In 2016 Coastal Carolina proved it didn’t matter what the seed next to your name meant come tournament time.
    The Chanticleers ran through Raleigh, Baton Rouge and eventually all the way through Omaha to become the first mid-major to claim a College World Series title since Fresno State in 2008. CCU survived six games decided by two runs or less en route to capping off what could only be called a magical championship run.
    However, the same magic that took the Chants to the top last year came around to stun the Sun Belt’s top two seeds in Friday’s quarterfinals.
    No. 8 seed Texas State and No. 7 seed Arkansas State — two teams which combined to lose 33 conference games during the regular season — would pull improbable upsets against CCU and UT-Arlington. The runs by these underdogs have overtaken the storylines of single elimination and rainouts to turn the Sun Belt tournament into a compelling race for the automatic NCAA tournament bid.
    “I think it’s belief in each other. There’s no question this team believes  in each other and they like fighting for each other and they love each other,” said Arkansas State head coach Tommy Raffo on his team’s run. “That has a lot to do with it at the end of the year when you’re fighting in postseason.”
    The losses would most certainly put huge dents in the postseason hopes for UT-Arlington and CCU — both of whom had RPI in the top 50. But for TXST and ASU, two more wins are the only way they’re going to get into the big dance and Texas State head coach Ty Harrington says he thinks his team has the momentum to make that kind of run. 
    “Id’ say I wouldn’t bet against them,” Harrington said. “Baseball’s a crazy game in itself and momentum is crazy too. Momentum is easy to get and hard to lose, and these guys believe they have a chance to keep it.”
    This sets up an unorthodox four/five vs. eight and three vs. seven semifinal this evening to see who will play in Sunday’s championship game. Here’s how the first three games fared in Friday’s quarterfinals:
     
South Alabama 9,
Troy 1
    Contrary to the narrative of Saturday’s action, South Alabama did not fall victim to the upset and instead wiped away No. 6 seed Troy in dominating fashion.
    Jags ace Randy Bell gave his side a quality start, throwing seven and two-thirds innings while allowing just one run in spite of seven hits and three walks. Eight strikeouts helped balance out the 11 base runners he’d give up, and funny as it was Bell wasn’t even supposed to be the scheduled starter for this game.
    Rain knocking the tournament back two days actually put Bell back on schedule, allowing head coach Mark Calvi to hand the ball to his ace in the single-elimination opener for USA. 
    “It’s down to a single elimination, and you gotta win regardless. If you want to make it to  tomorrow, you gotta win,” Calvi said. “Randy was ready to go, I had no problem with him going 115, 120  pitches like he did today.”
    USA roughed up Troy starter Andrew Crane for four runs, six hits, three walks and a homer in just three and a third innings of work. Crane had been on an 39-inning scoreless streak going into Friday morning’s matchup, but South Alabama’s offense was there to answer the bell.
    No. 3 South Alabama will get to face No. 7 Arkansas State in the semifinals this afternoon at 3 p.m.
     
Arkansas State 4, UT-Arlington 2
    Arkansas State continued to surprise fans Friday following scoring a season high 21 runs against Georgia State Thursday by toppling No. 2 UT-Arlington — a team which swept the Red Wolves earlier this season.
    Tied 1-1 Arkansas State would break the tie on a sacrifice fly by Grant Hawkins. Then with two outs and a runner on third, the Red Wolves would string together two more hits to drive in two more runs — the latter a triple by Joe Schrimpf.
    UT-Arlington would tack on one more run in the eighth, but ASU would ride their most reliable arm in Tyler Zuber out the last three and a third inning for the win. Zuber would allow only three base runners while striking out six Mavericks in what he called one of the five biggest games he’s ever played in.
    “We just kind of stuck to the  process and stuck to what we know, pitching well, hitting well, getting the timely hits, playing good  defense and getting 27 outs as fast as possible,” Zuber said. “This game was awesome, it has to rank in the top five.” 
    As previously mentioned, Arkansas State will face South Alabama in the first leg of tomorrow’s semifinal. South Alabama took two out of three games from ASU in the regular season and scored 10 plus runs in all three games against the Red Wolves.
     
Texas State 7,
Coastal Carolina 5
    Coastal Carolina took no chances when they started Andrew Beckwith for the do-or-die quarterfinal against Texas State. Beckwith is the reigning College World Series MVP and was 8-0 with a 2.73 ERA in conference play this season.
    However none of those gaudy accolades seemed to phase Texas State, who lit up Beckwith for eight hits and six runs in just three and a third innings to jump on the senior early and take an early 4-0 lead. CCU would fight back for three more runs heading into the top of the fourth inning, but that’s when Whitworth and all-conference reliever Alex Cunningham would find themselves in the most trouble.
    The pair would allow five baserunners and two more runs in the frame — even as Seth Lancaster’s two-run shot over the Blue Monster would narrow the gap to 7-5 it wouldn’t be enough to get past TXST reliever Anthony Pagano or overcome three early errors committed by the Chants.
    When asked if those were the biggest three innings he’d ever pitched, Pagano replied, “I’d probably say so.”
    Pagano shutout the defending national champs in the final three innings, allowing only two baserunners in the final three frames.
    Texas State now moves on to the semifinals to face the winner of  Georgia Southern and Louisiana at 6:30 p.m. for a chance to play in the Sun Belt Championship and earn a berth to the NCAA tournament.