Philadelphia, PA – A late rally fell short for the second-seed Texas A&M Aggies as they dropped a 6-4 decision to the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos to being the Corvallis Regional of the 2013 NCAA Tournament.
After getting a pair of RBI singles in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Aggies (32-28) were well within striking distance with runners on second and third with just one out. However the rally came up short when Mikey Reynolds fouled out to third base and Blake Allemand struck out looking to end the game.
Joey Epperson and Luke Swenson each had a pair of hits and an RBI apiece for UCSB (35-23) while Marc Venning was 1-for-4 with an RBI triple. Getting the win was Austin Pettibone, who scattered seven hits over 7 2/3 innings of work while allowing a pair of runs, only one of which was earned.
In the exciting conclusion to the first day of the regional, Dylan Davis stroked a double into right center to score a pair of runs as the top-seed Oregon State Beavers walked off in the ninth inning with a 5-4 victory over the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners.
Entering the ninth inning trailing 4-3, Tyler Smith worked a walk for Oregon State (46-10) and then advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt. Michael Conforto was then hit by a pitch and the next batter was Davis who won the game with his third hit of the game.
UTSA (35-24) had only six hits in the ball game, two of which came off the bat of R.J. Perucki who had the only multi-hit game for the Roadrunners. Matt Sims pitched 3 1/3 innings, walked four batters and gave up the decisive double to take the loss.
On Saturday Texas A&M and UTSA will meet up in the loser's bracket while Oregon State and UCSB will play later in the day in the winner's bracket. The winner of the Texas A&M/UTSA contest will face the loser between Oregon State and UCSB on Sunday for a spot in the regional final. The loser of the Texas A&M/UTSA contest on Saturday will be eliminated from the tournament.
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