The Gainesville Regional was anything but conventional in 2014.
The hosts and No. 2 overall seed Florida Gators were eliminated after losing their first two games of the postseason. The second seed in the regional were the Dirtbags, who started the season 18-21. The third seed was North Carolina, which had been to Omaha in six of the last eight years. Fourth seed College of Charleston had 38 wins in the regular season, which was more than any other team in the regional.
The Dirtbags played an elimination game against North Carolina, with the winner moving on to play Charleston. The game started Sunday at 10 a.m., but didn’t finish until about 24 hours later.
After two rain delays, the game was cut off in the sixth inning. The conclusion of the game was played Monday morning, with the Dirtbags coming out of the delay aggressive.
Already leading 5-4 thanks to home runs by seniors Michael Hill and Ino Patron, the Dirtbags had two runners on with Richard Prigatano batting when the game resumed. On the first pitch, the Dirtbags executed a double steal. A walk loaded the bases, and Hill singled to drive in two.
The Tar Heels got a run back in the bottom of the seventh and kept the game at 7-5 heading into the ninth. The Dirtbags broke it open with five runs in the ninth. After loading the bases again, Eric Hutting singled to score a run. After a walk scored another run, Garrett Hampson singled to drive in two more, and Patron hit a sacrifice fly for the fifth run of the inning to give the Dirtbags a 12-5 victory.
This win earned the Dirtbags an opportunity to play Charleston about an hour later.
Needing a win to stay alive, the Dirtbags’ hot bats continued in the first inning. After starter Nick Sabo allowed a run in the top of the first, the Dirtbags got an RBI double by Prigatano and an RBI single by Johnny Bekakis to take a 2-1 lead.
The Cougars tied it in the third and took the lead in the fourth, where a walk, hit batsman and wild pitch gave them two runners in scoring position with no outs. Nick Rossetta came on in relief but allowed both inherited runners to score, giving the Cougars a 4-2 lead, which ended up being the final score.
Charleston freshman Tyler Thornton rebounded from a shaky first inning and shut the Dirtbags down the rest of the game. He went the full nine innings, only giving up four hits and holding the Dirtbags to the two runs to end the Dirtbags’ season.
Patron, Hampson, Hill and starting pitcher Andrew Rohrbach were named to the Gainesville Region All-Tournament team, all who helped lead the Dirtbags to their first postseason appearance since 2008, while finishing the season with a 34-26 record, the best in Troy Buckley’s time as head coach at Long Beach State.