Madden Lifts Tulane to Victory

The lone holdover from Tulane’s last College World Series trip four years ago, Scott Madden knew what to expect Saturday when he was summoned to pinch-hit.

The noise and the atmosphere at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha were part of his previous experience as a starting catcher for the Green Wave in 2001.

“Coming up in the situation that I did today, it kind took the edge off the emotion having played here already,” Madden said after his two-out, two-run double helped the top-seeded Green Wave beat Oregon State, 3-1, in the first round.

“You can get away from the spectacle of the thing and just get down to playing baseball,” Madden said. “In that sense, it has helped.”

Tulane is attempting to become the first No. 1 national seeded team to win the College World Series since Miami in 1999, when the NCAA expanded the tournament field to 64 teams.

Shut out for six innings by Jonah Nickerson and trailing, 1-0, Tulane broke through in the seventh for its 56th victory and spoiled Oregon State’s first trip to the College World Series since 1952.

Texas 5, Baylor 1 -- Texas ended a four-game losing streak to Big 12 rival Baylor, getting seven strong innings from pitcher Adrian Alaniz and a two-run homer from Seth Johnston.

The Longhorns, 0-4 against Baylor this season, avoided becoming the first Texas team to lose five times to an opponent in the same year.

Texas advances to a Monday night game against Tulane. Baylor plays Oregon State in an elimination game Monday afternoon.

The Longhorns, in the College World Series for a record 32nd time, combined strong pitching and timely hitting to defeat a Baylor team that is in Omaha for only the third time overall and first time since 1978.

Alaniz gave up only seven singles, retiring 10 of the last 11 batters he faced before turning the game over to J. Brent Cox in the eighth.

Alaniz struck out three, gave up one run and walked two.

Cox gave up only a double to Zach Dillon in two scoreless innings.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Schedule

The second round of games at the College World Series (all times PDT):

TODAY

* Tennessee (46-20) vs. Arizona State (39-24), 11 a.m., ESPN (loser eliminated)

* Florida (46-20) vs. Nebraska (57-13),

4 p.m., ESPN2

MONDAY

* Oregon State (46-11) vs. Baylor (44-23), 11 a.m., ESPN (loser eliminated)

* Tulane (56-10) vs. Texas (52-16),

4 p.m., ESPN