Virginia Eliminates Cal State Fullerton

Virginia's baseball program made a statement Monday by winning its first-ever game in the College World Series. Cal State Fullerton, meanwhile, offered an apology after being the first club bounced from the eight-team tournament by the Cavaliers.

"It is unfortunate for the people who saw us this weekend," Cal State coach Dave Serrano said following his team's 7-5 defeat to Virginia in an elimination game at Rosenblatt Stadium. The Titans -- the tourney's No. 2 national seed behind Texas -- were knocked into the losers' bracket in Saturday's opener by Arkansas and now have dropped five consecutive CWS games.

"I am not taking anything away from Virginia or Arkansas, but we didn't play very well," Serrano continued. "We didn't stay very true to ourselves and got out of character. We'll have to go back to the drawing board and see what happened."

Virginia was what happened Monday.

The Cavaliers have eliminated both of the Big West's national seeds from the NCAA Tournament -- No. 6 UC Irvine and No. 2 Cal State Fullerton --- and their effort against the Titans extended the homecoming of head coach Brian O'Connor. O'Connor was raised in Council Bluffs, Iowa, just outside of Omaha, Neb., and played in the CWS for Creighton University as a relief pitcher.

"I know where we're at and how big this is," said O'Connor, whose team was knocked into the losers' bracket Saturday by LSU.

"I am happy for these guys. It is better to win one of these games as a player, to be able to wear the uniform of your school in competition.

"They've handled the situation with maturity and bounced back today. It's really special."

The Cavs beat one of the nation's top pitchers in Ca State Fullerton ace Daniel Renken (11-3), who had not allowed more than four runs in any of his previous 16 starts this season. Renken lasted just 5 2/3 innings to snap a string of seven consecutive starts -- and 10 of his last 11 -- of at least eight innings.

"Pressing-wise, I think that we pressed ourselves a little too hard during both games," Renken said. "I can't speak for the offense, but it looks like they were pressing themselves as well."

Fullerton catcher Dustin Garneau agreed with his starter, saying, "We definitely came here expecting to win it all, and we didn't really play good baseball both games."

Keith Werman, UVa's No. 9 hitter, went 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored. Five UVa pitchers combined to hold Fullerton to five runs, scattering 13 hits, walking four and striking out five. The Cavaliers rallied from an early 2-0 deficit and built a 7-3 lead before the Titans plated a pair of runs in the ninth.

The Cavaliers will play Wednesday against the loser of Monday night's winners' bracket game between LSU and Arkansas.

"This is a very big win for our program," said UVa reliever Andrew Carraway, who pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings and collected his ninth win in 10 decisions.

"No one wants to come here and go two and out. We have a lot of young guys on our team. The energy level is high."



Serrano, meanwhile, was still searching for answers, though one culprit was the team's pitching. The Titans, who entered the CWS fourth in the country with a 3.36 ERA, allowed 17 earned runs (9.00 ERA) in their two games after they surrendered 11 runs in their five games in NCAA Regional and Super Regional action.

"If we had played better, we wouldn't be here right now," Serrano said.

"We think with what we have coming back next year, we'll be back [to the CWS]. We got 13 hits and five runs, and that's not very good offense for us. We got good at-bats when it didn't matter and bad-at-bats when it did matter."

O'Connor, on the other hand, was pleased with his team's performance. The Cavs improved to 6-2 in the NCAA Tournament and are 3-0 in elimination games. O'Connor is also the second head coach to pick up his first CWS victory, joining Arkansas' Dave Van Horn.

"I spoke Saturday about how this team shows resiliency and they've been that way all year long," O'Connor said. "They've bounced back from defeat and come back fighting. I wrote six different lineups last night and they one we had today wasn't one of them. The right things worked out for us."