NCAA Baseball Tournament 2016 scores and bracket: Day 2 was one long home run derby

If you were watching Day 2 of the NCAA Tourney on ESPN’s spectacular Bases Loaded program, it seemed like every other highlight was a homer: an incredible 54 pitches left the park on Saturday, a thrilling reminder of the long ball’s reemergence in college baseball.

It was just a couple of years ago that the home run had all but disappeared. New bats introduced in 2011 to improve pitcher safety also took about 20 feet off a well-hit ball, drastically curtailing the number of round trippers. With players, coaches, fans and media shouting for a fix, the NCAA last season began using a new baseball, one with lower seams that meets less wind resistance and carries farther.

The results have been significant. According to ESPN, homers during the regional round of the NCAA Tournament jumped from 87 in 2014 to 105 in 2015. With 104 dingers through the first two days alone, 2016 looks like it’s going to crush last year’s mark.

All but six of Saturday’s 30 games had at least one dinger, 14 games had multiple and five games had four or more.

Tulane used a two-run shot in the top of the ninth to knock regional host Ole Miss out of the tourney.

ECU slammed a three-run dinger to walk off against defending national seed Virginia, which drops to the losers bracket to face William & Mary in an elimination game on Sunday.

National seed Texas Tech needed a solo shot from Stephen Smith to break a 3-3 tie with New Mexico in the top of the ninth.

Three homers by Florida were the difference in the No. 1 national seed’s tight 6-5 win over UConn; UNC-Wilmington left the yard four times while advancing past Rhode Island to the finals of the Columbia Regional; Louisville hammered out three while blasting Ohio State, 15-3.

Then there was the home run that eliminated Vanderbilt.

The two-run shot by Washington’s Jack Meggs in the bottom of the eighth went just inches over the extended mitt of outfielder Jeren Kendall, a heartbreaking end to a heartbreaking weekend for the Commodores. Still struggling to come to grips with the drowning death of freshman pitcher Donny Everett just two days previous and toiling under the physical exertion of playing a weather-induced double header on the heels of what had to have been a couple of sleepless nights, the ‘Dores just didn’t have it in them to fight off Washington’s late rally. The Huskies scored seven unanswered runs to win 9-8.

Vandy joins Ole Miss as the only other host to go 0-2 in its own regional, though that result seems trivial in the face of the Commodore family’s much greater loss this week.

The weather continues to be uncooperative in several areas of the country, causing mass suspensions and postponements for a second straight day. In Louisiana, where weather is never cooperative, the Baton Rouge group has managed to play just one game in two days, effectively shifting the entire regional schedule back a full day.

I don’t know how the hell they managed to get two games in at College Station, which was slipping underwater at one point.

But weather delays aren’t all bad. UConn managed to fit in a round of gold while the tarp was on the field in Gainesville.

All games rained out

William & Mary 4, Bryant 3 (Bryant eliminated)

East Carolina 8, Virginia 6

Western Carolina 4, Nebraska 1 (Nebraska eliminated)

Oklahoma State 12, Clemson 2

Minnesota 8, Binghampton 5 (Binghampton eliminated)

Texas A&M 22, Wake Forest 2

South Carolina 4, Duke 2 (Duke eliminated)

UNC-Wilmington 11, Rhode Island 7

Florida Atlantic 8, Stetson 4 (Stetson eliminated)

Miami 4, Long Beach State 3 (11 innings)

Arizona State 4, Oral Roberts 1 (Oral Roberts eliminated)

TCU 4, Gonzaga 3

Georgia Tech 12, Bethune-Cookman 3 (Bethune-Cookman eliminated)

Florida 6, UConn 5

Sam Houston State 7, Princeton 2 (Princeton eliminated)

Wright State 10, Western Michigan 3 (Western Michigan eliminated)

Louisville 15, Ohio State 3

Dallas Baptist 8, Fairfield 5 (Fairfield eliminated)

Texas Tech 4, New Mexico 3

Xavier 15, Vanderbilt 1

Washington 9, Vanderbilt 8 (Vanderbilt eliminated)

Tulane 6, Ole Miss 5 (Ole Miss eliminated)

Boston College 4, Utah 3

Navy 8, St. Mary’s 5 (13 innings) (St. Mary’s eliminated)

Coastal Carolina 3, NC State 0 (Suspended top 9th, resumes Sun. 12:30 p.m. ET)

Cal State Fullerton 1, Louisiana Tech 0

Louisiana Tech 9, Southeast Missouri State 4 (SEMO eliminated)

Mississippi State 4, Cal State Fullerton 1

South Alabama 6, Alabama State 3 (Alabama State eliminated)

Florida State 7, Southern Miss 2