NC State drops opener with No. 1 Florida

Published Jun. 9, 2012 8:56 p.m. ET

foxsports

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Mike Zunino homered and drove in three runs, Hudson Randall pitched seven scoreless innings and Florida beat North Carolina State 7-1 in the opener of their best-of-three NCAA super regional series Saturday.

The top-seeded Gators (46-18) improved to 9-0 against Atlantic Coast Conference teams this season and need one more win to advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., for the third consecutive year.

Florida and North Carolina State play Game 2 on Sunday.

If the Gators keep hitting and pitching like they have lately, they will be difficult to beat.

Not even two rain delays totaling nearly 3 hours slowed Florida. The Gators led 5-0 behind Randall's gem when heavy rain halted the game in the bottom of the seventh.

The pause sent Randall (9-2) to the bench, but did little to spark the Wolfpack (43-19). North Carolina State finally scored with two outs in the ninth.