June 19, 2007

Anteaters oust Titans
By JANIS CARR

OMAHA, Neb. After the winning run crossed the plate that ended the 13-inning marathon and the players had shaken hands, the two coaches approached each other. They stopped briefly then embraced.

Coaches hugging? That’s about as extraordinary as a 5-hour, 40-minute college baseball game.

But Monday’s College World Series game between UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton was as close to atypical of anything the 61-year-old tournament has seen. Records fell, runs scored, batters were hit, a runner was thrown out at the plate and many pitches — 417 of them — were tossed. So was one coach.

The most remarkable sight, however, came moments after Irvine’s Bryan Petersen singled in the winning run to defeat Fullerton, 5-4, in front of 16,451 and extend the Anteaters’ stay here. That’s when Fullerton coach George Horton met with Irvine coach Dave Serrano on the Rosenblatt Stadium field.

“I told him I would never talk to him again. No, I told him I loved him and he said he loved me. I love him,” said Horton stopping briefly to regain his composure.

“But we knew that one of us was going to walk away disappointed.”

The Anteaters (46-16-1) play Arizona State at 4 p.m. today in another elimination game.

The on-field moment between the coaches was almost as emotional as the record-long game.

The fourth-ranked Anteaters started the 13th inning with Taylor Holiday reaching first when he was hit by a pitch on the left arm. He appeared to turn into reliever Bryan Harris’ pitch, which irritated Horton.

Horton, whose pitchers had plunked five previous batters, stormed out of the dugout to argue the call. After failing to persuade the umpires to reverse the ruling, Horton went back to the dugout but continued to argue and eventually got thrown out of the game.

“I stepped up in the box,” Holliday said. “I was trying to get a pitch in, get on base and get something started.”

Holiday (2 for 4, 2 RBIs) went to second on a sacrifice, and that was followed by an intentional walk to Cody Cipriano, which put runners at first and second.

The Anteaters had a chance to win the game on Matt Morris’ single to left, but Fullerton left fielder Josh Fellhauer threw out Holiday at the plate.

The putout at home could have deflated the Anteaters. Instead, Irvine, making its World Series debut, won the game with the next at-bat, when Petersen (3 for 6) drove in Cipriano with his single off Dustin Birosak, sending Cal State Fullerton to its earliest exit since they went 0 and 2 in 1990.

“The game was lying in Josh’s hands and he made a great throw,” Fullerton first baseman Matt Wallach said. “The momentum was there, and then we turned around and the season was over.”

Said Serrano: “We stayed with each other (after the throw), that was the good news. The bad news is that I had to say goodbye to my mentor, my coach, my friend, my second father, whatever you want to call him.

“That’s the toughest part about it, seeing his team eliminated. I wish our win wasn’t at their expense. But we both we both knew going into this that one of us was going to be happy and one of us was going to be sad. That’s the only negative thing today.”

Harris (2-3) seemed to tire after five innings of relief and was pulled after giving up the single to Morris.

“I think a lot of times in the game we made them pay,” Harris said. “They did what they needed to do to get on base and they are here for that reason.”

Both teams had chances to win it in ninth, but couldn’t the send run across. Fullerton stranded two runners, while Irvine left two, including one on third base, in the ninth.