College Baseball World Series : Arizona St. Ties Game in 9th, Wins in 10th, 4-3

Twice, Arizona State was one strike away from being eliminated in the College World Series Wednesday night, but the Sun Devils hung on and came back for a 4-3 victory over Wichita State in 10 innings.

Arizona State, the top-seeded team in the tournament, trailed, 3-1, after eight innings, then scored two runs with two out in the ninth.

In the 10th, Martin Peralta lined a one-out single to right field, driving in Kevin Higgins for the victory, before a crowd of 16,047 at Rosenblatt Stadium.

Higgins had been walked by reliever Jim Newlin and went to second base when Steve Willis walked on four pitches.

By winning, Arizona State (59-12) forced a rematch with Wichita State Friday, with the winner advancing to the national championship game Saturday.

“I certainly can’t remember a better comeback than this one, particularly in a game of this importance,” Arizona State Coach Jim Brock said.

Wichita State (56-15) had won both of its previous tournament games.

“We just let one too many 0-2 pitches get away,” Wichita State Coach Gene Stephenson said. “We should have won the ballgame, but we didn’t, and it’s not the end of the world. I’ll tell you one thing, Arizona State isn’t going to have an easy time of it Friday.”

With two out in the ninth, Arizona State’s Ricky Candelari singled on an 0-2 pitch, driving in Dan Rumsey, who had doubled and taken third on a ground-out. Then with runners on first and second, Pat Listach hit an 0-2 pitch into left field, scoring Candelari to tie the game.

“While (Wichita State) probably lost a little momentum, they didn’t lose much,” Brock said.

Arizona State got outstanding relief performances from both Brian Dodd and Gordy Farmer after another poor outing by starter Linty Ingram.

Ingram, who entered the tournament with a 17-4 record, the most wins of any pitcher in the country, lasted less than three innings Sunday and was the loser as the Shockers shocked the Sun Devils, 7-4.

Wednesday night, he failed to retire any of the four batters he faced and was charged with three runs on three hits.

“He’s probably just tired,” Brock said. Ingram has pitched 174 innings in 27 games.

But Dodd came in and pitched 7 innings of two-hit ball, holding Wichita State scoreless. Farmer (7-0) came on in the eighth and allowed 1 hit in 2 innings, earning the victory.

Wichita State got a brilliant performance from right-hander David Haas, who allowed just one run through eight innings but faltered in the ninth.

With the score 3-2 and two out in the ninth, Stephenson considered taking Haas out.

But Listach, the next batter up, was 0 for 4 against Haas in the game, and Haas stayed in.

“David had owned Listach all night,” Stephenson said. “I felt totally confident they’d get him out one more time. I still thought we’d win.”

But Haas served up a pitch that both he and Listach called “terrible,” and Listach singled, driving in the tying run.