COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Whitworth, DeChavez Pace Anteaters Past No.1 Trojans

So maybe it wasn’t the College World Series.

But that didn’t stop UC Irvine’s players from rushing to congratulate winning pitcher Ken Whitworth after the last out of the Anteaters’ 3-2 victory over USC in a nonconference baseball game Wednesday at USC.

Whitworth finished off a complete game by striking out pinch-hitter Danny Gil. Whitworth allowed five hits and walked two, raising his record to 4-1.

Irvine improved to 10-6, its best start since going 13-3 in 1981.

“It put us on the map,” Whitworth said of defeating USC, which is 12-4 and the top-ranked team in the Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball polls. “We’ve won eight in a row. I don’t want to say that some of them were weak sisters, but this one was nice.”

Whitworth got help from the usual source: Osmar DeChavez.

First baseman DeChavez led off the fifth inning with a single to right, then moved to second when Craig Plumley singled off the outstretched glove of shortstop Billy Morris. Don Roberson’s sacrifice bunt moved the runners up to second and third with one out.

Bill Bardens grounded to Morris, who threw to catcher Sam Vranjes in plenty of time to tag an onrushing DeChavez. DeChavez barrelled into Vranjes and the ball fell out of his glove, giving Irvine a 1-0 lead.

Plumley, who took third on the play at the plate, scored on Mike Goodcase’s sacrifice fly to left for a 2-0 lead.

Vranjes atoned for his error when he tripled and scored on John Jackson’s ground out in the sixth inning, to make the score 2-1.

DeChavez struck again with a two-out, two-strike single to score Al Rodriguez in the eighth inning.

At the time it seemed like a cushion, 3-1, but in the bottom of the inning Vranjes, who was one for three for the season , hit a 405-foot solo home run to center to make the score, 3-2.