Mitchell Daly hit a walk-off homer with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift No. 2 Kentucky to a dramatic 5-4 victory over No. 10 North Carolina State on Saturday in the Men’s College World Series at Omaha, Neb.
Daly’s blast gave the Wildcats (46-14) a victory in their first-ever MCWS contest. Kentucky also set a school record for victories in a season. Daly unloaded on a 1-2 pitch from Wolfpack right-hander Derrick Smith (3-2) and easily sent it over the left field fence.
Ryan Nicholson, who went 3-for-4, hit his 22nd homer of the season to start the bottom of the ninth to tie it for Kentucky. NC State’s Jacob Dudan served up that blast.
Johnny Hummel (4-0) pitched 1 2/3 innings of hitless relief for Kentucky.
Alec Makarewicz hit a two-run homer and Jacob Cozart went 3-for-4 with an RBI for NC State (38-22). Cozart scored on Hummel’s wild pitch in the ninth to give the Wolfpack a 4-3 lead.
No. 3 Texas A&M 3, Florida 2
Caden Sorrell drove in what ended up being the game-winning run with a double in the third as the Aggies held off the Gators in Omaha, in a game whose start was delayed by more than four hours because of weather.
Texas A&M (50-13) will play Kentucky on Monday night, while Florida (34-29) is set to take on NC State in an elimination game on Monday afternoon. Travis Chestnut also drove in a run for the Aggies, while Ali Camarillo scored on a wild pitch. Chris Cortez (10-3) came away with the win after allowing two runs and four hits in three innings of relief.
Dale Thomas went 2-for-4 with a run-scoring double for the Gators. Florida starter Liam Peterson (3-5) surrendered three runs on four hits in just 2 1/3 innings to take the loss.
