S. Carolina reaches CWS final, beats rival

Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb.

Christian Walker homered and singled in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, and South Carolina staved off elimination a fourth straight time Saturday night to beat rival Clemson 4-3 and advance to the College World Series finals.

The Gamecocks (52-16) will play UCLA in the best-of-3 championship round starting Monday. Clemson, the only team to make it to Omaha that wasn’t a No. 1 regional seed, finished 45-25.

Walker broke a 2-2 tie after Clemson intentionally walked Jackie Bradley. Walker sent Alex Frederick’s 3-1 pitch up the middle, scoring Evan Marzilli from third base.

Adrian Morales followed with a single through the right side to put South Carolina up 4-2.

Gamecocks reliever Matt Price (4-1) allowed one run in 2 1/3 innings. Clemson’s Casey Harman (8-4) took the loss.

UCLA 10, TCU 3

Trevor Bauer limited TCU to four hits and struck out 13 in eight innings and Blair Dunlap hit a three-run homer for UCLA.

UCLA (51-15) hadn’t won a game in two previous CWS appearances.

Aside from Bryan Holaday’s two home runs for TCU, Bauer (12-3) dominated a lineup that was batting a CWS-best .337. The Frogs finished the year 54-14.

UCLA roughed up TCU starter Kyle Winkler (12-3) for the second straight game. He didn’t record an out, hitting leadoff man Beau Amaral and giving up a single to Niko Gallego before Dunlap homered to left to help the Bruins get out to a 5-1 lead.

Dean Espy homered off Kaleb Merck leading off the seventh as the Bruins won going away.

Bauer and the Bruins weathered Omaha’s hottest day of the year. The temperature was 94 degrees with a heat index, or feel-like temperature, of 107 degrees by the seventh inning.