College World Series : Wichita State Advances to Title Game Against Texas

Justice was served Friday night in the College World Series.

At least, that is the opinion of Wichita State Coach Gene Stephenson, whose team beat top-seeded Florida State, 12-9, before a crowd of 15,667 at Rosenblatt Stadium.

The victory advanced Wichita State (67-16) into today’s title game against Texas (54-17) and helped ease the memory of last season’s 4-3, 10-inning World Series loss to Arizona State that started the Shockers on the road to elimination.

“We were one strike away from playing in the final last year,” said Stephenson, who heads what is the winningest program in the country over the last ten years. “If there’s any justice in the world, it happened tonight.”

Florida State, of course, would disagree.

The Seminoles (54-18), making their 10th World Series appearance, once again fell short of winning the school’s first national championship in any men’s sport.

Wichita State was trailing, 4-1, in the fourth inning when designated hitter Mike Wentworth hit a three-run home run off starter Clyde Keller (13-1), who abosrbed his first loss since May 29, 1988.

Wentworth’s blast over the right-field fence ignited the Shockers, who went ahead, 6-4, in the sixth on consecutive run-scoring doubles by Todd Dreifort and Mike Jones. The hits came off left-handed reliever Tim Nedin, a former standout at Newhall Hart High School and College of the Canyons.

The Shockers added five runs in the seventh and one in the eighth to support the efforts of senior right-hander Pat Cedeno (13-4).

College World Series Notes

Junior right-hander Scott Bryant (1-0) will start for Texas against Wichita State senior right-hander Greg Brummett (17-2) today. . . .Wichita State, which is playing in its third College World Series, will be making its second appearance in the championship game. The Shockers lost to Miami, 9-3, in 1982. . . .Texas, which is 3-0 in the tournament, will attempt to become the first team since the Longhorns’ 1983 team to sweep through a World Series.