NCAA BASEBALL TOURNAMENT : Titans Upset Texas to Advance to Regional Final

Beating Texas at Austin isn’t an easy assignment, especially when an All-American is pitching for Longhorns, but the Titans did, 5-2, to move into today’s championship round of the Central Regional.

Sam Colarusso (7-3) pitched a seven-hitter through seven innings, Chris Robinson blanked the Longhorns on two hits over the last two innings and Matt Hattabaugh and Paul Bunch homered to help the Titans (35-21) stay unbeaten in the tournament Sunday.

Right-hander Kirk Dressendorfer (12-4), a two-time All-American, gave up six hits and four runs in 5 1/3 innings, although only two of the runs were earned.

The Titans took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, helped by two Texas errors.

Mate Borgogno singled and took second on a wild pitch. With two out, Dressendorfer’s errant throw to first on a grounder by Frank Charles allowed Borgogno to score. Right fielder Johnny Walker retrieved the ball and overthrew third base, trying to get Charles, who also scored.

“I don’t know if those early runs took the air out of them,” said Fullerton Coach Larry Cochell. “The key was Colarusso giving us a good seven innings.”

Texas (50-16) stranded 10 baserunners, including nine in the first six innings.

Lousiana State 5, USC 4--Wes Grisham, who had only two hits in his previous 17 at-bats, homered to key a four-run seventh inning as the Tigers handed the Trojans their first loss in the South I Regional at Baton Rouge, La.

LSU (51-17), which lost to USC (40-21) Saturday, needed to defeat the Trojans twice coming to win the double-elimination tournament and advance to the College World Series. The teams were to play again Sunday night.

The Tigers opened the scoring in the third inning when Ron Lim tripled and scored on Keith Osik’s sacrifice fly. USC’s Bret Boone then tied the game in the fifth with a solo homer to right, his 11th of the year and fifth of the tournament.

The Tigers took the lead when Grisham drove Randy Powers’ pitch over the left-field fence. The Trojans scored twice in the bottom of the inning, one run coming on Jeff Cirillo’s homer.

LSU starter Chad Ogea (14-1) won his 14th straight game, going 7 1/3 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits.

Oklahoma State 17, Arizona State 9--Jeromy Burnitz drove in five runs to lead the Cowboys past the Sun Devils in the third round of the West II Regional at Tempe, Ariz.

Oklahoma State (52-16), the only undefeated team left in the regional, will play in today’s championship game.

Arizona State (51-15) was scheduled to meet the winner of Sunday’s second game between Washington State (47-18) and Pennsylvania (23-16) Sunday night with the winner meeting Oklahoma State.

Brad Beanblossom went 5 for 6 and scored three runs and Burnitz went 3 for 6 and scored twice to lead the Cowboys’ 19-hit attack.

The Cowboys took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the first inning, then in the second inning they got seven hits and scored seven runs to build the lead to 10-1.

Sun Devil ace Sean Rees (13-3) gave up five runs in one-plus innings, while Rusty Silcox gave up the other five runs in the second without retiring a batter.

Jim Austin hit a solo homer, his 17th of the season, in the top of the eighth for Arizona State. The Sun Devils’ Jim Henderson hit a grand slam, his third homer of the year, in the ninth for the final margin.

Stanford vs. San Diego State--The Cardinal and the Aztecs will try again today to decide the West I Regional title at Stanford because their game was rained out Sunday.

Stanford (55-10) and San Diego State (49-21) will meet at noon. If the Aztecs win, a second game will be played at 4 p.m.

Stanford is the only remaining undefeated team in the tournament. The Cardinal, bidding for its third national championship in four years, needs to win only one game to win regional title and earn another trip to the College World Series.

Creighton 4, Clemson 3--Steve Hinton’s sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth inning scored Bobby Langer with the winning run as the Blue Jays eliminated the Tigers from the Central Regional.

Creighton (48-21) and Texas (50-16) played Sunday night for the right to face unbeaten Cal State Fullerton in today’s championship round.

Clemson (43-23) also lost to Creighton, 9-6, earlier in the tournament.