June 19, 2007

UC Irvine takes out Fullerton
5 hour, 40 minute game is longest in College World Series history
The Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. - Longtime friends Dave Serrano and George Horton shared an embrace moments after UC Irvine had beaten Cal State Fullerton 5-4 in the longest game in College World Series history Monday.

The two coaches just as easily could have collapsed together in exhaustion after a tense elimination game between Serrano's upstart Anteaters and his mentor's tournament-tested Titans."I told him I loved him and thanks for everything," Serrano said. "He said, 'I'm proud of you. Continue to move on and win this thing.' "

Bryan Petersen's run-scoring single to center field in the bottom of the 13th inning ended the 5 hour, 40 minute affair and sent the Titans home after two games for the first time in nine CWS appearances since 1990.

Meanwhile, the Anteaters (46-16-1) play on in their first trip to Omaha, meeting Arizona State on Tuesday. Fullerton (38-25) was knocked out after losing for the third time in four games with the Anteaters this season.

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.

It was emotional on a number of fronts.

Serrano pitched for Horton at Cerritos College and later served under him there as pitching coach. Serrano later coached under Horton at Fullerton before taking the UC Irvine head coaching job in 2004.

"The bad news is I had to say goodbye to my mentor, coach, friend, my second father, a guy I love a lot," Serrano said.
"That's the toughest part about it, seeing his team eliminated. I wish our win hadn't been at their expense, but we went into this knowing one of us would be happy and one of us would be sad."

The time of the game beat the old CWS mark for longest game - set in 1981 by Oklahoma State and Arizona State - by 40 minutes.

Tension ran high, with a CWS record eight batters getting hit by pitches.

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 Horton ejected for arguing a hit batsman call.

Petersen's winning hit came after Fullerton left fielder Josh Fellhauer had thrown out Taylor Holiday at home plate.