June 18, 2007

Louisville knocks out MSU; Rice rolls

OMAHA (AP) - There will be a familiarity between UC Irvine and Cal State-Fullerton when they faceoff in an elimination game.

“One of the two of us is going home and I haven't mapped it out yet,” said Fullerton coach George Horton, who will face Irvine coach Dave Serrano, Horton's pitching coach in Fullerton for eight seasons. “One of us has to fly the Big West flag but whoever gets it done will represent us well.”

Oregon State (45-18) and Arizona State (49-13) will face off for the fourth time this season today, marking the first time since 1998 two Pac-10 teams met in Omaha. The winner will need to win one of its next two games to go on to the championship round. The loser will face the Irvine-Fullerton winner.

The Big West matchup between the Titans (38-24) and Anteaters (45-16-1) is a first for the conference on college baseball's national stage, as 24-year friends Horton and Serrano will try to send each other home.

Louisville and Rice continued scoring ad nauseam Sunday, as Louisville eliminated Mississippi State with a 12-4 win and Rice took firm control of Bracket 1 by beating North Carolina, 14-4.

The teams became just the fifth and sixth in CWS history to score ten runs in each of their first two games in Omaha.

Louisville (46-23) will face North Carolina (54-14) on Tuesday and the winner will play Rice (56-12) Wednesday for a berth in the championship round. The loser will be eliminated.

“We've always said you have to swing your way to Omaha,” Louisville coach Dan McDonnell said. “Obviously, you have to pitch and defend. Everything counts. But you have to score runs.”

Louisville's sluggers overshadowed a strong effort from freshman Justin Marks (9-2), who held Mississippi State (38-22) to two singles before he took a sharp hit to his left leg in the sixth.

The Cardinals have seven home runs, 33 hits and 22 runs in their first two CWS games.

“It's not that our kids didn't try,” said Mississippi State coach Ron Polk. “We closed the ball game down a little bit. Every time we did, it seemed like they got a two- or three-run home run. That third baseman is a hoss, boy.”

That was Chris Dominguez, who hit two of his team's four home runs Sunday, and has eight homers in the last eight games after hitting seven in his first 56.

The Cards broke to an 8-0 lead and never folded. After the Bulldogs scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth, Louisville came back with three in the seventh, highlighted by Dominguez's two-run shot to left.

“It was one of those games where you just couldn't stop them,” Polk said.

Louisville recorded the first win for a CWS newcomer since Tulane in 2001, and Mississippi State went winless in Omaha for the first time in seven appearances since 1971.

North Carolina used a CWS-record eight pitchers in trying to slow down Rice. The Owls jumped ahead with six runs in the second and never looked back, scoring in six of nine innings.

“These are kids that are not robots and they're trying as hard as they can,” said North Carolina coach Mike Fox. “What can you say? We just have to run guys out there and they have to make good pitches and if they don't, we have to make good plays behind them.”

Freshman starter Alex White (6-6) had his second straight poor start in the NCAA tournament, lasting just 1 1-3 innings and allowing six runs on five hits.

Each of Rice's starters had at least one hit, RBI and run, with Diego Seastrunk going 3-for-5 and Aaron Luna hitting a two-run homer in the ninth.

Two-way player Joe Savery (11-1) threw six solid innings for Rice to make the lead stick. Cole St. Clair threw three innings for his ninth save.

The Owls have had a flood of runs since breaking their 25 2-3-inning CWS scoring drought, with 29 runs in their last two games.

Rice has positioned itself just as it did as last year - needing one win to go to the championship series - but is hoping for a different ending this time around.

“You can never say never, but I think we're ready to play,” Savery said. “The teams are here for a reason and you can't take that for granted.”

Rice beat Georgia and Miami in the first two games last year before losing twice to Oregon State, the team that went on to win the national championship.

The Beavers were swept at home by Arizona State earlier this year, and outscored 15-4 in those three games.

But Oregon State is playing well again after squeaking into the NCAA tournament, overcoming a loss in the regional and waiting until the last out in the first game of the super regional to get its first hit.

The team that ASU coach Pat Murphy has called the greatest story in modern-day college baseball has allowed three runs or fewer in seven wins in this tournament, and has won seven of its last eight CWS games.

But the Sun Devils have lost just once in 16 games since May 11, and have what OSU coach Pat Casey calls the best lineup he's ever seen, with no starter hitting under .300 and just one under .333.

Irvine took two of three from Fullerton on the road in early April. But the Titans emerged with an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament and an unblemished road to Omaha.