June 24, 2004
By ERIC OLSON
Associated Press Writer
OMAHA, Neb. – Scott Sarver and Jason Windsor combined on an eight-hitter, and Cal State Fullerton advanced to the College World Series championship round with a 4-0 victory Thursday night over South Carolina.
The Titans (45-22) will face top-seeded Texas (58-13) in the best-of-three championship series beginning Saturday.
Sarver (3-2) pitched six innings in just his second start of the season, allowing five hits, walking two and striking out seven.
Windsor, who earned his first career save, limited the Gamecocks to three hits and struck out the side in the ninth to send the Titans to their first finals since the 1995 team won the championship.
Windsor had pitched a three-hitter last Saturday in beating the Gamecocks 2-0 in the first round. In 12 CWS innings, all against South Carolina, Windsor held the Gamecocks to six hits and struck out 19.
Fullerton became the first team since Pepperdine in 1992 to record two shutouts in the same Series and the first team since California in 1957 to shut out the same opponent twice.
The Gamecocks, who had scored 35 runs in their last three CWS games, became the first team to be shut out twice in the same CWS since Fullerton in 1982.
South Carolina forced Thursday’s elimination game by beating the Titans 5-3 Wednesday.
The Titans led 3-0 in the fourth against Matt Campbell (10-6) on Felipe Garcia’s double and singles by Bobby Andrews and Neil Walton.
They added a run when Ronnie Prettyman hit Campbell’s first pitch of the seventh over the right-field wall for his third homer of the year.
The Gamecocks’ first two batters reached base in the seventh and eighth innings, but they couldn’t break through against Windsor. In the eighth, Michael Campbell lined a two-out single into the outfield but Andrews, the Fullerton right fielder, threw out Steve Pearce at the plate to preserve the shutout.
The finals will pit Texas coach Augie Garrido against his old team and former top assistant, George Horton.
Garrido won 931 games and three national championships in two stints totaling 21 seasons at Fullerton.
Since taking over at Fullerton after Garrido left eight years ago, Horton has guided the Titans to four College World Series.
Horton’s team was on the brink of reaching last year’s championship round after a 2-0 start in the CWS, but the Titans were eliminated after two losses to Stanford.
