Titans Come Back From the Brink With 7-5 Win

OMAHA —  Cory Vanderhook lingered a few extra minutes on the team bus Saturday morning after Cal State Fullerton coaches told the Titans that nobody should leave until they put the previous night’s crushing College World Series loss to North Carolina behind them.

Vanderhook had played a prominent part in the defeat, having been picked off third base in the 11th inning while representing the potential winning run. So the backup catcher dawdled in an effort to “flush it and let it go.”

Consider it gone with the win.

With Fullerton trailing by a run and needing a big hit with two out and the bases loaded in the ninth inning of an elimination game against Georgia Tech on Sunday afternoon, Vanderhook delivered a little one that worked just fine.

His pinch-hit infield chopper over the mound that took a wicked bounce away from diving shortstop Michael Fisher drove in the tying and go-ahead runs in an eventual 7-5 victory at Rosenblatt Stadium.

“Nothing that I’ve ever experienced was crazier than that -- or maybe as fortunate at that,” said Titans Coach George Horton, whose team advanced to play Clemson on Tuesday in another elimination game. “It was as crazy as it gets.”

Especially considering the circumstances. Georgia Tech closer Matt Wieters, whose controversial seventh-inning homer that a fan touched had given the Yellow Jackets a 5-4 lead, retired the first two batters in the ninth, prompting Horton to mull his postgame address.

“I thought that might be it,” Fullerton pitcher Dustin Miller later acknowledged, “and then I said, ‘You know what, nobody count the Titans out. We’ve still got one more out to go.’ ”

Blake Davis started the rally with a single to left field before Wieters put Fullerton (49-14) one pitch away from elimination when he reached a 1-and-2 count on Brett Pill.

But the first baseman hammered a slider down and away into the gap in right-center field, putting runners at second and third after third base coach Rick Vanderhook decided to hold Davis, triggering a heated reaction from the baserunner.

“I was a little disappointed when I saw the stop sign, because you have to get a hit after that,” Horton said, “but ultimately I think that the [relay] guy catches the ball and probably throws him out.”

The Yellow Jackets (50-18) elected to intentionally walk Danny Dorn to load the bases for Cory Vanderhook, the third base coach’s nephew. Cory said his uncle advised him to make sure to “swing hard and hit it hard,” and he went after the first pitch, tapping it over Wieters’ head and away from the shortstop after it took the unusual bounce.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Georgia Tech Coach Danny Hall said. “The guy chops it over the mound and it takes a right turn after it bounces over the mound.”

Said Horton: “That’s the best 90-foot hit I’ve ever seen.”

Though the ball never left the infield, a hustling Pill scored from second base on the play, triggering a mob scene near home plate as jubilant Titans poured out of the dugout. Brandon Tripp then flared a run-scoring single in front of left fielder Jeff Kindel to complete Fullerton’s comeback.

Georgia Tech, which had led 4-0 in the third inning, lost for the second time in the series after leading by four runs. An eight-run, eighth-inning Clemson outburst had buried the Yellow Jackets on Friday. Two days later, an infield single made the difference.

“I guess I got lucky,” Cory Vanderhook said. “As soon as I hit, I just started to run and [figured] maybe I had a chance to beat it out. Somehow, it found its way through the infield.”

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Robert Woodard threw a three-hitter to help North Carolina beat top-seeded Clemson, 2-0, on Sunday night.

Clemson (53-15), which had come from behind to win its previous four games, was shut out for the first time since a 10-0 loss to East Carolina in February 2005. That’s a span of 131 games.

Reid Fronk and Josh Horton had consecutive doubles in the third inning to provide the only offense that the Tar Heels would need.

North Carolina (52-13) won its first two games at the College World Series for the first time in five visits to Omaha and now is in command of Bracket 1.

The Tar Heels play Wednesday against the winner of the Tuesday elimination game between Clemson and Cal State Fullerton. One win sends North Carolina to the best-of-three championship series beginning Saturday.

From the Associated Press