Scottsdale, Arizona. Ricky Castillo-Bird took a third extra hole to defeat Brett Roberts and give Florida a 3-2 victory over Florida State in the NCAA semifinals on Tuesday in Grayock.
National runner-up Ross Stillman finished at par 2 to defeat the Peter Fountain 1, giving Georgia Tech a 3-2 victory over seeded North Carolina in the other semifinal. The Yellow Jackets are playing in their first national championship on Wednesday.
Castillo advanced from 2 down with three holes to go with birdies on the 16th and 17th. Neither player could go up and down par on the 18th, sending the match to extra holes.
After trading three pars, Roberts missed a birdie putt on the par-4 10th hole. He laid Castillo on line, rolled him, and pumped his fist as the Gators lunged to the green in celebration.
They haven’t been looking good for the Gators for a while.
Florida State won its first two games, starting with freshman Jack Bigham’s 6-and-5 win over Yuxin Lin. Frederick Kittrop followed with a 3-and-1 decision over Matthew Kress.
Florida tied it when NCAA singles champion Fred Biondi hit the 17th to beat Cole Anderson’s 1, then John Dubois beat Luke Clanton’s par 1 for the 18th.
Castillo, a senior with three career wins, caught Roberts with two batters and reached the final game for a day that started with a 3-2 victory over Virginia in the early morning quarterfinals.
The final also went to the wire.
Needing additional holes to secure their quarterfinal match against Pepperdine in the morning, Georgia Tech held on when Hiroshi Tai Bird hit the 19th hole against Roberto Nieves.
North Carolina got the early lead in the semifinals when Dylan Minante won 6 in a row starting with the 6th to beat Christo Lamprecht 6&5.
Georgia Tech’s Bartley Forrester beat Ryan Burnett 4 & 2. Conor Howe followed with a win 4 & 2 over Austin Greiser.
Then David Ford shut out the Tai 1 at par at 18 to push North Carolina to a 2-all tie.
That left it up to Stillman.
Senior had a three-shot lead through 15 holes Monday in the singles final, but closed with three straight bogeys to end up a shot behind Biondi.
He finished it this time.
Leading up, Stillman fell to a birdie on the 17th, but Fountain matched him with a birdie putt that rolled around the lip before falling. Fountain had to lie down after hitting a fairway bunker and Stillman hit him to the middle of the green.
Fountain conceded the winning shot after Stillman spun it to about a foot.