OMAHA — Tyler Webb and Matt Price combined for seven innings of shutout relief and two-time defending national champion South Carolina returned to the College World Series finals with a 3-2 win over Arkansas on Friday night.
The Gamecocks (49-18) took the lead in the bottom of the seventh inning on Barrett Astin’s two-out, bases-loaded walk to Adam Matthews.
South Carolina will play Arizona in the best-of-three CWS finals beginning Sunday.
The Gamecocks erased a 2-0 deficit in the fifth inning, with DJ Baxendale walking Christian Walker with the bases loaded to force in the tying run.
Matthews looked ready to swing on a 3-2 pitch from Astin in the seventh, but he held up as the slider dropped low and Joey Pankake trotted home for the go-ahead run.
Price (5-4) pitched three innings to earn his record fifth career win in the CWS. Colby Suggs (7-1) took the loss for Arkansas (46-22).
Arkansas scored in the first and third innings and finished with six hits to South Carolina’s five in a showdown of Southeastern Conference power programs.
Pankake, a .273 hitter, went 2-for-3 for the Gamecocks.
My name is Andy, people. Arizona coach Andy Lopez is enjoying reminiscing about the under-the-radar Pepperdine team he brought to the CWS in 1992. The Waves won the national championship.
He laughed about the pre-CWS banquet that year where all the coaches gave a talk about their teams.
The master of ceremonies called Pepperdine “Pepperdeen” and addressed the coach as “Al Lopez” rather than Andy Lopez.
“Two weeks later, they knew who we were,” Lopez said.
Footnotes. South Carolina on Thursday became the first CWS team to allow a total of five hits or fewer in back-to-back games since 1964, when Missouri held Minnesota to one hit on June 15 and then held Maine to two hits on June 17. This year, the Gamecocks gave up two hits in a 4-1 win over Kent State and three in a 2-0 win over Arkansas. … Entering Friday, the Arkansas pitching staff had a sparkling ERA of 1.80 in the NCAA Tournament.
