Washington eliminated by Xavier 7-5 in NCAA baseball regionals

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Rylan Bannon drove in three runs, and fourth-seeded Xavier beat Washington 7-5 on Sunday night to stay alive in the Nashville Regional.

The Musketeers (32-29) won their eighth in nine games while improving to 4-5 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. The Big East champs will play UC Santa Barbara on Monday needing two wins to advance to their first Super Regional.

After losing 5-4 to UC Santa Barbara earlier Sunday, the Musketeers scored seven in their first three innings.

Bannon and Andre Jernigan both hit home runs in the first. Bannon followed with a two-run double in the second and scored on Daniel Rizzie’s single. Joe Gellenbeck added an RBI single, then David Morton made it 7-0 with an RBI single in the third.

Washington (33-23) scored twice in the bottom of the third and took advantage of a throwing error to score three in the fourth.

Elsewhere, Florida, Louisville, Miami and Texas A&M – the top four national seeds – won regional titles on Sunday and advanced to next weekend’s best-of-three super regionals.

Oklahoma State knocked out No. 5 Clemson and advanced along with Florida State, TCU and surprises East Carolina and Boston College.