June 16, 2007

Fullerton, UC Irvine lose openers
Associated Press

Scott Santschi hit his first homer of the season and had two RBIs, and defending champion Oregon State survived some nervous moments to defeat Cal State Fullerton 3-2 in the College World Series at Omaha, Neb., Saturday night.

OSU pitchers Jorge Reyes, Joe Paterson and Eddie Kunz combined to allow six hits as the Beavers began their bid to become the first repeat champion since LSU in 1996-97.

Fullerton's Wes Roemer struck out seven to become the school's career leader. Otherwise, it was another disappointing CWS start for the Arizona Diamondbacks' first-round draft pick.

Oregon State (45-18) moves to a Monday game against Arizona State. The Titans (38-24) will play UC Irvine in an elimination game Monday.

Arizona State 5, UC Irvine 4: Ike Davis hit a tie-breaking home run in the eighth inning and Mike Leake and Jason Jarvis held UC Irvine (45-16-1) scoreless the last fiveinnings to lead the Sun Devils (49-13) to the win.

Arizona State, which came in with 75 home runs in 61 games, scored all of its runs on long balls against the Anteaters.