College Baseball World Series : Texas Trails, 5-0, Rallies to Beat Miss. St., 12-7

Texas parlayed six hits, including bunt singles by David Wrzesinski and Bill Bates, and two Mississippi State errors into a six-run seventh inning and defeated the Bulldogs, 12-7, Friday night in the College World Series.

Texas rallied from a 5-0 deficit to make a winner of left-hander Bruce Ruffin (13-2), who allowed 10 hits in seven innings. Michael Poehl struck out four in two innings of relief in the game between the only teams without a loss in the series.

The Longhorns (62-12) will play Arkansas (50-14) tonight in the double-elimination tournament after Mississippi State (50-14) faces Miami of Florida (60-16) in the afternoon.

Texas, runner-up last year and the national champion in 1983, is guaranteed a berth in the series final for the third straight year.

Home runs by Will Clark and Dan Van Cleve helped Mississippi State build an early lead before Texas began its comeback. The Longhorns scored two runs in the sixth inning on consecutive two-out doubles by Dennis Cook, David Denny and Doug Hood.

Another double, by Rusty Richardson, triggered Texas’ decisive rally against losing pitcher Gene Morgan (14-2). Wrzesinski then singled, and pinch-hitter Scott Vondemkamp and Coby Kerlin followed with RBI singles.

Bates’ bunt loaded the bases. Bulldog shortstop Frank Davis then mishandled Cook’s sharp grounder, which allowed two runs to score and gave Texas a 6-5 lead.

Denny and Hodo hit into RBI outs that drove in the final runs of the inning.