OMAHA, Neb.--The University of Arizona baseball team (47-17), is within one game of its third NCAA title with a 5-1 victory Sunday night over South Carolina. The victory was game one of the best-of-three College World Series Championship Series.
Robert Refsnyder hit a two-run home run in the first, and was joined with two hits or more by a trio of Cats. Freshman catcher Riley Moore had three. The Cats knocked out 12 hits.
UA will face South Carolina again in TD Ameritrade Park at 7 p.m. Monday (CDT), with Arizona needing one victory to secure a national championship. The team won titles in 1976, 1980 and 1986.
If a third game is needed, the two teams will play again at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
ARIZONA CWS NOTES...
--Arizona's 47 victories this year tie the 1985 Jerry Kindall CWS squad (47-22) for No. 4 on Arizona's single-season victories chart.
--The Cats' four victories in Omaha make it the No. 7 school all-time in CWS victories with 37.
--All five of Arizona's runs against South Carolina came with two outs -- an obvious situational hitting scenario coached daily by UA's staff toward the close of batting practice.
-Arizona's five runs were the most the Gamecocks had given up in the postseason, spanning 11 games.
--Konner Wade threw a complete-game shutout against UCLA and five and two-thirds innings against USC before allowing a run in Omaha (sixth inning, two outs). The next play, a walk, snapped his walk-free string of innings in NCAA play at 31 frames.
--Johnny Field's first-inning single extended his hitting streak to 15 games, and he reached base for the 28th consecutive contest.
--Arizona collected double-digit hits for the eighth time in nine postseason games.
--The Wildcats' 12 hits gave it the national Division I lead for 2012, passing Stony Brook (743) by accumulating 749.
--South Carolina had won nine of its last 10 games entering the championship series, while UA had done the same but had won nine straight -- now 10.
--Leadoff batter Joey Rickard recorded his seventh multiple-hit game in nine NCAA contests this year.
--Arizona scored first in each of its four CWS games this year. UA has a 13-3 edge in first-inning run scoring in its nine games in NCAA action. In Omaha, UA has an 8-0 first-inning edge in four games.
--The Cats' two-run first inning gave it multiple-run innings 20 times in the postseason this year.
--Robert Refsnyder has reached base safely in 38 consecutive games. His home run in the first made him the 2012 CWS homer leader with a modest two, with eight others hitting one.
--Arizona has had an extra-base hit in 63 of its 64 games in 2012. The lone contest without one was a March 16 game against Washington State in Tucson, a 6-0 loss.
--Riley Moore has been on base all CWS games, thanks to seven hits in Omaha. He also collected his second three-hit game of the Series and third of the postseason.
--The Cats drew five bases on balls, giving them 16 free bases in the CWS.
--Arizona is 16-3 when it hit a home run this season.
(Editor's Note: Information taken from the UA Athletics website http://www.arizonawildcats.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/062412aab.html)
