Thursday, June 22, 2006
North Carolina will play either Rice or Oregon State starting Saturday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
OMAHA, Neb. -- Jay Cox homered twice and made a great catch in the ninth inning to help North Carolina move to the College World Series championship round with a 6-5 victory over Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday night.
The Tar Heels (53-13) won Bracket 1 and will play either Rice or Oregon State in the best-of-three final beginning Saturday. Those two teams met later Wednesday, with Rice needing one victory to win Bracket 2. Oregon State would have to beat the Owls twice to reach the final.
North Carolina, which defeated Fullerton (50-15) 7-5 in 13 innings on Friday, won a rematch that featured 27 hits in what was an anticipated pitcher's duel between Carolina's Daniel Bard and the Titans' Wes Roemer.
Bard (9-3), a first-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox, gave up a career-high 12 hits in six innings.
Roemer (13-2) allowed six runs on 10 hits in 41/3 innings, the shortest of his 30 career starts. The Big West pitcher of the year gave up both of Cox's homers and another by Tim Federowicz.
After allowing three home runs in 16 regular season starts, Roemer surrendered six in four NCAA tournament starts. He gave up two in his first CWS start against the Tar Heels.
After Cox crashed into the wall in left field when he caught Cooper's fly for the second out, first-round draft pick Andrew Miller came on for his first relief appearance since 2004. Miller earned the save by getting pinch-hitter Bryan Harris on a soft grounder to shortstop for the final out.
Oregon State 8, Miami 1
OMAHA, Neb. -- Mike Stutes allowed one run in six-plus innings and Oregon State scored four times in the third to take control and eliminate Miami. The game finished late Tuesday night.
Shea McFeely hit a long home run for Oregon State (46-15).
Stutes (8-2) cruised through his first six innings, allowing one hit, a single by Eddy Rodriguez in the fifth. The sophomore right-hander gave up a one-out homer to Dennis Raben in the seventh that enabled the Hurricanes (42-24) to avoid being shut out at the College World Series for the first time since a 4-0 loss to Arizona State on June 4, 1994.
Stutes allowed one run and four hits in 61/3 innings, struck out three and walked one. Miami's Carlos Gutierrez (9-7) allowed four runs and four hits in two innings.
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