COLLEGE WORLD SERIES : Oklahoma Advances to Final, 6-1

Larry Cochell says he isn’t great at making prognostications, but his Oklahoma Sooners are getting close to proving him wrong.

“I told our kids in Austin that we’d win the national championship, and I’m not much of a predictor,” said Cochell, the only coach to take three schools to the College World Series.

The Sooners advanced to the championship game with a 6-1 victory over Arizona State on Thursday, denying the Sun Devils a chance to win a third national title for ailing Coach Jim Brock.

Mark Redman pitched a seven-hitter for the Sooners (49-17), who will play Georgia Tech (50-16) for the title Saturday. The final will be only the second pitting teams that went unbeaten during the double-elimination series.

Cochell, who also coached Oral Roberts and Cal State Fullerton in the series, has never finished better than third. Then again, he never had Redman.

“Redman pitched as good a ballgame as anyone we’ve seen all year against us,” said Sun Devil assistant coach Bill Kinneberg, who filled for Brock. “He kept us off-balance pretty well.”

Arizona State (45-18) goes home after its second loss to Oklahoma. The Sooners beat the Sun Devils, 4-3, in 11 innings on Monday. Brock, who has liver cancer, left that game early and returned to Arizona.

Redman (14-3), who struck out 11 in the Sooners’ series-opening victory against Auburn, struck out seven Sun Devils.

The only run Arizona State managed against the sophomore left-hander came when Billy McGonigle led off the fifth inning with a line-drive homer to left.

Louisiana State and Wichita State are the only other teams to advance to the championship game with perfect records. They did it in 1991. LSU won, 6-3.

Oklahoma and Georgia Tech met during a February tournament at Fullerton, where Redman beat Georgia Tech ace Brad Rigby, 8-6.