June 19, 2007

Rivals engage for 13 innings
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OMAHA, Neb. - Bryan Petersen ended the longest game in College World Series history with a run-scoring single in the bottom of the 13th inning, giving UC Irvine a 5-4 victory over Cal State Fullerton in an elimination game Monday.

The 5 hour, 40 minute game beat the old CWS mark - set in 1981 by Oklahoma State and Arizona State - by 40 minutes.

Petersen’s winning hit came after Fullerton left fielder Josh Fellhauer had gunned down Taylor Holiday at home plate.

The Anteaters (46-16-1), making their first CWS appearance, move to a game today against Arizona State.

Fullerton (38-25) went two games and out at the CWS for the first time in nine appearances since 1990. The Titans are 0-6 all-time in extra innings in Omaha.

The 97th meeting of the neighborhood rivals came more than 1,500 miles away from their Orange County campuses, on the game’s biggest stage.

Despite committing a season-high six errors, UC Irvine came back three times to tie the Titans before overtaking them in a tense 13th inning that had Fullerton coach George Horton ejected for arguing a hit batsman call.

Oklahoma State beat Arizona State 11-10 in 13 innings back in 1981 in a 5-hour game.

Fullerton and Irvine also tied a CWS record by combining for eight hit batsmen.

Holiday appeared to lean into a Bryan Harris pitch leading off the bottom of the 13th and was awarded first base by home-plate umpire David Buck. A steamed Horton argued and was tossed.

Holiday tried to score from second on Matt Morris’ single. Fellhauer came charging in, picked up the ball and threw it on a line to catcher John Curtis, who blocked the plate and easily put the tag on Holiday.

Petersen followed with his hit to center, which scored Cody Cipriano from third. After Petersen touched first base, his teammates rushed out of the dugout and mobbed him in a dogpile.

Dylan Axelrod (6-4) pitched 4 innings of relief to get the win, allowing one hit and striking out seven.

Harris (2-3) worked the last five innings, giving up three hits and the winning run.

Oregon St. 12, Arizona St. 6: Mike Stutes and three relievers combined to hold one of the nation’s top hitting and scoring teams to seven hits, and Oregon State revved up its own offense to beat Arizona State 12-6 in the College World Series on Monday night.

The defending champion Beavers, who had seven hits in a 3-2 win over Fullerton Saturday, scored every inning until the seventh and finished with 18 hits. Mike Lissman went 3-for-4 with a three-run homer and four RBIs. Chris Hopkins, Joey Wong and Jason Ogata also had three hits apiece, and Jordan Lennerton homered.

The performance was a stark contrast to last month’s Pac-10 series in Corvallis, Ore. The Sun Devils swept the three games, limiting the Beavers to a total of nine hits.

The Beavers (46-18) play Wednesday against the winner of a Bracket 2 elimination game tonight between UC Irvine (46-16-1) and Arizona State (49-14). Irvine or ASU would have to beat the Beavers twice to keep them out of the best-of-three championship round that starts Saturday against the Bracket 1 winner.

Stutes (11-4), making his third career CWS start and winning for the second time, allowed only two singles until he left with the bases loaded in the seventh.

Blake Keitzman relieved and gave up an RBI single to Raoul Torrez and a two-run single to Eric Sogard. Petey Paramore delivered a long sacrifice fly against Joe Paterson to trim the Beavers’ lead to 12-5 in the ninth.

Stutes was solid for a second straight start in the NCAA tournament. He allowed two runs on three hits in eight innings of the Beavers’ super regional clincher against Michigan.

Making his latest outing more impressive was the lineup he was facing. Arizona State was batting .348 with 78 home runs in 62 games.

In losing three straight at home to the Sun Devils a month ago, Oregon State batters hit a combined .105 (9-of-86).

ASU coach Pat Murphy was looking for an encore from the two pitchers who played key roles in that series.

Brian Flores (11-2), who pitched a complete-game one-hitter against the Beavers last month, started Monday and faced only seven batters, allowing two runs on four hits.

Josh Satow, who allowed two hits and no runs in eight innings against OSU last month, entered in the second inning and left after the fourth having allowed six runs on eight hits.