Finally, a few runs were scored at T D Ameritrade Park.

Facing elimination, Coastal Carolina tallied three runs in the eighth inning to snap a 2-2 tie and held on to defeat the Arizona Wildcats 5-4 to force a third and deciding game in the College World Series championships in Omaha.

Anthony Marks led off the eighth inning with a single off reliever Cameron Ming (3-3), his third hit of the night.  Michael Paez sacrificed Marks to second and Connor Owings blooped a single to left to give the Chanticleers a 3-2 lead.  Zach Remillard then doubled down the left field line to send Owings to third.  Reliever Alfonso Rivas then gave up a two run single to G. K. Young to cap the three run inning.

But Arizona loaded the bases in the eighth with no one out against reliever Bobby Holmes (8-2) on a single and a pair of walks.  Jared Oliva popped up and Justin Behnke reached on a force play, scoring the first run of the inning.  Louis Boyd then reached on an error by Paez at shortstop to get the Wildcats within a run before Cody Ramer flew out to left to end the inning.  Holmes retired the Wildcats in order in the ninth to cap the win.

Arizona (49-23) got back to back singles by Ramer and Zach Gibbons leading off the first, but J. J. Matejevic failed on a two strike bunt.  Ryan Aguilar walked to load the bases, but with Bobby Dalbec at bat, Ramer was picked off third on what appeared to be a double suicide squeeze attempt.  Dalbec then singled to score Gibbons and give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.

Coastal (54-18) came back in the third inning off starter Kevin Ginkel when Bobby Cooke singled and was wild pitched to second.  Kevin Woodall then sacrificed Cooke to third.  David Parrett then popped up but  Boyd failed to catch the ball for a two base error with Cooke holding at third.  Marks' single up the middle scored both base runners to give the Chanticleers a 2-1 lead.

Morrison worked out of trouble in the fourth when Dalbec singled and Cesar Salazar was hit by a pitch.   Oliva sacrificed the runners to second and third, but Morrison came back to strike out  Behnke and Boyd to end the inning.  But Arizona tied it in the fifth when Ramer walked and Gibbons singled him to third.  Matejevic struck out, but  Aguilar hit into a force play to score Ramer.

Both starting pitchers were superb.  Coastal's closer, Mike Morrison, made his first start of the season and gave up two runs on six hits over 6.2 innings.  He walked two and struck out a career high ten, giving him 94 strikeouts in 72 innings on the season.  Arizona's Kevin Ginkel matched Morrison, allowing five hits and one earned run with no walks and ten strikeouts.

 

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