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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Usc Rips Sooners On Jenkins’ Homer Trojans Oust Oklahoma 9-4, Meet Florida State On Tuesday

Associated Press

All-America Geoff Jenkins homered and had an RBI double in a seven-run second inning Sunday night that lifted Southern Cal over defending champion Oklahoma 9-4 in a College World Series elimination game.

The only other time the Sooners (42-16) went home winless in nine CWS appearances was 1976.

Sixth-seeded Southern Cal (46-20), in the tournament for the first time since winning the last of its 11 national titles in 1978, moves to Tuesday’s elimination game against No. 2 Florida State (53-15), which lost to Miami 4-2 Sunday.

A mental mistake set up the Trojans’ big second inning after Jenkins led off with his 20th homer, over the 28-foot wall beyond the 408-foot sign in dead center field. Sooners starter Ryan Minor then failed to cover first on a grounder wide of the bag. His twin brother Damon fielded the ball but had no one to throw to and Jacques Jones was safe with a single. Two outs later, Ernie Diaz hit his seventh homer.

Was Rachels followed with the first homer of his career to chase Minor (1-1). Dax Powell came on but gave up a walk and consecutive RBI doubles to Paul Cruz and Gabe Alvarez. Jenkins greeted Oklahoma’s third pitcher of the inning, Toby Wilmot, with another RBI double before the inning ended.

Oklahoma scored on Tristan Paul’s RBI bloop single in the first and on a sacrifice fly by Bobby Brown and RBI single by Javier Flores in the second.

Jenkins made it 8-3 with a RBI single in the fourth.

Southern Cal starter Randy Flores (12-3) escaped with only one run in the sixth when he gave up two singles and two walks, including a basesloaded pass to Javier Flores. Greg Walbridge got the run back for the Trojans in the seventh with his second homer of the series and eighth of the season.

Oklahoma had 11 hits off Randy Flores, but the left-hander stranded nine runner.

Miami 4, Florida State 2

Danny Buxbaum’s three-run homer in the first inning gave J.D. Arteaga all the lead he needed, and the Hurricanes moved on in the winners’ bracket.

Florida State had won four of six games between the teams this season, but the second-seeded Seminoles (53-15) couldn’t get past Arteaga (11-2) this time. Arteaga, who had been involved in two no-decisions against Florida State earlier this year, scattered seven hits with three strikeouts with no walks.

The win gives third-seeded Miami (48-15) off until Wednesday as the last unbeaten team in its bracket.

Bruce Thompson and Rudy Gomez singled off Florida State starter David Yocum (12-3) before Buxbaum hit his 14th homer deep down the leftfield line.

It was Buxbaum’s third homer this year off Yocum, the left-handed AllAmerica who was selected No. 20 by the Los Angeles Dodgers in last week’s draft.

xxxx COLLEGE WORLD SERIES Today’s games Game 7: Cal St. Fullerton (54-9) vs. Tennessee (53-14), 12:35 p.m. Game 8: Stanford (39-24) vs. Clemson (54-13), 7:35 p.m.