NCAA Baseball Tournament 2017 scores and bracket: Davidson is your new favorite team

Sunday of the NCAA baseball tournament’s first weekend is a rough one for one-loss teams, since they have to win twice just to stay alive in the postseason. A number of No. 1 seeds faced just that scenario Sunday, including Florida State, Kentucky and No. 2 overall seed North Carolina.

Let’s take a moment to GO FULL CAPS IN SUPPORT OF THE DAVIDSON WILDCATS, WHO WON THREE STRAIGHT GAMES, INCLUDING TWO OVER HOST AND NO. 2 OVERALL SEED NORTH CAROLINA TO ADVANCE TO THIS YEAR’S SUPER REGIONAL ROUND. Glad we got that out of our system.

Cal State Fullerton was this year’s first team to advance out of the regional round, riding three straight wins out over BYU and Stanford twice to earn Tuffy’s place in the tournament’s second round. They cleaned up a 4-2 win over the Cardinal on Saturday night and now they’re dancing off to meet whoever wins the Long Beach regional.

In the early game of the Lexington regional, detested Indiana was dispatched by host Kentucky with relative ease, 14-9, thanks to a six-run sixth inning for the Wildcats. Kentucky got beat up by NC State on Saturday and, like many a host club, had to fight their way out of the losers bracket to advance into the Lexington regional’s final.

After a total drown-out on Saturday, the Hattiesburg regional managed a full tilt of games on Sunday. In the day’s opening bout, hard-hitting Mississippi State survived in a 5-4 nail-biter to eliminate Illinois-Chicago, who’d become something of the tournament darlings on opening weekend. NCAA triple crown hitting winner Brent Rooker knocked two hits for one RBI, and the Bulldogs’ beleaguered bullpen white-knuckled their way through two innings after an excellent start by Konnor Pilkington, who gave up all four earned runs.

The hosts of the Hattiesburg regional, Southern Miss, well handled South Alabama, 8-3, in the day’s second session to survive into the round’s knockout block. South Alabama dropped into an elimination game with Mississippi State, and this bracket is chock-full of Gulf Coast sniping. Hell yes.

After a marathon 12-inning loss to Florida on Saturday night, South Florida matched up with sudden power Bethune-Cookman in the early game of the Gainesville regional, and the tournament’s last surviving HBCU danced off with a 6-4 win. The Wildcats required just three arms to get the job done, though starter Alexis Herrera lasted only five innings before getting the ax.

Below are all the scores from Sunday’s tournament games and Monday’s schedule.

All times Eastern

Game 5: No. 3 Rice elimin. No. 2 Southeastern Louisiana, 9-5
Game 6: No. 1 LSU (4) elimin. No. 3 Rice, 5-0 (LSU advances to super regional round)

Game 5: No. 1 North Carolina (2) elimin. No. 2 Florida Gulf Coast, 10-1
Game 6: No. 4 Davidson elimin. No. 1 North Carolina (2), 2-1 (Davidson advances to super regional round)

Game 5: No. 1 Clemson elimin. No. 4 UNC Greensboro, 6-3
Game 6: No. 1 Clemson def. No. 2 Vanderbilt, 6-0
Game 7: No. 1 Clemson vs. No. 2 Vanderbilt, delayed to Monday 8 p.m., WatchESPN

Game 5: No. 3 Yale elimin. No. 4 Holy Cross, 9-5
Game 6: No. 1 Oregon State (1) elimin. No. 3 Yale, 8-1 (Oregon State advances to super regional round)

Game 5: No. 1 Arkansas elimin. No. 4 Oral Roberts, 4-3
Game 6: No. 1 Arkansas def. No. 2 Missouri State, 11-10
Game 7: No. 2 Missouri State elimin. No. 1 Arkansas, 3-2 (Missouri State advances to super regional round)

Game 5: No. 3 Dallas Baptist elimin. No. 4 Central Connecticut State, 6-5
Game 6: No. 1 TCU (6) def. No. 2 Virginia, 5-1
Game 7: No. 3 Dallas Baptist elimin. No. 2 Virginia, 11-8
Game 8: No. 1 TCU (6) vs. No. 3 Dallas Baptist, Monday 8 p.m., WatchESPN

Game 5: No. 3 Bethune-Cookman elimin. No. 2 South Florida, 6-4
Game 6: No. 3 Bethune-Cookman def. No. 1 Florida (3), 6-2
Game 7: No. 1 Florida (3) elimin. No. 3 Bethune-Cookman, 6-1 (Florida advances to super regional round)

Game 3: No. 2 Mississippi State elimin. No. 4 Illinois-Chicago, 5-4
Game 4: No. 1 Southern Miss vs. No. 3 South Alabama, Sunday 3 p.m., WatchESPN
Game 5: No. 2 Mississippi State elimin. No. 3 South Alabama, 7-3
Game 6: No. 2 Mississippi State def. No. 1 Southern Miss, 8-1
Game 7: No. 1 Southern Miss vs. No. 2 Mississippi State, Monday 10:30 p.m., WatchESPN

Game 5: No. 1 Houston elmin. No. 4 Iowa, 7-5
Game 6: No. 3 Texas A&M elimin. No. 1 Houston, 4-3 (Texas A&M advances to super regional round)

Game 5: No. 1 Kentucky elimin. No. 2 Indiana, 14-9
Game 6: No. 1 Kentucky def. No. 3 NC State, 8-6
Game 7: No. 1 Kentucky vs. No. 3 NC State, Monday 7 p.m., WatchESPN

Game 5: No. 1 Long Beach State elimin. No. 4 San Diego State, 7-4
Game 6: No. 1 Long Beach State def. No. 2 Texas, 3-2
Game 7: No. 1 Long Beach State vs. No. 2 Texas, Monday 11 p.m., WatchESPN

Game 5: No. 3 Xavier elimin. No. 2 Oklahoma, 11-0
Game 6: No. 1 Louisville (7) elimin. No. 3 Xavier, 8-7 (Louisville advances to super regional round)

Game 5: No. 3 Sam Houston State elimin. No. 2 Arizona, 9-3
Game 6: No. 3 Sam Houston State def. No. 1 Texas Tech (5), 9-8
Game 7: No. 3 Sam Houston State elimin. No. 1 Texas Tech (5), 4-3 (Sam Houston State advances to super regional round)

Game 6: No. 2 Cal State Fullerton elimin. No. 1 Stanford, 4-2 (Cal State Fullerton advances to super regional)

Game 5: No. 1 Florida State elimin. No. 4 Tennessee Tech, 5-3
Game 6: No. 1 Florida State def. No. 3 Auburn, 8-7
Game 7: No. 1 Florida State vs. No. 3 Auburn, Monday 7 p.m., WatchESPN

Game 5: No. 2 West Virginia elimin. No. 3 Maryland, 8-5
Game 6: No. 1 Wake Forest elimin. No. 2 West Virginia, 12-8 (Wake Forest advances to super regional round)