ASU slips past UC Irvine, 5-4

Oregon State also posted a College World Series victory.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

OMAHA, Neb. — Ike Davis hit a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning and Mike Leake and Jason Jarvis held UC Irvine scoreless the last five innings to lead Arizona State to a 5-4 victory in the College World Series Saturday.

The Sun Devils (49-13), who came in with 75 home runs in 61 games, scored all their runs on long balls against the Anteaters (45-16-1).

Matt Spencer hit a three-run homer in the second and CJ Retherford had a solo homer in the fifth.

Davis’s eighth homer of the season landed in the right-field bleachers and ended the day for UC Irvine starter Scott Gorgen (12-3), who was bidding for his fifth straight complete game.

ASU, unbeaten in six NCAA tournament games, ended Gorgen’s 17-inning shutout streak in the second when Spencer drove a ball 20 rows up in the right-field bleachers for a 3-0 lead.

ASU first baseman Brett Wallace, the Pacific-10 player of the year, was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. He had come into the game with hits in nine of his last 18 at-bats.

UC Irvine first baseman Taylor Holiday went 0-for-3, ending his 22-game hitting streak.

Oregon St. 3, Cal State Fullerton 2

OMAHA, Neb. — Scott Santschi hit his first homer of the season and had two RBIs, and defending champion Oregon State survived some nervous moments to defeat Cal State Fullerton.

OSU pitchers Jorge Reyes, Joe Paterson and Eddie Kunz combined to allow six hits as the Beavers began their bid to become the first repeat champion since LSU in 1996-97.

Fullerton’s Wes Roemer struck out seven to become the school’s career leader. Otherwise, it was another disappointing CWS start for the Arizona Diamondbacks’ first-round draft pick.

Oregon State (45-18) moves to a Monday game against Arizona State (49-13). The Titans (38-24) will play UC Irvine (45-16-1) in an elimination game Monday.

Mike Lissman homered in the first and Santschi singled in a run in the second to put the Beavers up 2-0.

Roemer retired the next 13 in a row and 15 of 17 before Santschi homered to right with one out in the seventh to make it 3-1.

It was Santschi’s first home run since June 11, 2006, the day the Beavers swept a super regional against Stanford to set the stage for their first championship run in Omaha.