Texas pitcher Zach Zubia (52) and third baseman Camryn Williams (55) celebrate after their win over Southern in an NCAA regional tournament college baseball game Friday in Austin. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

South Florida posted the biggest upset on the first day of the NCAA baseball tournament, knocking off the Florida Gators as the bottom seed in the Gainesville Regional.

Four of the seven No. 3 regional seeds that played early Friday also won. But no game more than the Bulls’ 5-3 win over Florida portended surprises sure to come in a year when fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for the Division I Baseball Committee to evaluate teams and set up the bracket.

The Bulls ended the regular season 24-26 after being picked last in the American Athletic Conference, and they had to win their league tournament to get into the NCAAs.

The Gators had won 19 of 21 meetings with the Bulls in Gainesville, Florida, and had beaten them in the national tournament in 1996, 2015 and 2017.

But Florida (39-20), which also lost its regional opener in 2019, couldn’t sustain any offense against four USF pitchers. The Bulls (29-27) have won seven of their last eight.

It was the second straight NCAA Tournament that opened with a No. 4 regional seed from the American Athletic Conference winning its opener. Cincinnati beat Oregon State in 2019. There was no tournament in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Arkansas (47-10) and Texas (43-15), the top two national seeds, won their openers in the double-elimination regionals. The Razorbacks erased an early three-run deficit and beat NJIT 13-8. The Longhorns won 11-0 over Southern.

The No. 3 regional seeds to win were Liberty, Dallas Baptist, Florida State and UC Santa Barbara.

Brady Gulakowski homered twice and drove in six runs as Liberty beat ACC tournament champion Duke 11-6. The Flames, who had lost 5-4 and 7-0 to the Blue Devils in the regular season, ended Duke’s 12-game win streak.

Dallas Baptist won 6-5 over Oregon State, with Peyton Sherlin and Kragen Kechely finishing the game with 2 2/3 innings of one-hit shutout relief.

GLOVE AND BAT

Christian Franklin righted Arkansas after a rocky start against NJIT.

With his team down 3-2 in the fourth and runners on first and second with two outs, the center fielder made a long run to take away a gapper that would have produced at least one run. Franklin led off the seven-run fifth with the first of the Razorbacks’ three homers in the inning.

BIG BATS

— Texas Tech’s Cal Conley homered twice in a 6-3 win over Army.

— National home run co-leaders Wes Clarke of South Carolina and Mat Nelson of Florida State each went deep for the 23rd time.

— Notre Dame’s Niko Kavadas hit his 17th and 18th homers in a 10-0 win over Central Michigan.

— Duke’s Peter Matt went 4 for 5 with two homers and a double.

— Devonte Brown homered twice in North Carolina State’s 8-1 win over Alabama.

— Stanford’s Tim Tawa homered twice in a 9-1 win over North Dakota State.

MOUND MARVELS

— Notre Dame’s John Michael Bertrand pitched a five-hit shutout, his third complete game of the season.

— Tristan Stevens gave up four hits in seven shutout innings for Texas.

— Reid Johnston allowed four hits and one run in eight innings for NC State.

— Stanford’s Alex Williams pitched seven innings and combined with two relievers to limit North Dakota State to four hits and one walk and strike out 11 in a 9-1 win.

Texas Tech 6, Army 3

LUBBOCK (AP) — Cal Conley hit two home runs, Braxton Fulford added another, and Texas Tech beat Army 6-3 on Friday in the opening game of the double-elimination Lubbock Regional.

Conley’s first home run, a two-run shot to right field, made it 3-2 in the bottom of the third inning and the Red Raiders led the rest of the way. Fulford’s home run scored Kurt Wilson an inning later and Conley hit a solo shot in the fifth to make it 6-2.

Tim Simoes went 2 for 4 with an RBI for the Black Knights and Jeremiah Adams went 2 for 3 with a solo homer that capped the scoring in the seventh inning.

Top-seeded and eighth-ranked Texas Tech (37-15) also beat Army 11-2 in the opening game of the 2019 Lubbock Regional.

Texas 11, Southern 0

AUSTIN (AP) — Tristan Stevens allowed four hits over seven scoreless innings, Mitchell Daly hit a bases-clearing double in the second and No. 2 overall seed Texas beat Southern 11-0 on Friday at the Austin Regional.

Stevens (10-3) had six strikeouts with no walks. He had just two two-ball counts and no Southern base runner reached third base.

Mike Antico led off the bottom of the first inning with a walk, stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error before scoring on Zach Zubia’s sacrifice fly and Ivan Melendez hit a solo home run to make it 2-0. Antico, who also walked in the seventh, went into the game tied with Tennessee’s Liam Spence for fourth in the nation with 51 walks and ranked No. 7 nationally with 29 stolen bases.

Dallas Baptist 6, Oregon State 5

FORT WORTH (AP) — Cole Moore and Andrew Benefield each had a home run and two RBIs to help Dallas Baptist beat Oregon State 6-5 on Friday in the Fort Worth Regional.

Moore hit a two-run homer in the first, and Benefield walked with the bases loaded in the third followed by a solo shot in a three-run fifth. River Town and Jackson Glenn each added RBI hits in the fifth to give Dallas Baptist (38-15) a 6-1 lead.

Dominic Hamel (13-2) allowed just three hits through the first four innings before Oregon State’s Ryan Ober led off the fifth with a solo home run. Greg Fuchs added a three-run homer for the Beavers in the sixth to cap the scoring.

Hamel struck out six in 6 1/3 innings.

Oregon State had two runners on with no outs in eighth but Kragen Kechely got the final two outs before picking up his second save of the season.

Kevin Abel (3-5) made his 16th start of the year for Oregon State (34-23). He walked eight and allowed three runs in three innings. Troy Claunch went 0 for 3, snapping a 17-game hitting streak.