Omaha – Longtime friends Dave Serrano and George Horton shared an embrace moments after Cal-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,” said Serrano, who pitched for Horton at Cerritos College and later served under him there as an assistant coach as well as at Cal State Fullerton. “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) advanced to play Arizona State tonight in an elimination game in their first CWS.
Cal State Fullerton (38-25) was knocked out after losing for the third time in four games with the Anteaters this season.
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, Cal-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.
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. Horton argued and was tossed after Holiday was hit by a pitch for a third time in the game.
“It wasn’t about him not moving,” Horton said. “He stuck his arm out.”
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.
OREGON STATE 12, ARIZONA STATE 6: Mike Stutes (11-4) and three relievers combined to hold one of the nation’s top hitting and scoring teams to seven hits, and the defending champion Beavers (46-18) scored in every inning until the seventh.
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 Oregon State to a total of nine hits. The Beavers had 18 in this one.
The Beavers play Wednesday against the winner of tonight’s game. Cal-Irvine or Arizona State would have to beat the Beavers twice to keep them out of the best-of-three championship round that starts Saturday.
