NCAA Baseball Tournament 2015 scores and bracket: Texas A&M and Cal will play for eternity

Eons from now, when intelligent life finally ventures back into the collapsed remnants of the Milky Way, they’ll find Texas A&M and Cal playing baseball on some fractured hunk of space debris. On the heels of Saturday night’s 14-inning Cal win, the Aggies and Bears needed another 12 to settle things on Sunday ... and we’re still not done.

Texas A&M, having battled their way out of the losers bracket with an early afternoon win over Coastal Carolina, exacted revenge on the Bears late Sunday night with a 4-3 win, setting up a winner-takes-all showdown in Game 7 on Monday.

The Aggies got a two-out rally working in the top of the 12th, using a single and a throwing error to set themselves up with two men on. Nick Banks then laced a pitch to shallow left, scoring the eventual winning run from second ... but not without controversy.

As the winning run in the form of Mitchell Nau was cruising in for a celebratory stomp on the plate, Logan Taylor was tagged out trying to go first to third, igniting an argument from the Cal dugout that the third out was recorded before the run was scored.

Man, was it close.

There’s no replay review in the college game, and even if there was, it’s probably too close to be overturned. But if Nau had been half a step slower, they’d probably still be playing.

Opponents of Louisiana-Lafayette wouldn’t last long on The Walking Dead. They keep pumping a bunch of holes in ULL’s torso, not realizing you have to get a head shot to keep them down. Next thing you know, they’ve staggered back to their feet and are chewing your face off.

After plating five runs in the top of the ninth to beat Rice on Friday, the Ragin Cajuns came back from the dead again on Sunday, scoring their only two runs in the bottom of the ninth. With the bases loaded and one out, Tyler Girouard got plunked for a walkoff hit-by-pitch to move his team into the Houston Regional championship on Monday.

The late collapse by the bullpen spoiled a brilliant outing by Houston’s Seth Romero, who retired 22 of his first 23 batters and had a no-hitter working through eight innings.

It’s not like ULL is bashing their way to these comebacks, either. The rally against Rice was sponsored by three walks and an error. Houston gave them three baserunners on a walk, a throwing error and an infield single. But that’s how zombies operate: they come at you slow and steady and next thing you know, you’ve tripped up on something and it’s too late.

Call it revenge of the nerds. Twenty-four hours after Miami sent them sniffling to the losers bracket, Columbia came back to pants the South Beach jocks on Sunday, pushing the Coral Gables regional to a deciding seventh game and becoming the first Ivy League school to ever win three games in the same regional.

Coming in, the Hurricanes had all the classic advantages of a high school cool kid: the popularity (they’re the No. 5 national seed), the confidence (they’ve won 16 of their last 17) and the brawn (they rank top five in batting average, hits and runs per game). But it was Columbia that did the bullying on Sunday. The Canes’ big, bad offense had just two hits, went down in order in five of their nine innings and only got two runners past first base.

Columbia’s Zach Barr, who’s been used mostly as a middle reliever this season and hadn’t started a game in over a month, put up a sparkling five innings. The bullpen duo of Zack Bahm and Adam Kline held the Canes hitless over the final four.

It’s hard to imagine the now pitcher-strapped Lions actually bouncing the Canes on Monday, but hey, Revenge of the Nerds did have a sequel.

#4 Florida: The clinching game -- a 2-1 win over Florida Atlantic -- was the only real competition the Gators got. They’ll sit back and wait for the winner of the Tallahassee regional.

#3 Louisville: The second showdown with Michigan wasn’t nearly as dramatic: the Cardinals piled up 14 hits en route to a 13-4 win.

#8 Missouri State: The good news: the Bears aced the regional test by going 3-0. The bad news: because the minor league team that they share a stadium with is at home next weekend, they’ll have to head to a super regional in Fayetteville.

Arkansas: The Hogs went the final eight weeks of the regular season without losing an SEC series, then barreled through Stillwater without a loss. They’ve now been gifted a super regional in rowdy Baum Stadium against the weakest national seed in the field. A trip to Omaha may very well be in the cards.

Cal State Fullerton: The Titans cruised into yet another super regional by dismantling Pepperdine, 10-1. Now they’re off to Louisville.

Virginia: A slugfest with USC saw 19 hits and 24 runs proved the Cavs can win any type of game. If Maryland can pull off the upset of UCLA on Monday night, we’re set for a showdown in the DMV.

UNC-Wilmington 8, Tulane 2 (Tulane eliminated)

Wright State 8, Ohio 3 (Ohio eliminated)

Illinois 3, Notre Dame 0

Wright State 4, Notre Dame 0 (Notre Dame eliminated)

Texas A&M 8, Coastal Carolina 4 (Coastal Carolina eliminated)

Texas A&M 4, California 3 (12 innings)

Columbia 4, Florida International 3 (Florida International eliminated)

Columbia 3, Miami 0

Dallas Baptist 8, Texas 1 (Texas eliminated)

VCU 5, Oregon State 1

Dallas Baptist 7, Oregon State 1 (Oregon State eliminated)

TCU 8, Stony Brook 3 (Stony Brook eliminated)

TCU 8, NC State 2

Pepperdine 7, Arizona State 4 (Arizona State eliminated)

Cal State Fullerton 10, Pepperdine 1 (Cal State Fullerton advances to super regionals)

Florida Atlantic 8, South Florida 4 (South Florida eliminated)

Florida 2, Florida Atlantic 1 (Florida advances to the super regionals)

Rice 3, Houston Baptist 1 (Houston Baptist eliminated)

Louisiana-Lafayette 2, Houston 1

Rice 3, Houston 2 (Houston eliminated)

USC 12, San Diego State 11 (San Diego State eliminated)

Virginia 14, USC 10 (Virginia advances to the super regionals)

Michigan 4, Bradley 3 (Bradley eliminated)

Louisville 13, Michigan 4 (Louisville advances to the super regionals)

UCLA 9, CSU Bakersfield 1 (CSU Bakersfield eliminated)

UCLA 4, Maryland 2

Radford 5, Indiana 3 (Indiana eliminated)

Iowa 2, Oregon 1 (Oregon eliminated)

Missouri State 3, Iowa 2 (#8 Missouri State advances to super regionals)

St. John’s 2, Oklahoma State 1 (Oklahoma State eliminated)

Arkansas 4, St. John’s 3 (Arkansas advances to the super regionals)

Charleston 3, Auburn 2 (Auburn eliminated)

via NCAA.com