The game’s story quickly changed from Louisville’s spectacular pitching to Louisville’s bullpen collapse. Catcher Dempsey Grover walked and then Billy Fredrick, pinch-hitting for designated-hitter Kyle Plantier, the nephew of former major leaguer Phil Plantier, walked to load the bases. And he took advantage of his one at bat.
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Louisville’s next step toward claiming its third College World Series berth in four years is getting past UC Santa Barbara (40-18-1), which is making its first appearance in the best-of-three super regional. Kevin Chandler (3.77 ERA) in for the Gauchos one-third of the way through the inning.
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Oklahoma State is back in the College World Series after 17 years behind seven scoreless innings from Tyler Buffett in a 3-1 victory over SC on Sunday that clinched the super regional.
Amazingly, those three runs for Louisville were the only runs scored for either team until the bottom of the ninth.
But one blink later, Louisville’s season was over. Not only did UCSB defeat a top-two team in the nation in a place that it had only lost once before, but it now moved within one win of reaching its first College World Series. Bracket #1 consists of Coastal Carolina, Texas Tech, TCU and Flordia or Florida State.
– Louisville’s Blake Tiberi was 3 for 4 Sunday and 5 for 8 in the super regional.
The game had seemed to turn in that 4th inning when Brendan McKay was given the green light on a 3-0 count and launched a fastball over the wall in left center.
Moments later, the Gauchos evened the score at 1-1 in the third inning on a two-out RBI double by Clay Fisher. Rosenbaum singled to score Tiberi. However, a tough fourth inning aside, Davis pitched very well for the Gauchos, going 5 1/3 innings, giving up just the three-spot in the fourth. “I don’t think 2 games at the end really defines the season we actually had”.
The Cardinals will look to maintain their home prowess.
Bieber (12-3) gave up eight hits but struck out seven with just one walk.
Lanning held the Pirates to two hits over seven innings in the longest outing of his career. “Fortunately, this is a two out of three series and we’re not out of it. …” In those innings McKay threw 113 pitches. Louisville’s All-American closer Zack Burdi was on the mound and he possessed a repertoire that Cohen had never faced before in his career.
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-Entering the ninth inning with a lead, Louisville had a streak of 186 consecutive victories. Burdi struck out Austin Bush for the first out, but it was the only out of the inning he would record. JJ Muno singled on a grounder up the middle. This brought up Cohen.
