June 21, 2007

Never say die

UC Irvine stays alive in College World Series with 8-7 extra inning victory over Arizona State.

BY JANICE CARR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

OMAHA, NEB. The majority of 29,034 spectators, many of whom probably didn’t know an Anteater from an aardvark, were on their feet chanting, “Ollie! Ollie!”

UC Irvine center fielder Ollie Linton listened to the Rosenblatt Stadium crowd for a moment but heard the words of his coach in his head. Words he clung to as he stroked the winning hit into right field Tuesday to lift the fourthranked Anteaters to an 8-7, 10-inning victory against Arizona State in an elimination game at the College World Series.

The extra-inning game, Irvine’s second in as many days, extended the Anteaters’ stay and set them up to play defending national champion Oregon State Wednesday. Irvine, making its first College World Series appearance, must beat the Beavers twice to reach the championship round.

A win by UCI on Wednesday would send the teams into another game today at 4 p.m. on ESPN.

“I don’t know if I have the words to describe what happened tonight, but I will say that the 2007 UC Irvine Anteaters don’t want to take their uniforms off,” Irvine coach Dave Serrano said. “We want to continue playing together. And as I said from the start, someone is going to have to do something special to eliminate us.

“I said that yesterday’s game (a 5-4, 13-inning victory against Cal State Fullerton) was one of best games I’ve ever been a part of, not knowing that today would top that.”

The Anteaters (47-16-1) rallied for four runs in a wild eighth inning that tied the score at 7.

With his team holding a 7-3 lead, Arizona State coach Pat Murphy put in Jason Jarvis, who got the victory in the first game against Irvine, to start the seventh.

Even though Jarvis got out of the seventh with only a hit, he never looked comfortable. He gave up three walks and then hit Ben Orloff to force in a run.

After giving up an RBI single to Cody Cipriano that trimmed the Sun Devils lead to 7-5, Murphy took out Jarvis.
But the damage was done, and the bases still were loaded with no outs.

Murphy defended Jarvis, saying that his right-hander has worked out of plenty of jams.

“Jarvis has done that, loaded the bases and struck out the side many times this season,” Murphy said. “It’s very unusual what happened tonight.”

Arizona State reliever Mike Leake (13-2) immediately gave up a tying two-run double to Matt Morris, but when Cipriano tried to score the go-ahead run, he bumped into third base coach Greg Bergeron then slipped when he realized he wasn’t going to beat the throw home. He was called out.

“I’m just glad this team overcame that because I know how passionate he (Bergeron) is about this team,” Serrano said. “I don’t want anyone to feel they were part of the reason we couldn’t move on.”

Serrano wasn’t taking any chances, though, and went to his ace, Scott Gorgen, at the start of the ninth. Gorgen, who got rattled by the College World Series atmosphere in his first start at Rosenblatt Stadium, was calm this time. He

faced four batters in the ninth, giving up a walk and striking out two.

The 10th was a little shakier. Gorgen (13-3) loaded the bases but got out of the jam by getting Brett Wallace (0 for 4) to hit into a double play.

Linton, a wiry 5-foot-8 sophomore, showed no nerves as he approached the plate in the 10th and then lined a 2-2 curveball between the first and second basemen to drive in Matt Morris with the winning run.

“Before I went out there, Coach looked me in the eye and told me he had faith in me and to get the job done,” Linton said. “At first, it felt unreal with all those people cheering. But we’re used to feeding off crowds — whether they are for us or against us.

“Once I hit the ball, I just kept saying ‘get through, get through.’ When I saw it had, well, my heart still is pumping. I mean, wow, what a game.”