Arizona on roll to final

— Arizona Coach Andy Lopez couldn’t imagine taking a hotter team to the College World Series final.

That’s where the Wildcats are heading after their 10-3 victory over Florida State on Thursday. They’ll go into the best-of-three championship round Sunday coming off nine consecutive victories and 16 in their past 18 games.

“I’m not sure we’re invincible. In fact, I’m quite confident we’re not,” Lopez said. “We’re playing good baseball. But, honestly, we’ve done that for more than a weekend or so.”

Florida State gave the Wildcats lots of help, committing three of their four errors in Arizona’s six-run first inning.

Freshman starter Brandon Leibrandt was pulled after he recorded just one out for the Seminoles, who used eight pitchers to tie a CWS record for a nine-inning game.

Robert Refsnyder and Bobby Brown homered in a span of three at-bats in the fourth as the Wildcats built their lead to 10-1.

“About the easiest way to sum it up is say we got taken to the woodshed today,” Florida State Coach Mike Martin said.

Kurt Heyer (13-2) worked 71/3 innings while taking the national lead for victories. Arizona (46-17) will be playing for its fourth national championship and first since 1986 after losing in regionals the past two years. The Wildcats did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament in 2009.

“Having the experience of losing and feeling what it feels like to go back on a charter plane and nobody talks, it’s a depressing feeling,” Refsnyder said. “I think we’re on a mission this year, myself and Kurt and the other juniors, to really get to the College World Series, and now we’re in the position to win a national title. That’s what we came here to do.”

Arizona’s surge began in early May after it lost a series at Oregon. Lopez challenged his players, and they went on to win the Pacific-12 co-championship and then sweep through the regional and super regional at home.

“I grabbed the group together and said, ‘Listen, if you want to win the Pac-12 or host regionals and do things that we’ve set as goals, we can’t lose another series from here on, end of story.’ To be very candid with you, they’ve played exceptionally good baseball from that point on. And so far so good. They’ll continue the process, hopefully.”

The Wildcats’ run at the CWS started with a 4-3, 12-inning victory over Florida State. Konner Wade threw a complete-game shutout two nights later against UCLA, and then they won easily in the rematch with the Seminoles.

The Seminoles (50-17) were making their 21st appearance in Omaha and no other team has played in the CWS as many times without winning a championship. Martin has been coach for 15 of those trips to Omaha.

He said the championship drought isn’t testing his patience.

“Not at all,” he said. “I’ll tell you exactly how I feel. It’s Christmastime. You get to come to Omaha, Nebraska, and experience the week of Christmas with great people. You’ll have memories thatyou’ll cherish for the rest of your life.”

Leibrandt (8-3) was knocked out after 4 1/3 innings of the Seminoles’ first-round loss to Arizona. On Thursday, he threw 31 pitches, only 15 strikes, and his throwing error set the stage for Arizona’s big first inning.

Arizona’s six runs in the first resulted from 4 singles, 3 walks, a sacrifice fly and the 3 errors. No team at the CWS had committed as many errors in an inning since Miami had the same number in a 2004 game against Cal State Fullerton.

Heyer scattered 9 hits, walked 3 and struck out 3. His 71/3 innings raised his nationleading total to 153, the most of any pitcher in Division I since 2006.

Arizona has gotten at least seven innings from its starter in each of its eight NCAA Tournament games.

“The only thing I would probably take away from my performance is that I can’t walk three guys,” Heyer said. “That’s unacceptable, very uncharacteristic of me. One walk I’ll tolerate, but three is unbelievable for me. You take away those three walks, I’mprobably still pitching.”

The Wildcats came into the CWS with a .333 batting average. After hitting just .219 in their first two games (16 of 73), they collected 15 hits. Refsnyder went 3 for 4, four of his teammates had two hits apiece and Johnny Field extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a single in the eighth.

“They did not give us any room to breathe,” Martin said.

SOUTH CAROLINA 4, KENT STATE 1

OMAHA, Neb. - Michael Roth offered yet another example of why he’s one of the most dominant pitchers ever at the College World Series.

Roth tossed a two-hitter, retiring the last 22 batters he faced, and two-time defending national champion South Carolina eliminated Kent State from the College World Series.

Grayson Greiner and Chase Vergason hit consecutive RBI singles in the second inning to erase Kent State’s 1-0 lead. LB Dantzler homered in the third against Tyler Skulina.

Kent State (47-20) finished 1-2 in its first CWS appearance.

Roth (9-1) struck out eight and walked none. He was perfect after giving up Sawyer Polen’s RBI single in the second inning.

Roth also became the CWS’ all-time leader in innings pitched, with 53 2/3 over three years, and tied a CWS career record for starts with his seventh.

Sports, Pages 17 on 06/22/2012

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