OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Jared Oliva homered for the first time in over two months and JC Cloney pitched seven strong innings, leading Arizona to a 3-0 victory over UC Santa Barbara in a College World Series elimination game Wednesday night.
The Wildcats (46-22) will play Oklahoma State on Friday in the Bracket 1 final. They need to win that game and another Saturday against the Cowboys to reach next week's best-of-three finals.
The Gauchos (43-20-1) went 1-2 in their first CWS appearance.
The undrafted Cloney (7-4) bounced back from a dismal outing against Louisiana-Lafayette in the regionals, where he lasted 3 2/3 innings and allowed seven runs in a 10-3 loss. Against UCSB, he gave up only five singles before turning the game over to Cameron Ming with a runner on base and no outs in the eighth.
The Gauchos threatened in the ninth after Clay Fisher doubled and Devon Gradford walked with no outs. Ming struck out Austin Bush, JJ Muno and Dempsey Grover to end the game.
Arizona has allowed only two runs in three CWS games.
Santa Barbara senior left-hander Justin Kelly (2-1) allowed seven hits in three-plus innings. Arizona scored its first run on a sacrifice fly, and Oliva followed with his fourth homer of the season, and first since April 4, to make it 3-0.
Trevor Bettencourt settled things down for the Gauchos after Kyle Lewis singled leading off the fourth against Kelly. Bettencourt retired 13 in a row — striking out a career-high seven— before Bobby Dalbec singled in the eighth.
Santa Barbara couldn't sustain much offense in Omaha, getting shut out twice and batting .202 in its three games.
