2/3 innings from Oakland A's first round pick Sonny Gray while their offense gave him plenty of support.
Day two kicks off at 9:00am pacific with Florida and Mississippi State. The Stanford Cardinal get going at noon pacific while the Cal Bears face Dallas Baptist at 5:00pm.