Hurricanes Fall 5-3 To Gauchos, Eliminated From College World Series
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OMAHA (CBSMiami/AP) — For the second straight year, the University of Miami's trip to the College World Series went much shorter than planned.
Pinch hitter Ryan Cumberland's two-run single broke a tie and Noah Davis and Kyle Nelson combined to hold down No. 3 national seed Miami's offense in UC Santa Barbara's 5-3 victory in a College World Series elimination game Monday.
The Gauchos (43-19-1) kept their first CWS appearance going and will play Wednesday against the loser of Monday night's game between Oklahoma State and Arizona.
The Hurricanes (50-14) went 0-2 for only the second time in their 25 CWS appearances. Their other two-and-out was in 1979.
Santa Barbara struck for four runs after a 1-hour, 2-minute rain delay in the sixth inning. Cumberland made it 3-1 with his one-out single down the first-base line, and the Gauchos used back-to-back squeeze plays for two more runs.
Miami opened the scoring on Zack Collins' 16th homer of the season in the first inning off Davis (7-4), and the Gauchos' JJ Muno singled in the tying run in the bottom half off Danny Garcia (9-5).
The offenses went quiet until after the rain in the sixth inning.
Garcia went back to the mound after the rain delay and got a flyout before Muno doubled into the right-field corner. Frankie Bartow relieved and walked Dempsey Grover, and Cumberland, pinch hitting for Kyle Plantier, followed with his tie-breaking smash down the first-base line.
Billy Fredrick and Ryan Clark, the Nos. 8 and 9 batters, laid down bunts with runners on third to make it a four-run game.
Miami tried to come back against Nelson, stringing together four straight hits in the eighth, with Randy Batista and Collins singling in runs. Davis got out of it when he froze Ruiz with a slider to strand runners on first and third.
Jacob Heyward's hard liner off third baseman Ryan Clark's glove gave Miami hope with one out in the ninth, but Christopher Barr's comebacker to Nelson started a game-ending double play. Nelson earned his 10th save.
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