West Virginia's Gavin Kelly (2) throws the ball during a College World Series game against Troy Friday in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Vera Nieuwenhuis)

OMAHA, Neb. – Tyrus Hall’s chopper down the right field line in the eighth inning Friday – WVU head coach Steve Sabins admitted later – put the wheels in motion on what was about to be a historic day inside Charles Schwab Field.

“Hall gets that hit down the line and I start thinking to myself, ‘We’re about to start singing ‘Country Roads’ in here,'” Sabins said.

Sabins said he quickly had to get that thought out of his mind. No worries, his players made it stick.

Hall, WVU’s ninth hitter in the order, drove in four runs and Ian Korn and Ben McDougal combined to save the game out of the bullpen, as the Mountaineers defeated Troy, 7-5, in front of 24,154 fans.

WVU (46-15) now advances to meet either Ole Miss or North Carolina at 7 p.m. Sunday in the winner’s bracket. Troy (38-31) will also play one of those two teams in an elimination game on Sunday.

The early goings was a back-and-forth battle worthy of a College World Series opener, which began with a military flyover from four F-16 fighter jets from the Air National Guard’s 114th Fighter Wing, based out of Sioux Falls, S.D.

Then two teams who had never advanced this far in the postseason simply went toe-to-toe.

WVU’s Armani Guzman got the first highlight of the game, one that also got him into the school’s record books. He reached second base on a fielding error to open West Virginia’s first inning and advanced to third after Gavin Kelly’s strikeout drew a throw to first base.

Troy lefty Benjamin Stubbs seemed to believe that was the end of Guzman’s running ability, but the WVU outfielder was just getting started.

Guzman started to slowly dance down the line, as Stubbs began to focus on the plate. Once Stubbs began his windup, Guzman took off, slid past the tag of Troy’s Jimmy Janicki and into the home plate umpire.

It was Guzman’s 39th stolen base of the season, putting him past former standout Victor Scott for the program’s single-season record.

“When Armani scores the first run of the game with a steal of home, when that’s how you score your first run of the game, you know what type of game you’re in for,” WVU outfielder Ben Lumsden said. “That was the tone-setter. It was like that all the way through the game.”

Troy didn’t back down. WVU starter Chansen Cole had to be relieved in the third inning. The Trojans knocked him out after doubles from Jimmy Janicki and Sean Darnell.

“That’s really what that game was. It felt like a heavyweight bout,” Troy head coach Skylar Meade said.

WVU came back in the fourth, which is when Troy starter Benjamin Stubbs had to come out.

The two teams traded punches until it seemed to become a standoff in the seventh inning. That’s when Janicki – the Sun Belt Player of the Year – connected on his 20th home run of the season to tie the game, 5-5.

Then came the bottom of the eighth, and WVU had one more run in it. Matt Ineich and Brodie Kresser began the inning with base hits, before Lumsden sacrificed them over with a bunt.

“You can’t bunt to your ninth-hole guy, unless you think the nine hole can make contact and have a great at-bat,” Sabins said. “That’s kind of where Tyrus is at from a confidence standpoint. We bunted our RBI leader in the postseason to get to the nine hole. You just have to believe he’s going to have a great at-bat.”

Hall came through, slicing a blooper down the right field line, scoring both Ineich and Kresser and handing the Mountaineers their seventh victory in this NCAA tournament.

While Hall provided the offense, Korn and McDougal were the heroes on the mound. Korn came on in the third inning and earned his sixth win of the season. He pitched six innings, gave up two hits and one run. Korn nearly finished the game, getting as far as two outs in the ninth, before McDougal, a Bridgeport native, came out to pick up the final out of the game.

With the tying run on first base, McDougal forced Janicki to fly out in foul territory to end the game.

“It was an unbelievable win,” McDougal said. “I was fortunate enough to be on the mound in an important game. You just kind of keep stacking them.”