Beavers head to College World Series
CORVALLIS, Ore. – For the first time in more than 50 years, the Oregon State Beavers are going to the College World Series.
Andy Jenkins hit for the cycle, going 5 for 5 as the Beavers (46-10) beat Southern California 10-8 Monday in the deciding game of the best-of-three Super Regional series.
Oregon State, ranked No. 2 in the country by Baseball America, will face top-seeded Tulane in Omaha. They were seeded eighth nationally among the 64 teams that advanced to the postseason.
The Beavers hadn’t made it to the postseason since 1986. And they haven’t been to Omaha since 1952, when they lost to Duke and Texas.
USC, by contrast, boasts 12 national titles dating back to 1948. The Trojans’ most recent tile came in 1998.
Jenkins fielded the final out, then hurled the ball into the outfield – just as he was engulfed by his teammates. As they all collapsed to the field with the crowd chanted “Omaha! Omaha!”
Billy Hart’s bases-loaded single in the 10th inning scored the winning run and Southern California rallied from an 8-3 deficit to beat Oregon State 9-8 Sunday night. In the opening game on Saturday, Oregon State capitalized on eight Trojan errors for a 10-4 victory.
The Trojans (41-22) rallied again in the deciding game, erasing a 7-3 deficit with a four-run sixth inning.
Jenkins tripled in the bottom of the sixth to complete the cycle, and scored on Shea McFeely’s sacrifice fly to make it 8-7.
Darwin Barney, the Pacific-10 Conference freshman of the year, had an RBI single in the seventh inning, then scored on Jenkins’ second single of the game.
USC’s Matt Cusick added a sacrifice fly in the eighth.
USC catcher Jeff Clement, taken by the Seattle Mariners with the third overall pick in the baseball draft, hit a three-run home run to tie it at 3-all in the third inning.
Tulane 9, Rice 6
At New Orleans, Micah Owings drove in the decisive run in the top of the ninth, and Tulane advanced to the College World Series for the second time in school history.
Tulane’s other CWS appearance was in 2001.
Baylor 6, Clemson 1
At Waco, Texas, Kevin Sevigny hit a three-run double in the fourth to lead the Bears into the College World Series.
Baylor (44-22) advanced for the third time and the first since 1978.
Texas 6, Mississippi 4
At Oxford, Miss., Will Crouch’s sixth-inning home run put Texas ahead to stay and the Longhorns advanced to their fourth straight College World Series. It will be their record 32ns appearance in Omaha and Texas has won five titles.
The Rebels were trying for their fifth CWS berth and first since 1972.
Kunz allowed one run on two hits for the victory.