FratHouseSports

(AP) – Whit Merrifield’s RBI single with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning gave South Carolina its first baseball national championship with a 2-1 victory over UCLA. It was the fifth championship decided in an extra-inning final, and first since Southern California topped Florida State in 15 innings in 1970.

Scott Wingo drew a leadoff walk and took second when catcher Steve Rodriguez, perhaps distracted when Evan Marzilli squared to bunt, let an inside 1-0 pitch get past him. Wingo moved to third when Marzilli got a bunt down, and scored when Merrifield drilled a 2-0 pitch by Dan Klein past the pulled-in outfield of the Bruins and into right field.

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UCLA was supposed to be the team with the ace pitching staff staff not South Carolina. But it was not the Bruins Gerrit Cole who threw the eight inning ten strikeout three hit ace, it was South Carolina’s Blake Cooper. And thanks to him the Gamecocks are now only one win away from their first nation championship.

Even though Cooper was pitching on three days’ rest for the second straight time, he owned Bruin batters…giving up one hit in the fifth, then retiring 11 straight after that, before giving up two hits in the bottom of the ninth right before he was pulled.

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For the past 61 years the City of Omaha and the State of Nebraska have been hosting the College World Series at Rosenblatt Stadium. Every year since 1950 and this week on either Wednesday or Thursday all that tradition will come to an end. The stadium built in built in 1947 has seen better days and rather than renovate it the NCAA and the city of Omaha just decided to build a new one. So come next year the CWS will be played at the brand spanking new $128 million 24,000 seat TD Ameritrade Park Omaha.

In 2011 a new era in college baseball will begin. So what is to happen to old Rosenblatt…it will be demolished and turned into a zoo parking lot. The only thing that will remain is a Little League sized field in the corner of the lot that is supposed to serve as a tribute to Rosenblatt. Sad. But let us enjoy Rosenblatt’s last stand, game one of the best of three national championship series between the UCLA Bruins and South Carolina Gamecocks begins today at 7:30 pm ET and you can watch it live on ESPN.

South Carolina’s first baseman Christian Walker almost single handedly beat Clemson today to send the Gamecocks to 4-3 win and into the CWS finals for the first time since 2002. Walker singled in the go ahead run in the seventh and was responsible for three of USC’s four runs going 2 for 4 on the day with two RBI’s and one run scored.

The other run came from centerfielder Jackie Bradley who extended his hitting streak to 21 games with a 1 for 2 one-run game. South Carolina will now face UCLA in the championship series being shown on ESPN beginning Monday at 7:30 pm ET.

It really is no surprise here. TCU is just not the same team without Matt Purke pitching. Yesterday he lead them to victory, only gave up three hits and one run in six innings. Today his replacement Kyle Winkler started off the game by three runs in the first and was yanked before he even recorded an out. Then his replacement Paul Gerrish allowed two more runs in the first and another in the second before he was pulled. The game was really over at the end of the second with the score 6-1.

And as horrible as the entire TCU pitching staff was (and I do mean the entire pitching staff six pitchers played in all), UCLA’s pitching was just as good. Trevor Bauer got the win…pitching eight innings, allowing three runs on four hits, while striking out 13. FYI: Bauer leads the nation in strikeouts with 165.

(AP) – South Carolina left-hander Michael Roth bumped into coach Ray Tanner near the elevator at the team hotel on Friday and told him he would pitch against Clemson until his arm falls off.

A situational reliever who had logged more than three innings just three times in 51 career appearances, Roth pitched a three hitter in his first start in 14 month, a performance that carried the Gamecocks to a 5-1 College World Series victory over Clemson.

Their win forced a second Bracket 2 final. South Carolina and Clemson meet again today at 7:00 pm ET, with the winner advancing to the best of three championship round that starts Monday.

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TCU’s Matt Purke is unbeatable. Whether you like the hat crooked to the side look or not, there is no denying that the dudes got some skill…he’s a perfect 16-0 on the season, a school record. And he was lights out today in an elimination game for the Horned Frogs, allowing just allowing just three hits and one run in seven innings as TCU beat UCLA 6-2.

The two teams will meet tomorrow at 2:00pm ET on ESPN2, with the winner of that game earning a spot in the national championship series starting Monday.

TCU hit three homers on the day, but it was Taylor Featherston’s two run homer in the bottom of the seventh that really put the Bruins away. UCLA had just scored in the top of the seventh to pull within one at 3-2, before Featherston put the Horned Frog’s up 5-2 with his homer. Tyler Lockwood got the save for TCU for his eighth on the season.