COLLEGE BASEBALL / NCAA WEST I REGIONAL : Creighton to Hawaii Play for Title; Trojans Out

Creighton University is located in Omaha, Neb., site of the College World Series for the past 42 years.

As the host school for the event, the Creighton baseball program has politely welcomed and provided hospitality to teams from all over the country, then retreated into the background.

On Sunday, Creighton took a giant step toward returning home to participate in the World Series for the first time by defeating USC, 8-7, in 10 innings before a crowd of 1,935 in the NCAA West I regional at Dedeaux Field.

The Bluejays, in their third NCAA appearance, are unbeaten in the regional and one voctory away from a World Series berth.

Saturday night, USC met the winner of the Hawaii-Minnesota eliminaion game. The survivor must beat Creighton twice today’s to reach Omaha.

“I’ve had to watch every pitch (of the World Series),” said Creighton Coach Jim Hendry, who is in his seventh season with the Bluejays. “If we’re there this year, the atmosphere, attendance and local support will be something never seen there before. We’re confident. Our kids are playing tremendous ball.”

The score was tied, 7-7, when Scott Stahoviak started the Bluejays’ game-winning rally with his fourth hit of the day, a triple off reliever Eric Hughes.

Jeff Cirillo replaced Hughes and struck out Steve Hinton.

Chad McConnell, who brought Creighton back from a 6-3 deficit with a three-run homer in the eighth, hit a ground ball that shortstop Lionel Hastings bobbled and was forced to throw to first as Stahoviak scored.

Cirillo singled to start the home 10th. But Darin Harris (5-3) got Smith to ground into a double play, then got Brett Jenkins on a fly to center, ending the game of squandered opportunities for USC. Smith also hit into his first double play of the season with the bases loaded in the eighth.

The Trojans stranded 13 runners and got only one run each out of bases-loaded situations in the second, third and eighth innings.

USC led, 3-0, on single runs in the first three innings.

Creighton scored two runs in the fifth, but USC answered with three runs in the same inning--two on a home run by Murph Proctor--to take a 6-2 lead.

USC’s Mike Collett appeared to be cruising to a victory when he struck out Dax (cq)Jones for the second out of the eighth. But singles by Rick Freehling, Stahoviak and Hinton made it 6-3 and McConnell tied the score with his three-run shot to center field on a 1-and-2 curve from Collett.

Creighton took a 7-6 lead in the ninth inning when Ryan Martindale singled, took second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Jones’ fly to center.

Mike Robertson walked walked to start the USc ninth, pinch-runner Darin Tsukashima took third on Casey Burrill’s double to right and scored to make it 7-7 on Billy Morris’ grounder to second.