UC Irvine Wins Second Straight Extra Inning Game

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) _ UC Irvine left Arizona State coach Pat Murphy with a sense of familiarity. <br/><br/>The Anteaters became the first team in College World Series history to win two extra-inning games

Wednesday, June 20th 2007, 7:37 am

By: News On 6

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) _ UC Irvine left Arizona State coach Pat Murphy with a sense of familiarity.

The Anteaters became the first team in College World Series history to win two extra-inning games on consecutive days after Ollie Linton's bases-loaded single lifted Irvine over Arizona State 8-7 in 10 innings on Tuesday night.

``They reminded me of our '05 team _ a team of destiny,'' Murphy said. ``Probably not going to win the whole thing, but a team of destiny. But they may.''

The Anteaters (47-16-1) will face Oregon State and have to win twice to keep the Beavers out of the championship round, which starts Saturday.

``Get some sleep, 'cause tomorrow's going to be better,'' said Irvine head coach Dave Serrano.

Rice will face North Carolina in the other game.

Linton raised his fist after pushing the game-winning hit through the right side of the infield. The rest of his team rushed out of the dugout and mobbed the field as the crowd chanted Linton's name.

``They pushed me to get that hit,'' Linton said.

Arizona State looked to be the winner when it broke the game open with two runs in the seventh inning and three in the eighth.

But the Anteaters, down 7-3, tied it with four runs in the bottom of the inning after Jason Jarvis allowed three walks, a hit batsman that forced in a run and a Cody Cipriano RBI single.

Matt Morris tied it with a bases-loaded, two-run double into the right-center gap. Cipriano rounded third on the play as third-base coach Greg Bergeron signaled him to stop. Cipriano stopped suddenly, touched Bergeron and was called out for coach's interference.

``I don't know if I have words to describe what happened tonight,'' Serrano said. ``But I will say that the 2007 Anteaters don't want to take their uniforms off.''

Irvine has also downed Texas, Wichita State and Cal State-Fullerton in this tournament run.

Louisville (47-24) had just three hits and a two-run error that sealed its fate.

North Carolina, the 2006 runner-up, would have to beat the Owls twice to return to the championship round. Rice beat Carolina once on Sunday, 14-4.

``This game is crazy,'' North Carolina coach Mike Fox said. ``You can go from a game where you score a lot of runs to none, because it's all controlled by that guy on the mound.''

The Cardinals had scored 22 runs in their first two games, but could not get anything going against Luke Putkonen and two relievers. The three hits was the fewest for the Cardinals since a May 5 loss to St. John's.

``Everybody putting in good at-bats for a long time is a hard thing,'' said Louisville's Logan Johnson, whose first-inning homer was his CWS record-tying fourth in three games. ``We ran into a good club and they pitched well. Things didn't go our way.''

It was the second straight year that a team had three hits in a victory _ Oregon State did it in a 2-0 win over Rice.

All of North Carolina's scoring came with two outs in the second. Seth Williams hit a run-scoring single to center to tie it, and the go-ahead runs came in when Garrett Gore grounded to third, and Chris Dominguez threw wide of first baseman Daniel Burton.

``They jam a ball up the middle, and they cap a ball down the third-base line,'' Louisville coach Dan McDonnell said. ``Just a real tough play. Even if 'Ming' makes a great throw, I don't know if we get him at first. If Dan scoops the ball, I don't know if he's out at first.''

The Cardinals threatened with two outs in the bottom half of the eighth, but they stranded two runners when Isaiah Howes struck out against Andrew Carignan.

Carignan, who relieved Rob Wooten, struck out three of his four batters for his 17th save.