OMAHA, Neb. — Arkansas’ chance to play for a baseball national championship was denied by the team that has won the past two national titles.
South Carolina moved into the championship round of the College World Series for the third consecutive season by defeating Arkansas 3-2 on Friday night in an elimination game before a crowd of 22,184 at TD Ameritrade Park.
It was the third victory in two days for South Carolina (49-18), which was sent to the losers bracket after a 2-1 loss to Arkansas on Monday. That victory ended South Carolina’s 22-game winning streak in the NCAA Tournament.
South Carolina Coach Ray Tanner said Friday night’s rematch could have gone either way.
“That was one of those typical SEC battles on this stage, and both teams had opportunities to win,” Tanner said. “We just felt like for us to have a chance to win, we had to get nine innings out of [Colby] Holmes, [Tyler] Webb and [Matt] Price - two or three apiece - and it kind of worked out that way.
“We felt we had to hold them to three, four runs max to have a chance to win, and it just kind of happened exactly like that.”
South Carolina took a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning with the help of three walks by Colby Suggs and Barrett Astin. Adam Matthews drew a bases-loaded walk from Astin to force in the go-ahead run and end a string of 26 consecutive innings without a run by the Arkansas bullpen.
“South Carolina did a great job of manufacturing a run there late to win the game or to get the lead to end up being the winning run,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “I just feel bad for our players. They fought hard.”
Matthews also had come up with the bases loaded two times earlier in the game. He hit into an inning-ending double play in the first and struck out to end the fifth, and he admitted he felt the pressure as he walked to the plate in the seventh.
“I better do something or I’m never going to be able to live in Columbia again,” Matthews said. “I was telling Coach Tanner before we came in that I left a small village of those guys on bases.
“He threw me some good pitches that I watched, and he threw me a good slider there at the end that I held off of and fortunately I walked.”
Matt Reynolds put Arkansas ahead 2-0 with an RBI single in the first and a sacrifice fly in the third, but South Carolina tied the game with two runs in the fifth off Arkansas starter DJ Baxendale, who pitched 4 1/3 innings and walked in the tying run.
South Carolina and Arizona will have a day off before beginning a best-of-3 series at 7 p.m. Central on Sunday. The teams will play again at 7 p.m. Monday, with a final game scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday if needed.
The Gamecocks won two elimination games Thursday, defeating Kent State 4-1 before knocking off Arkansas 2-0 to force a final elimination game between the SEC rivals Friday.
Arkansas (46-22) returns home after finishing in third place at the College World Series for the second time in four years. Arkansas also finished third in 2009, when the Razorbacks lost twice to LSU, the eventual national champion.
The Razorbacks, who had given up only four runs in three CWS games going into Friday, walked nine batters, including three in the fifth when South Carolina scored two runs to tie the game and three more in the seventh when the Gamecocks took the lead.
Arkansas pitchers threw 140 pitches Friday night, including 81 strikes (57.8 percent). South Carolina pitchers threw 162 pitches, 109 for strikes (67.2 percent).
The Razorbacks took a lead in the first Friday night when lead off hitter Tim Carver reached on an infield single and moved to second on Jacob Mahan’s sacrifice bunt.
Reynolds, who was hitless in his first 10 CWS at-bats, singled to left field to drive in Carver for a 1-0 lead.
Arkansas took a 2-0 lead in the third when catcher Jake Wise was hit by a pitch and moved to third on Carver’s double down the right-field line. Reynolds’ fly ball down the right-field line was caught by a sliding Matthews, but Wise tagged up at third and scored.
South Carolina put runners on second and third against Baxendale in the first, but Matthews hit into a double play to end the threat as Baxendale allowed just two hits through the first four innings.
Baxendale, the junior who held Kent State to one run in 6 1/3 innings in last Saturday’s CWS opener, ran into trouble in the fifth.
He gave up a lead off single to Tanner English, who stole second base, and then walked Chase Vergason. Joey Pankake’s single scored English to make it 2-1 before Baxendale walked Evan Marzilli and Christian Walker. The last walk forced in Vergason and tied the game at 2-2, and Baxendale was pulled.
Trent Daniel retired LB Dantzler on one pitch on a pop-up to Reynolds, and Colby Suggs struck out Matthews to end the inning.
Once Arkansas fell behind, South Carolina wouldn’t let it back in the game.
The Razorbacks didn’t score after the third and had only three hits over the final six innings. Their only hit after falling behind 3-2 in the seventh was Brian Anderson’s two-out single in the eighth, but Bo Bigham lined out to end the inning.
Price, who pitched the ninth Thursday, pitched a perfect seventh and struck out Reynolds and Dominic Ficociello, who were a combined 2 for 27 in four CWS games.
In the ninth, Price (5-4) struck out Joe Serrano, retired Matt Vinson on a popup to second base and struck out Wise for his record fifth career victory in the College World Series.
“[I’m] speechless,” said Price, who threw 37 of his 48 pitches for strikes. “I know how many great pitchers have been through the College World Series. Even though I’ve been coming out of the bullpen probably vulturing some wins, I guess you would say, but just giving our team a chance to win is what matters to me most.”
Arkansas went 2-4 this year against South Carolina, and the Gamecocks’ four victories were by a combined eight runs.
If the Gamecocks defeat Arizona in the championship series, they will become the first team to win three consecutive national titles since Southern California, which won five consecutive in 1970-1974.
Arizona defeated Florida State 10-3 on Thursday to advance to the championship round for the first time since 1986, when the Wildcats won the national championship.
Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press.
Sports, Pages 17 on 06/23/2012