NCAA Baseball Tournament 2014 scores and bracket: UC Irvine puts Oklahoma State on the ropes

After a wild regional round that saw nine of the 16 host teams fall, a bit of normalcy returned to the NCAA Baseball Tournament on Friday. Kennesaw State’s 5-3 upset over Oklahoma State was the only loss the host teams sustained on the opening day of super regional play.

Just half of the remaining bracket was in action on Friday (the rest will joint them on Saturday). The winners are now one victory away from the College World Series in Omaha, and can punch their ticket with a win on Saturday.

For an updated bracket, visit NCAA.com. Here are the scores and recaps from Friday:

There was a brief moment in the fifth inning where it looked as though Stanford could pull off an epic comeback. After the Commodores racked up 10 runs in the first three innings, Stanford grabbed a pair back in the fourth, then exploded for another four in the fifth to make it 10-6. They knocked out Vandy ace and MLB first-round draft pick, Tyler Beede, in the process and had a head of steam. But Tyler Ferguson entered from the bullpen to kill the rally, giving up just two hits and striking out five over 2⅔ innings. Stanford at least got 5⅔ quality innings from Brett Hanewich on the back end to spare their pen.

Speaking of sparing relievers, Longhorns starter Nathan Thornhill worked seven nearly flawless innings on Friday. The only hiccup came when Houston dropped a two-spot in the fifth, cutting into a four-run lead Texas had built on the back of a two-run homer off the bat of Mark Payton in the first. Thornhill settled back in for the sixth and seventh, and John Curtiss picked up a two-inning save to close the game. Payton finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs.

Kennesaw State was on the verge of another major upset until a bullpen meltdown in the eight inning allowed Louisville to steal Game 1. The Owls led by as much as 3-1 in the seventh and entered the eighth with a 3-2 lead. A steal and a passed ball put the tying run on third, prompting coach Mike Sansing to bring in Justin McCalvin looking for a five-out save. McCalvin promptly gave up a game-tying single, then allowed a two-out, two-run double off the bat of Nick Solak that put it away.

Aptly-named leadoff man Taylor Sparks racked up four of UC Irvine’s 10 hits as the Anteaters became the only one of the three three-seeds to win on Friday. Oklahoma State jumped out to a one-run lead in the first, but UC Irvine piled up seven runs between the fourth and sixth innings to take command. Nearly as important, they forced Oklahoma State to burn through five pitchers. The Cowboys’ only offense came through Tanner Krietemeier, who went 2-for-4 with four RBIs.