In brief: Commodores top Tar Heels in CWS opener

College baseball: Vanderbilt (53-10) was no nervous newcomer to the College World Series.

Connor Harrell hit the first CWS home run in the new TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., to break a sixth-inning tie and three relievers held North Carolina (50-15) scoreless on three hits the last five innings in the Commodores’ 7-3 victory Saturday.

After first baseman Aaron Westlake made a diving stop of Chaz Frank’s hard grounder and touched the bag for the final out, there were just the normal handshakes and backslaps behind the pitcher’s mound.

The Commodores will save the dogpile for, they hope, the championship game in about 10 days.

“That was a big victory for us,” Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. “You never know how you’re going to react the first time.”

• Gators beat Longhorns: Brian Johnson and Bryson Smith drove in two runs apiece, Hudson Randall turned in another strong start and Florida defeated Texas 8-4 at the College World Series.

Johnson’s two-out double in the seventh inning broke open a close game. Smith’s second RBI single the next inning gave reliever Nick Maronde a four-run cushion going into the ninth.

Randall (11-3) scattered five hits, walked none and struck out five in 6 2/3 innings. Only one of the four runs against him was earned.

No. 2 national seed Florida (51-17) moves to a Bracket 1 winners’ game against No. 6 national seed Vanderbilt on Monday night. Texas (49-18) meets North Carolina in an elimination game that afternoon.

Phelps dominates another event

Swimming: Fourteen-time Olympic gold medalist, Michael Phelps, found a new event to dominate, easily winning the 200-meter backstroke at the Santa Clara (Calif.) Interna- tional Grand Prix after rival Ryan Lochte scratched.

Phelps led the entire way and touched the wall at 1 minute, 57.05 seconds. Mitchell Larkin was second and Matthew Swanston third.

Among the other notable winners: Park Tae-hwan of South Korea won the 200 freestyle for his third victory of the grand prix. He also won the 400 free and beat Phelps by a finger in the 100 free Friday.

Stephanie Rice won the women’s 400 individual medley; Allison Schmitt finished first in the women’s 200 freestyle; Meagan Nay won the women’s 200 backstroke; and William Copeland took the men’s 50 free.

Tipsarevic trips to hand Seppi first title

Tennis: Janko Tipsarevic may miss Wimbledon after slipping and injuring his groin during the Eastbourne final in England.

Unseeded Andreas Seppi won his first career title after Tipsarevic of Serbia was forced to retire while trailing 7-6 (5), 3-6, 5-3. Seppi is the first Italian to win an ATP title since Filippo Volandri won in Palermo in 2006.

Tipsarevic, who is seeded 23rd at Wimbledon, was injured in the third set when down 3-4, 0-30 on serve, after repeatedly arguing with officials about the fading light.

In the women’s final, Marion Bartoli of France warmed up for Wimbledon with a 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 win over Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic.

• Vinci rallies past Dokic: Roberta Vinci of Italy rallied from a set down to beat Jelena Dokic 6-7 (7), 6-3, 7-5 in the final of the Unicef Open in Den Bosch, Netherlands.

Dmitry Tursunov of Russia won the men’s final, defeating Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-3, 6-2.

Sagan wins Tour of Switzerland 8th stage

Cycling: Peter Sagan of Slovakia has won the eighth stage of the Tour of Switzerland with a time of 3 hours, 52 minutes, while Damiano Cunego of Italy maintained the overall lead.

Cunego leads Steven Kruijswijk of the Netherlands by 1 minute, 36 seconds.

The riders covered 104 miles from Tuebach near the Austrian border along Lake Constance to Schaffhausen.

May-Treanor, Walsh seeking fourth title

Volleyball: Two-time Olympic champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh are within one victory of their fourth beach volleyball world title.

The Americans beat China’s Xue Chen and Zhang Xi 21-17, 15-21, 15-10 in the semifinals and will face top-seeded Brazilians Larissa Franca and Juliana Felisberta Da Silva in the final today in Rome.

Franca and Felisberta Da Silva dispatched the Czech duo of Hana Klapalova and Lenka Hajeckova 21-14, 21-13.

May-Treanor and Walsh won world titles in 2003, 2005 and 2007 and are 32-1 for their career at the worlds.

The men’s final will be an all-Brazilian match between second-seeded Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego and third-seeded Marcio Araujo and Ricardo Santos.