Top seeds, underdogs advance to NCAA regional finals

At each regional site of the NCAA Baseball Tournament, one team came into play on Sunday facing two scenarios: Win and secure a spot in the Super Regionals, or lose and move on to a do-or-die rematch on Monday.

While several clubs completed an undefeated run through their regionals to punch tickets to next weekend's action, others face a more uncertain future. Top seeds Mississippi State, North Carolina, and Vanderbilt all suffered losses on Sunday and face elimination on Monday night. The same goes for No. 2 seed Rice.

The only No. 1 seed knocked out thus far is Virginia Tech, which won its first game on Sunday before losing, 10-4, to No. 2 Oklahoma. Hokies shortstop Chad Pinder, No. 49 on MLB.com's Top 100 Prospects list for this week's First-Year Player Draft, went only 1-for-9 overall.

Arizona State also was knocked out, this time by CSU Fullerton, the No. 1 seed in the Fullerton (Calif.) region, by a score of 6-1 late Sunday night. The Titans were led by three RBIs from MLB.com's No. 45 overall prospect, outfielder Michael Lorenzen.

In fact, it wasn't a huge day overall for Draft prospects.

San Diego third baseman Kris Bryant (No. 3), the top hitting prospect, went 0-for-4 in a 6-0 loss to No. 1 UCLA, which spun a combined one-hitter. Pitcher Michael Wagner (No. 58) did pitch a solid 7 2/3 innings of relief for the Toreros.

San Francisco pitcher Alex Balog (No. 44) took the season-ending loss against Oregon, which then went on to beat Rice, 11-0, and set up Monday's finale in the Eugene Regional. North Carolina third baseman Colin Moran (No. 6) was 1-for-4 with an RBI in a 3-2 loss to Florida Atlantic, and Mississippi State right fielder Hunter Renfroe (No. 28) was 1-for-4 in a 5-2 defeat against Central Arkansas, the tournament's last remaining No. 4 seed.

LSU second baseman JaCoby Jones (No. 63) and Kansas State center fielder Jared King (No. 74) didn't have big games either, but their teams took care of business and advanced. The Tigers beat Louisiana-Lafayette 5-1, while the Wildcats rallied past Arkansas, 4-3, behind 7 1/3 scoreless innings from their bullpen.

No. 1 seeds Florida State, Indiana, Louisville, North Carolina State, Oregon State and Virginia all won their games on Sunday to lock up region titles. South Carolina was leading Liberty when that game was suspended by weather in the fifth inning, to be completed on Monday afternoon.

Others had to win twice in order to stay alive after dropping into the losers bracket earlier in the tournament. No. 2 Georgia Tech beat Illinois, 6-3, then got a two-hit shutout from Josh Heddinger to get past Vanderbilt, 5-0, at the Nashville Regional. No. 2 Florida Atlantic scored in the ninth to beat Towson, 6-5, then rallied to beat North Carolina, 3-2, on Ricky Santiago's seventh-inning three-run homer at the Chapel Hill Regional. Central Arkansas got complete games from pitchers Connor Gilmore and Ethan McKinzie to get past South Alabama and Mississippi State.

Here are Sunday's results and Monday's schedule:

NCAA Baseball Championships
Regionals
Sunday's scores
Tallahassee Regional
Troy 9, Alabama 8
Florida State 11, Troy 4

Columbia Regional
Liberty 3, Clemson 1
South Carolina 4, Liberty 2 (susp., 5th inning)

Monday's schedule
South Carolina vs. Liberty (completion of suspended game)
South Carolina vs. Liberty (if necessary)

Blacksburg Regional
Virginia Tech 3, Connecticut 1
Oklahoma 10, Virginia Tech 4

Chapel Hill Regional
Florida Atlantic 6, Towson 5
Florida Atlantic 3, North Carolina 2

Monday's schedule
Florida Atlantic vs. North Carolina

Charlottesville Regional
Elon 6, UNC-Wilmington 4
Virginia 11, Elon 3

Nashville Regional
Georgia Tech 6, Illinois 3
Georgia Tech 5, Vanderbilt 0

Monday's schedule
Georgia Tech vs. Vanderbilt

Raleigh (N.C.) Regional
William & Mary 4, Mississippi 1
N.C. State 9, William & Mary 2

Louisville Regional
Oklahoma St. 7, Miami 1
Louisville 12, Oklahoma State 3

Bloomington (Ind.) Regional
Austin Peay 5, Valparaiso 4
Indiana 6, Austin Peay 1

Manhattan (Kan.) Regional
Arkansas 12, Bryant 3
Kansas St. 4, Arkansas 3

Corvallis (Ore.) Regional
Texas A&M 5, UC Santa Barbara 4
Oregon State 6, Texas A&M 1

Starkville (Miss.) Regional
Central Arkansas 3, South Alabama 0
Central Arkansas 5, Mississippi St. 2

Monday's schedule
Central Arkansas vs. Mississippi St.

Baton Rouge (La.) Regional
La.-Lafayette 7, Sam Houston St. 5
LSU 5, La.-Lafayette 1

Eugene (Ore.) Regional
Oregon 6, San Francisco 1
Oregon 11, Rice 0

Monday's schedule
Rice vs. Oregon

Los Angeles Regional
San Diego 8, Cal Poly 5
UCLA 6, San Diego 0

Fullerton (Calif.) Regional
Arizona St. 10, Columbia 5
CSU Fullerton 6, Arizona St. 1