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OMAHA, Neb. — Daniel Turpen allowed five hits over eight innings and defending champion Oregon State beat UC Irvine 7-1 in the College World Series on Wednesday night, ending the Anteaters’ dramatic postseason run.
The win sends the Beavers (47-18) into the best-of-three championship series starting Saturday. They will play the winner of today’s Rice-North Carolina game for the title.
Turpen (10-1) turned in the third straight strong performance by an Oregon State starter, not allowing a hit after the fourth inning. Joe Paterson pitched a perfect ninth.
The route to the championship series was much smoother this year. In 2006, the Beavers lost their CWS opener to Miami 11-1, then staved off elimination for four straight games to reach the finals.
Mitch Canham hit a two-run homer, Darwin Barney had two RBI singles and John Wallace added a run-scoring triple for the Beavers, who scored four unearned runs in the third inning.
OSU has won 11 of 13 games since a May swoon when the Beavers lost seven of nine, jeopardizing their hopes of returning to the tournament.
It was a disappointing finish for the Anteaters (47-17-1), who reinstated their baseball program in 2002 and were making their first CWS appearance.
North Carolina 6, Rice 1
OMAHA, Neb. — Robert Woodard and two relievers limited Rice to six singles and a double, Dustin Ackley broke open the game with a three-run homer and North Carolina beat the Owls.
The Tar Heels (56-14), the 2006 CWS runners-up and No. 3 national seed, forced another game against No. 2 Rice (56-13) today. The winner meets defending national champion Oregon State in the best-of-three championship starting Saturday.
Ackley, one of the nation’s top freshmen, broke out of a 5-for-37 slump with a fifth-inning single for his school-record 113th hit of the season. In the seventh, Ackley lined a pitch from Chris Kelley over the right-field fence for his eighth homer and first since May 11. It was only the Tar Heels’ second homer in 15 games.
Rice beat North Carolina 14-4 on Sunday and scored 29 runs in its first two CWS games. But like last year, after the Owls won their first two games here, their offense struggled. Rice was knocked out then after getting shut out twice by Oregon State.
Rice managed only two hits through six innings Wednesday and didn’t score until the seventh.
And after playing error-free ball for four straight games, the Owls committed two in a row to start North Carolina’s two-run second inning.
Shortstop Brian Friday dropped a fly in short center, second baseman Aaron Luna bobbled a grounder and Garrett Gore singled before starter Ryan Berry (11-3) walked Reid Fronk with the bases loaded. Tim Fedroff’s sacrifice fly made it 3-0.
Woodard (11-2) gave the Tar Heels their second quality start in a row, allowing five hits and one earned run in 6 2-3 innings. North Carolina starters struggled in the postseason until Luke Putkonen held Louisville to one run over seven innings in a 3-1 win Tuesday.