Fullerton holds off Nebraska, Komine
Advertiser News Services
OMAHA, Neb. — Cal State Fullerton's experience silenced Nebraska's vocal and partisan fans at the College World Series last night.
Associated Press
Cal State Fullerton took a one-run lead in the fifth inning and made it stand up, beating Nebraska, 5-4, despite a complete-game performance by Kalani High graduate Shane Komine.
Nebraska’s Shane Komine, a Kalani High graduate, struck out nine in eight innings in a 5-4 loss to Cal State Fullerton.
The Titans won the opener of their 11th series and second in three years. Nebraska lost its series debut.
"The biggest thing for us was to make sure the crowd didn't get to us. Emotionally for us we were able to do that," said David Bacani, whose leadoff homer in the fifth inning supplied the eventual game winning run.
Aaron Rifkin hit a two-run homer for the Titans (47-16), who were outhit 8-7.
Tomorrow, the Titans play Stanford, a 13-11 winner over Tulane earlier yesterday. The Huskers and Green Wave play tomorrow in a game that will knock out one of the CWS newcomers.
Three Fullerton pitchers struck out 14 Cornhuskers. Jon Smith (11-2) lasted until the sixth inning but got the win after allowing four runs on seven hits and striking out seven. Freshman closer Chad Cordero struck out four of the seven batters he faced to earn his 14th save.
"He doesn't get hit. When we see him running out there we just know it's lights out," Rifkin said of the Titans' closer.
Komine (14-2), playing in front of a Rosenblatt Stadium crowd of 22,889 that included his family, struck out nine as his streak of 14-straight wins ended. The three runs Komine gave up in the first matched the total he gave up in the first inning all season.
"It was an adrenaline rush going through my body," Komine, a junior righthander from Honolulu, told the Omaha World-Herald. "I just needed to find a way to settle down after seeing all those fans out there. That rush through my body didn't help me at the start."
Said Nebraska coach Dave VanHorn: "Shane came out and struggled in the first; he was really hyped up and maybe a little nervous. He was leaving the ball up high and they were hitting it hard, and it looked like it might be a short night for him. But he settled in and did a tremendous job the rest of the game. I couldn't be prouder of Shane."
John Cole was 3-for-4 with a pair of solo homers and Matt Hopper also connected for the Cornhuskers (50-15), who rallied to tie it twice after falling behind 3-0 but never took a lead.
Bacani's leadoff homer in the fifth came off a changeup.
"(Komine) came in again with a change up this time and I was able to stay back and got a good part of the bat on it. It ended up being the winning run," Bacani said. "I didn't think it would turn out that way but it did."
Nebraska had just tied it in the top half of the inning on a homer by Cole to center, his fourth in the last five games.
• Stanford 13, Tulane 11: Ryan Garko hit a go-ahead RBI single in the seventh inning as Stanford rallied to beat Tulane in the longest nine-inning game in College World Series history in front of a crowd that included President Bush.
Garko, who caught Bush's ceremonial opening-game first pitch, singled to center during to give Stanford its first lead, 9-8. The Cardinal scored three more runs in the seventh to take a 12-8 lead. Stanford trailed 8-0 after the first three innings.
Jake Gautreau hit a two-run double in the eighth to make it 12-10, but Sam Fuld's sacrifice fly in the eighth gave Stanford a 13-10 lead.
The game lasted 4 hours, 18 minutes, surpassing the previous mark of 4:01 by Arizona State and Oklahoma State in 1984. It was also the highest-scoring opening game in College World Series history.
