The Vanderbilt Commodores have advanced to face Florida on Friday with a 5-1 victory over North Carolina Wednesday night in Omaha.
It was Taylor Hill's day for Vanderbilt as the right-hander put on a clinic with his sinker and was in control for all of but one inning on the day. His day was finished after throwing seven innings, giving up just one run on four hits in the elimination game for both Vanderbilt and North Carolina.
Hill got some help as the Vanderbilt offense gave him some room to work with as they threw up a four-run lead after the first two innings. It was Connor Harrell's three-run blast that changed this game for Vanderbilt. The one-out home run scored Mike Yastrzemski, who had singled to start the inning, and Conrad Gregor who had walked just before the blast. They took a 4-0 lead after the big hit from Harrell.
Hill found trouble in the 5th inning as Ben Bunting had an RBI groundout for North Carolina with the bases loaded that brought the score to 5-1. That left runners at second and third base with two outs for Colin Moran, who had been 0-2 till that point in the game. On deck was the player who had already been 2-2 off Hill during the game in Jacob Stallings, that included a deep-double to lead-off the second inning. So what does Hill do? He pulls his best "I want Parkman" move from Major League, intentionally walks Moran to pitch to Jacob Stallings. Then just like the movie, Hill strikes out Stallings on three pitches to end the threat and lets out a scream that Ray Lewis would be impressed with.
Gregor finished the game 2-2 with a run scored from the 7-hole, while Harrell finished the game 2-3 with a run scored and three big RBI's from the 8-hole.
Vanderbilt will now face Florida Friday afternoon at 2pm ET. Florida needs just one win to advance to the championship series while Vanderbilt will need to beat Florida twice to advance.