Day 2 of the men’s College World Series features the four teams playing in the second part of the bracket at Omaha, Nebraska, with SEC rivals LSU and Arkansas playing in the nightcap.
In Friday’s opening games, Oregon State defeated Louisville and Coastal Carolina beat Arizona to move on to the winner’s bracket.
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Arizona and Louisville will play Sunday, with the loser eliminated from the CWS. Oregon State and Coastal Carolina face off in the second game, with the winner advancing to the next round.
UCLA 6, Murray State 4
Murray State is the underdog darling of the MCWS, advancing to Omaha as a regional No. 4 seed. But they are one game away from elimination after losing Saturday’s opener to UCLA.
Racers pitcher Nic Schutte struggled with his control from the start, walking Dean West and Roch Cholowsky, then giving up a single to Mulivai Levu to load the bases. He then walked Roman Martin on five pitches to bring in the Bruins’ first run. However, Schutte retired the next three — with two strikeouts — to limit the damage.
UCLA added to its lead with Cashel Dugger hitting a double to lead off the second. A sacrifice bunt from Phoenix Call advanced Dugger to third before West drove him home with a single.
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However, the Bruins put the game out of reach methodically in the fourth inning. Following a Dugger line out, Call and West each singled. They were moved into scoring position with a Cholowsky sacrifice bunt.
With two outs, Schutte could have possibly escaped the inning, but he hit Levu with his first pitch to once again load the bases. Martin then hit an RBI single, followed by a double from AJ Salgado that scored another two runs.
UCLA pitcher Michael Barnett was on his way to getting through five scoreless innings after retiring the first two Racers batters in the fifth. But he allowed a single to Jonathan Hogart and walked Dustin Mercer before leaving the game. Bruins coach John Savage told ESPN reporter Dani Wexelman that Barnett was dealing with leg cramps.
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Wylan Moss took over and gave up an RBI single to Carson Garner for Murray State’s first run. The run was charged to Barnett, who finished with one run and three hits allowed with four strikeouts and four walks in 4 2/3 innings.
The Racers added another run in the sixth on singles by Luke Mistone and Will Vierling, followed by a sacrifice fly from Dan Tauken. They threatened to score more in the seventh against UCLA reliever Jack O’Connor with Hogart and Mercer leading off the frame with singles. But O’Connor got the next two batters to fly out before August Souza took over and got Mistone to line out.
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Souza walked Vierling and gave up a double to Tauken to begin the eighth. Both runners came around to score on RBI groundouts, closing Murray State’s deficit to 6-4. But not getting on base prevented Hogart from coming to the plate as the tying run and he struck out to end the Racers’ last best threat.
UCLA will enjoy a steak dinner courtesy of Bruins alum Gerrit Cole, according to Savage. Then the team will face the winner of Saturday night’s LSU-Arkansas game on Monday. Murray State will play the loser of that matchup in a Monday elimination game. In the meantime, Racers fans in Omaha can perhaps console themselves by currently ranking second in the Rocco’s Jell-O shot challenge.