Wheeless, Texas walk-off to title round

OMAHA, Neb. – Chance Wheeless homered to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning, putting Texas into the championship round of the College World Series with a 4-3 victory over Baylor on Wednesday night.

Wheeless, who made an error that helped Baylor take a 3-2 lead in the seventh, sent a long drive to right off reliever Ryan LaMotta, eliminating Baylor from the tournament.

Texas (54-16) tied the game at 3 in the eighth when Nick Peoples ran over Baylor catcher Josh Ford at the plate to score on a sacrifice fly.

Peoples went from first to third when LaMotta made an errant pickoff throw, then raced home on Drew Stubbs’ sacrifice fly to right. Peoples beat Seth Fortenberry’s strong throw by barreling over Ford, who was to the left of the plate before the ball arrived. With the ball loose, Peoples crawled and touched the plate.

Texas, unbeaten in three CWS games, will now play either Arizona State or Florida in the best-of-3 championship series beginning Saturday at Rosenblatt Stadium.

Arizona State 6, Florida 1: Arizona State kept up its remarkable run in the College World Series, getting a great performance from pitcher Erik Averill and beating Florida to move within a win of the championship round.

Averill (11-4), working on two days’ rest, threw a five-hitter in 92-degree heat and retired the last eight batters in his fifth complete game of 2005.

The Sun Devils (42-24), who came into the CWS with the fewest wins of any team in the field, have won three straight after losing in the first round and are 5-0 in NCAA Tournament elimination games.

They have to beat the Gators (47-21) again tonight to advance.