The Florida Gators, the number one team in the country, survived a hard fought battle from NC State and are headed to their third straight College World Series. The Gators defeated the Wolfpack, 9-8 in ten innings.

Daniel Pigott broke the 7-7 tie with a solo homerun to lead off the 10th inning. Tobias Harris added much needed insurance with a two out RBI single.

NC State came right back in the bottom of the 10th inning. Trea Turner drove in a run to cut the deficit to one run with a sac fly. With the tying run on second base, Chris Diaz was called out on strikes and the dog pile celebration began for Florida.

So how did they get into extra innings and a 1pm ET start ending so late (after 7pm ET)?

The game in Gainesville started with a quick pitcher’s duel between Florida’s Jonathon Crawford (who threw a no-hitter in his last start) and NC State’s Carlos Rodon (who is a Golden Spikes Award finalist). Into the bottom of the third inning, the only base runner for either team reached on an NC State error. Then the lightning and rain came, halting the game for well over two hours.

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