Wake Forest, Virginia win super regionals to join Florida, TCU in College World Series field

By ERIC OLSON
AP Sports Writer

Wake Forest is headed to the College World Series for the first time since it won the national championship in 1955, and the Demon Deacons will bring the hottest offense in the country.

Virginia also clinched a spot in the CWS on Sunday, and the two Atlantic Coast Conference clubs join Florida and TCU in the eight-team field that begins play Friday in Omaha, Nebraska.

Oral Roberts visited Oregon in the third game of their best-of-three super regional Sunday night. Texas was at Stanford and Kentucky at LSU in Game 2s. The Tennessee-Southern Mississippi matchup is tied at a game apiece and will be decided Monday.

Wake Forest is the first No. 1 national seed to make it to the CWS since 2018. The Deacons tied the NCAA Tournament record with nine home runs in their super regional-clinching 22-5 win over Alabama, and they are the first team since LSU in 1997 to have won four tournament games by double digits.

“We’ve had high expectations all year — No. 2 ranked, No. 1 ranked,” coach Tom Walter said. “The higher the expectations got, the more these guys showed up.”

Projected first-round draft pick Brock Wilken, who had no homers in the Deacons’ first four tournament games, went deep three times. Nick Kurtz and Wilken hit back-to-back homers in the first inning, and Wilken connected again for the first of three third-inning homers that put Wake Forest up 10-3. Wilken’s homer in the ninth gave him 30 for the season and an ACC-record 70 in his career.

Virginia beat Duke 12-2 to earn its sixth trip to the CWS, all since 2009 under coach Brian O’Connor. The Cavaliers outscored their ACC rival 26-6 in the second and third games. It was the fourth time Virginia has come back to win a super regional after losing the opening game.

The Cavaliers took control of Game 3 with a five-run second inning. Griff O’Ferrall went 4 for 5, Kyle Teel drove in four runs and Brian Edgington struck out a season-high 11 in the second complete game of his career.

Chase Dollander pitched eight strong innings as Tennessee won 8-4 at Southern Miss to force a Game 3 on Monday. Blake Burke’s 479-foot homer to right highlighted a six-run fourth inning that gave the Volunteers the lead.

Wake Forest will play Texas or No. 8 Stanford in its CWS opener, and No. 7 Virginia will be matched against No. 2 Florida.

Walter said making it to Omaha is a culmination of hard work that started with former athletic director Ron Wellman’s vision for the program and willingness to spend the money required to build a state-of-the-art baseball training facility that includes a pitching lab. Walter also noted the support of former associate AD Mike Buddie and current AD John Currie, among others.

“It’s a big day for us,” Walter said. “We’re going to celebrate this one for 36 hours and then we’re going to get back to work because we’ve got even bigger goals.”

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