Arizona gets leg up on South Carolina in CWS finals opener

OMAHA – With all the runs Arizona has scored in the NCAA tournament, it's sometimes easy to forget the Wildcats can pitch a little as well.Konner Wade (11-3) threw a complete-game six-hitter Sunday night and Robert Refsnyder homered, helping to give the Wildcats a 5-1 victory against two-time defending champion South Carolina in the first game of the championship series in the College World Series. Game 2 in the best-of-three series is today (8, ET, ESPN2), and the Wildcats can win their first national title Buy Cheap Jerseys since 1986 with a victory. Game 3 if necessary would be Tuesday. The Wildcats (47-17), who entered the contest averaging nearly 10 runs a game in the NCAA tournament, have won 10 games in a row. Refsnyder continued his torrid tournament hitting when he drove a 2-2 pitch from Gamecocks starter Forrest Koumas into the South Carolina bullpen in right field to give the Wildcats a 2-0 first-inning lead. The homer scored Johnny Field, who had singled. With USC's rotation taxed because the Gamecocks (49-19) had to play two elimination games Thursday and one Friday to reach the title series, coach Ray Tanner called on right-hander Koumas (2-3) to start Game 1. Koumas had made 17 appearances this season but only three starts. In 25⅔ innings, he had allowed 27 hits with 28 strikeouts and 16 walks. Koumas started the first game of the championship series last year against Florida, going 5⅔ innings and giving up only one run on three hits. But he missed more than a month this season with a stress fracture in his elbow and had not pitched in the NCAA tournament. He pitched 1⅓ innings May 25 in the Southeastern Conference tournament against Florida, allowing one hit and one walk. He ran into trouble again in the third, starting when shortstop Joey Pankake committed an error on a leadoff NBA Jerseys Sale grounder by Arizona's Trent Gilbert. Joey Rickard and Alex Mejia then singled to account for one run. Refsnyder was intentionally walked, loading the bases. Koumas was then pulled in favor of right-hander Evan Beal. He induced a double-play grounder from Seth Mejias-Brean, limiting the damage. The Wildcats got another unearned run to make it 4-0 in the fifth. Johnny Field drew a one-out walk, took second on a wild pitch and continued to third on an errant throw by catcher Grayson Greiner. He scored on a single by Mejias-Brean. South Carolina broke through against Wade in the sixth on a leadoff double by Greiner and a two-out RBI-single by Evan Marzilli. But Arizona made it 5-1 in the seventh when Refsnyder reached on an infield single and later scored on a single by Bobby Brown.