COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

Beavers top 'Dogs, ready for Hogs

Oregon State pitcher Kevin Abel works against Mississippi State in the first inning of an NCAA College World Series baseball elimination game in Omaha, Neb., Saturday, June 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Oregon State pitcher Kevin Abel works against Mississippi State in the first inning of an NCAA College World Series baseball elimination game in Omaha, Neb., Saturday, June 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

OMAHA, Neb. -- Kevin Abel and Jake Mulholland combined on a four-hitter, Tyler Malone hit his third home run of the College World Series, and Oregon State survived some ninth-inning drama to beat Mississippi State 5-2 on Saturday night to reach the best-of-three finals against Arkansas.

As they did in 2006, when they won the first of two consecutive national titles, the Beavers came back from losing their CWS opener to win four consecutive and make the finals.

Abel allowed 3 singles, walked 3 and struck out 5 in 7 innings as Oregon State (53-11-1) held down Mississippi State's offense for the second consecutive day. Beavers pitchers gave up five hits in a 12-2 victory Friday that forced the Bracket 1 final rematch.

Mulholland pitched a perfect eighth and retired the first two batters in the ninth before running into some trouble. He walked two in a row, Luke Alexander singled in a run and Mulholland plunked pinch hitter Tanner Poole to load the bases for Jordan Westburg.

Westburg, who hit a grand slam against North Carolina two games ago, grounded out to end the game.

Mississippi State (39-29) mostly shut down an Oregon State offense that came into the game batting .377 and averaging 10.8 runs in 4 games at Omaha.

Five of the Beavers' eight hits in the game came in succession in a five-run third inning after Bulldogs starter Ethan Small (5-4) got two quick outs. Adley Rutschman and Michael Gretler had RBI singles before Malone's three-run home run barely cleared the fence in right center.

Malone, who hit five home runs in five consecutive games in mid-April, had no more until his three-home-runs-in-four-games binge at Omaha.

Oregon State held the Bulldogs scoreless for eight consecutive innings spanning two games until Rowdey Jordan's RBI single in the third accounted for the Bulldogs' lone run.

OSU Coach Pat Casey lamented Friday that the Beavers had yet to get a quality start through four CWS games. Bryce Fehmel's four-inning outing against Washington had been the longest.

Abel (6-1) gave them what could only be called a good start.

He retired the first six batters he faced, striking out three, and took a one-hitter into the fifth. A base-running blunder by Jake Mangum got Abel off the hook in the fifth, and an inning-ending double play got him out of trouble in the sixth when the Bulldogs had runners on second and third with one out.

In Abel's previous CWS appearance, he pitched four innings of one-hit, one-run relief against Washington. In his only start of the postseason, he allowed three hits in eight shutout innings against LSU in the regionals.

The Bulldogs played from behind in four of their eight victories in the NCAA Tournament and had made comebacks in 21 of their 39 victories this season.

Sports on 06/24/2018

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