Oliva's Homer, Pitching Help Extend Cats? Stay in Omaha
06/22/2016 | Baseball
OMAHA, Neb. – Jared Oliva's two-run homer and the gritty pitching tandem of JC Cloney and Cameron Ming eliminated UC Santa Barbara from the College World Series with a 3-0 victory Wednesday evening at TD Ameritrade Park. The Wildcats earn a rematch with Oklahoma State on Friday.
Arizona (46-22) seemed to be cruising to the win with a 3-0 lead in the ninth inning, but the Gauchos did not go quietly. Clay Fisher opened the final frame with a double and Devon Garland drew a walk to bring the potential tying run to the plate.
Pitching coach Dave Lawn paid a visit to the mound to settle down Ming, who relieved Cloney an inning earlier. Ming responded by striking out UCSB's home run leader, Austin Bush, then punched out JJ Muno and Dempsey Grover to seal the shut out.
Ming, working in his third straight game here, earned his third save in seven postseason appearances after not recording one during the regular season. The lefty has now worked five scoreless innings at the College World Series.
The relief effort preserved another strong start for the Wildcats, this time turned in by Cloney who last pitched 16 days ago at the Lafayette (La.) Regional. Cloney tossed seven-plus innings, scattering five hits with two walks and two strikeouts as he improved to 7-4.
With another quality start, Arizona has seen its starter pitch at least seven complete innings in eight straight games at TD Ameritrade Park, including the 2012 College World Series. Nathan Bannister (7.0 innings) and Bobby Dalbec (8.0) had surrendered only two combined runs in the Wildcats' first two tries this time around.
All the offense Arizona needed came in the home half of the third. Cody Ramer's leadoff single and Zach Gibbons' subsequent walk put runners at the corners in front of Ryan Aguilar's sacrifice fly.
With a 1-0 lead, the stage was set for Oliva, who pulled his fourth homer of the season into the left field bullpen. It gave the sophomore a hit in all three College World Series games, and extended his hit streak to five in a row.
UCSB (43-20-1) sent left-hander Justin Kelly to the mound for only his second start of the season. The homer he allowed to Oliva was the only one he had yielded this season in 23.1 innings of work. It was also his first defeat, falling to 2-1, after tossing three-plus innings with three runs on seven hits and a walk.
Reliever Trevor Betancourt cooled the Wildcats' hot bats with an impressive relief outing. The righty retired 13 consecutive batters before allowing his only base runner of the night – a single to Dalbec in the ninth inning. Otherwise it was five innings of shutout ball.
Arizona's defense was strong throughout, despite making its only error of the College World Series. Shortstop Louis Boyd atoned for an early miscue by factoring into three pivotal double plays in the third, fifth and eighth innings respectively.
Arizona now faces Oklahoma State, which prevailed in a pitchers' duel Monday night when the teams first met. The Wildcats will be tasked with defeating the Cowboys in consecutive games Friday and Saturday to stay alive in advance of the championship series next week.
Friday's game will begin at 2 p.m. CST (noon in Tucson) with a live television broadcast on ESPN2. The Wildcats will be the designated visiting team after previously being the home side against Oklahoma State on Monday.
Game Notes:
· Arizona earned its 40th all-time victory at the College World Series (40-28), tying Friday's foe, Oklahoma State for the seventh-most all-time.
· Arizona scored first for the second time in three CWS games this year. Including 2012, the Cats have struck for the game's first run in seven of their eight contests at TD Ameritrade Park (7-0 when scoring first).
· Wednesday's win improves the Wildcats to 4-0 in elimination games this postseason.
· UA pitchers have allowed two earned runs in 27.0 innings at the College World Series (0.67 ERA).
· Zach Gibbons went 1-for-3 and has hit safely in each contest in Omaha. The senior now has 98 base hits in 2016, moving him into sole possession of ninth on the UA single-season hit chart.
· Gibbons appeared in his 225th career game for the Wildcats, currently fourth-most in program history.
· Cody Ramer and Ryan Aguilar each played (and started) their 68th games of the season, tying several others for ninth-most in school history.
· Catcher Ryan Haug made his first start since April 29. He had only one at-bat since that contest (June 5 at Louisiana Regional).
· Haug threw out a potential base stealer to end the second inning. It was the first steal attempt by a UA opponent at the College World Series and first attempt since the first game of a double-header against Louisiana on June 6 at the Lafayette Regional.
· Jared Oliva's 2-run home run in the third inning was his fourth of the season. It was UA's first home run at the College World Series since Rob Refsnyder hit a two-run shot in the first inning of the opener of the championships series vs. South Carolina in 2012. It was Oliva's first homer since April 4 at BYU.
· Oliva now has a five-game hit streak, longest active for any Wildcat, including all three games in Omaha.
· The home run was the first allowed by UCSB starter Justin Kelly all season (23.1 IP)
· A fourth-inning error was the first committed by the Wildcats at the CWS. UA was the only club to not commit an error in one of its first two games in Omaha.
· Starter JC Cloney made his first appearance since June 5 (16 days) at the Louisiana Regional.
· For the fourth time this season, Cloney had an impressive bounce-back start after he allowed seven runs in 3.2 innings at Louisiana. Now four times this season he has yielded four or more runs in a game only to come back in his next start and allow one or fewer runs over at least six innings.
· UA turned three double plays for the second time this season (May 15 vs. Arizona State).
· The Wildcats improved to 40-2 when leading after eight innings.
· UA is now 15-3 when homering this season and 31-12 when not allowing a home run.
· UA improved to 34-11 when scoring first.
· The Wildcats boost their all-time record to 18-8 against UC Santa Barbara.
· Despite putting the leadoff hitter on base in four of nine innings, UCSB struggled to a 1-for-13 (.077) clip with runners on base, including 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. In three games at the CWS, UA opponents are 4-for-39 (.103) with runners on base and 3-for-21 (.147) with runners in scoring position.
