RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Navy baseball team won its first NCAA Championship regional game since 2002 with a thrilling 8-5 extra inning victory over Saint Mary's on Saturday. The Mids were in the first elimination game of the regional after falling 13-8 to host NC State in a game that started Friday and did not conclude until the early hours of Saturday.

The Mids (43-15-1) battled for 13 innings with the Gaels (33-25) until Travis Blue and Sean Trent drove in three runs in the 13th. The fourth-seeded Navy squad got 8.1 innings of gutsy relief pitching from Sam Sorenson and Andrew Sauer to hold the third-seeded Saint Mary's team to just six hits and one earned run down the stretch.

Sorenson came in during the fifth inning and threw 6.1 innings of three-hit, two-run relief. In his career-long outing, the senior right-hander tossed 95 pitches. Prior to Saturday, Sorenson had never thrown more than 4.1 innings. Sauer came in after Sorenson and threw the final 2.0 innings with four strikeouts.

After wrapping up their opening game with North Carolina State at 1:36 a.m. and arriving back at their team hotel at 2:30 Saturday morning, Navy turned around and were back at Dail Park at Doak Field at 11:30 a.m. for batting practice.

Down 1-0, the Mids responded right back in the top of the second with a leadoff double by Trent and a two-run home run by Leland Saile.

With the score 3-2 in favor of the Gaels, Adrian Chinnery evened up the contest in the top of the fourth as he drove in Trent on a fielder's choice ground ball.

Singles by Saile and Chinnery in the top of the sixth and a walk to Matthew Wilcox loaded the bases for Logan Knowles, who singled up the middle to score two and put Navy up 5-3.

Saint Mary's slowly chipped away at Navy's two-run advantage with single runs in the bottom of the seventh and eighth innings to even the score.

The game moved into the ninth and the Mids challenged with a bases loaded, no-out situation, but the Gaels' David Dellaserra got two outs before Bryce Reichmann, the next Saint Mary's reliever, recorded a final strikeout to leave it at 5-5.

Sorenson made sure that the action would go into extra innings as he forced Nate Nolan into a weak foul pop out before striking out Logan Steinberg and Brett Rasso in back-to-back at bats.

The right-handed reliever put it into overdrive as he retired Saint Mary's three-up, three-down in the 10th and recorded three more putouts in the bottom of the 11th.

One night after hurling a scoreless frame versus North Carolina State, Sauer was summoned from the bullpen and turned in another scoreless outing versus a top-notch national team as he set the Gaels down in order in the 12th.

Six innings from its last scoring opportunity, the Mids finally had an answer for the Gaels' pitching staff as Knowles led off with a single through the right side. After Robert Currie sacrificed Knowles over to second base, Blue ended the scoring drought with a hard-hit double to the right-center field gap. Two batters later, Trent drove in Blue and Stephen Born to make it 8-5.

Up three runs, Sauer closed out the win with strikeouts of Anthony Gonsolin, Nate Nolan and Conor Thane in the bottom of the 13th.

In the 8-5 win, Navy outhit Saint Mary's, 14-11. Trent (3), Saile (3), Knowles (3) and Chinnery (2) recorded 11 of the Mids' hits.

Noah Song started and went 2.1 innings with three hits, two walks and three runs allowed in his no-decision. Kyle Condry replaced him and went 2.1 scoreless innings with two hits and five walks.

Sauer earned his first career victory, while Saint Mary's Nathan Simmons took the loss.

With the victory, Navy advances to the regional's second elimination on Sunday. The Mids will play the loser of the Coastal-Carolina-NC State game, which resumes at 12:30 p.m. with the Chanticleers leading 3-0 in the ninth inning. Navy's contest will begin 55 minutes after the conclusion of that matchup.

Friday: NC State 13, Navy 8
RALEIGH, N.C. - In a game that took six hours and 32 minutes to complete, the fans at Dail Park at Doak Field were treated to an exciting and action-packed NCAA Championship Regional game between the top-seeded North Carolina State Wolfpack and fourth-seeded Navy Midshipmen.

After pitchers were in control of the scoreboard over the first four innings to the tune of a 1-0 score in favor of the Wolfpack (36-20), four home runs surrounding a three-plus weather delay in the fifth broke open the game and set the Midshipmen (42-15-1) into an 8-0 deficit that they would battle back from throughout the remaining four innings before coming up short in an eventual 13-8 defeat.

In bottom of the fourth, North Carolina State finally got on the scoreboard as a leadoff double by Brock Deatherage and a single up the middle by Andrew Knizner put the top-seeded Wolfpack up 1-0. Luke Gillingham held the margin at one-run as he struck out Shepard for his seventh punch out of the game.

The host Wolfpack broke the game in the bottom of the inning with a pair of two-run home runs. Palmeiro launched the first long ball over the right-center field wall before Knizner followed him up with shot out to center field.

The first batter of the resumed game, Kinneman greeted Meenach with a solo home run out to right-center field to make it 6-0. Two batters later, N.C. State increased its lead to 8-0 on its fourth home run of the inning as Josh McLain connected for a two-run long ball.

With the clock turned over and into Saturday morning, Navy's bats woke up and started making damage on the scoreboard in the seventh inning. A leadoff ground-rule double by Leland Saile started the rally. Wilcox singled in the first run to make it 8-1 before Connor Deneen scored on a passed ball. The Mids' third run came in courtesy of a sac fly off the bat Currie. After Blue hit a single and Born earned a nine-pitch walk the bases were re-loaded for Trent. The senior right-fielder flaired a looping single down the right field line to complete the scoring at 8-5.

The three-run margin was short-lived as North Carolina State responded in the bottom of the seventh with five runs on five hits. Shepard came through with the big hit as the designated hitter connected on a Bartek pitch for a grand slam.

With the score now 13-5, Navy kept chipping away in the top of the eighth as Deneen and pinch-hitter Scott Koscho opened the frame with back-to-back walks. A third straight walk to Wilcox loaded the bases. Currie started the driving in of runs as the senior lined a single through the left side of the infield to plate one run before Born doubled into center field to score two more and cap the scoring at 13-8.

For the game, N.C. State outhit Navy, 17-12. Seven different Mids recorded hits with Currie, Trent, Wilcox and Knowles all notching two a piece.

Gillingham was saddled with the loss as he finished with a line of 4.2 innings, eight hits, two walks and five runs allowed. The senior southpaw retired seven Wolfpack batters via strikeouts to raise his 2016 total to 100 over 96.2 innings pitched.