Omaha – That team with a funny nickname is serious about winning a national championship.
The Cal-Irvine Anteaters won in their final at-bat for the third time in four games on Tuesday night, knocking off Arizona State 8-7 in 10 innings in an elimination game at the College World Series.
The hero this time was Ollie Linton, whose bases-loaded single completed the team’s comeback from four runs down in the eighth inning and extended its first appearance in the CWS.
So, after beating Texas in the regionals, Wichita State in the super regionals, and then neighborhood rival Cal State Fullerton and Arizona State in the CWS, the Anteaters now take aim at defending national champion Oregon State.
The Anteaters (47-16-1) must defeat Oregon State today and again Thursday to win their bracket and reach the best- of-three championship round.
“The 2007 UC Irvine Anteaters don’t want to take their uniforms off,” coach Dave Serrano said. “It’s going to take someone to do something special to eliminate us from this. We’ve had seven victories in the postseason, and each one has gotten better.”
Cal-Irvine became the first team in the CWS’ 61-year history to win extra-inning games on consecutive days. The Anteaters beat Cal State Fullerton 5-4 in 13 innings on Monday in a 5-hour, 40-minute game, the longest in CWS history.
“I said yesterday was one of the best games I’ve ever been a part of, not realizing today would top that,” Serrano said.
Matt Morris singled, Bryan Petersen was intentionally walked and Sean Madigan singled to load the bases with one out in the 10th against ASU reliever Mike Leake.
The pro-Irvine crowd began chanting “Let’s Go Eaters” as Linton walked to the plate. After he sent Leake’s 2-2 pitch into right field to break the 7-7 tie, then was mobbed by teammates near first base as the fans’ chants turned to “Oll-ie, Oll-ie.”
NORTH CAROLINA 3, LOUISVILLE 1: Luke Putkonen and two relievers limited the Cardinals to three hits in a elimination game.
The Tar Heels also had three hits but they made two runs that scored on a Louisville throwing error stand up to advance to today’s game against Rice. North Carolina (55-14), the 2006 runner-up, would have to beat the Owls twice to win their bracket and return to the best-of-three championship series, which starts Saturday.
“This game is crazy,” North Carolina coach Mike Fox said. “You can go from a game where you score a lot of runs to none, because it’s all controlled by that guy on the mound. I have a great deal of confidence in Luke. When he’s on, he has as good a stuff as anybody.”
The Cardinals (47-24), who had batted .402 and scored 22 runs in their first two games, ended their first trip to the CWS with their fewest hits since getting three in a loss to St. John’s on May 5.
“Everybody putting in good at-bats for a long time is a hard thing,” said Louisville’s Logan Johnson, whose first-inning homer was his CWS record-tying fourth in three games. “We ran into a good club and they pitched well. Things didn’t go our way.”
