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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, June 20, 2009

Texas, LSU reach best-of-3 CWS final


By Eric Olson
Associated Press

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Texas' Connor Rowe celebrates after his walkoff solo homer in the ninth beat Arizona State, 4-3.

ERIC FRANCIS | Associated Press

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OMAHA, Neb. — No matter what happens in the College World Series finals, it'll be tough for Texas to top this finish.

Connor Rowe hit a walkoff solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, moments after Cameron Rupp tied it with a homer of his own as the Longhorns came from behind to beat Arizona State, 4-3, last night.

Rowe sent a shot into the left-field seats, then sprinted around the bases with his helmet raised in his right hand as his celebrating teammates waited at home plate to greet him.

Two batters earlier, Rupp homered over the 22-foot wall in straightaway center field to tie it.

"The two home runs were about as dramatic as you can get," Texas coach Augie Garrido said. "We struck out 12 times, so they did a great job of pitching. But they got some balls up and we ran into them, and that changed the game. I feel blessed about it."

So now a Texas team that won its first game on a bases-loaded walk in the ninth and its second game after rallying from six runs down will move to the CWS best-of-three championship series starting Monday against LSU, which beat Arkansas, 12-5. The Longhorns will try to become the first No. 1 national seed to win the title since Miami in 1999.

"They did a wonderful job of hitting in the clutch at the end," Arizona State coach Pat Murphy said. "It was a great game for college baseball. We're sorry we're going home."

Rowe, who batted in the No. 9 spot, hit the first walkoff homer in Omaha since Texas' Chance Wheeless did it against Baylor in 2005.

It looked as if the Sun Devils (51-14) would force a rematch today for the Bracket 2 championship after they took a 3-2 lead in the top of the ninth on Zach Wilson's RBI triple.

Mitchell Lambson (9-5) struck out Brandon Loy to start the bottom of the ninth, but Rupp tied it with a homer that carried at least 420 feet, one of the longest in recent CWS memory.

"When I hit it," Rupp said, "I knew it was gone."

After Preston Clark popped out, Rowe hit the first offering from Lambson over the left-field wall, well above the leaping Kole Calhoun.

"As time passes, this is probably going to be a game to watch on TV and recap and say I was glad to be a part of it," Calhoun said. "But right now, this one hurts."

LSU 14, ARKANSAS 5

Paul Mainieri can't think of a thing he would change about the way his LSU Tigers are playing at the College World Series.

LSU used an impressive show of power and pitching to win Bracket 1 with a victory over Arkansas yesterday. The Tigers hit four home runs, raising their CWS total to nine in three games, and Anthony Ranaudo bounced back from a subpar outing to throw six shutout innings.

"It's a dream come true that we got to this point," said Mainieri, the Tigers' third-year coach. "When I say a dream, it's not that I didn't think we couldn't. We thought we could when we started the year. Now there's an opportunity for us, and now we'll see if we can seize it."

The Tigers (54-16) hadn't played since Monday's 9-1 win over Arkansas, and they had to wait even longer because of a thunderstorm that pushed back the start of yesterday's game 2 1/2 hours.

"They were chomping at the bit to get back out there on the ballfield," Mainieri said.

Once out there, the Tigers showed no signs of rust against an Arkansas team they dominated all year. Arkansas (41-24) was outscored 23-6 by LSU in two CWS games, and the Razorbacks lost four of five overall against the Tigers this season.