Arizona shuts down Pac-12 foe

OMAHA, Neb. — Konner Wade pitched a five-hit shutout, Arizona did its scoring on five consecutive fourth-inning hits, and the Wildcats beat Pacific-12 rival UCLA 4-0 in the College World Series on Sunday night.

The victory puts the Wildcats (45-17) in control of Bracket 1 and gives them three days off. They are one victory away from the best-of-three finals, in which they would play for their fourth national championship and first since 1986.

UCLA (48-15), which lost for the first time in 11 games, will play Florida State in an elimination game on Tuesday.

Wade (10-3) outdueled Nick Vander Tuig (10-4), throwing his first career shutout and fifth complete game of the season. It was Arizona’s sixth shutout in 62 College World Series games and its first since Craig Lefferts blanked Michigan in 1980.

Seth Mejias-Brean’s basesloaded single drove in the Wildcats’ first two runs, and Bobby Brown followed with a two-run double.

UCLA had handed Wade his first loss of the season when it knocked him out after three innings of a 15-3 victory in Tucson, Ariz., on April 14.

Wade, who threw a complete game in Arizona’s super regional-clinching victory over St. John’s in his previous start, allowed only five singles and ran into trouble just once.

UCLA did not have a hit in the first four innings before breaking through after two outs in the fifth. Pat Valaika, Cody Regis and Kevin Kramer hit consecutive singles to load the bases, but Kevin Williams flied out to end the inning.

Wade walked 1 and struck out 4 in a 109-pitch outing in which he threw 79 strikes.

Wade’s performance overshadowed Vander Tuig, who allowed 6 hits, walked 1 and struck out 8 in 6 1/3 innings.

The four runs in the fourth were the most Vander Tuig had surrendered in an inning this season.

Johnny Field singled with one out for Arizona’s first hit. Alex Mejia and Robert Refsnyder had base hits before Mejias-Brean drove in the first two runs with a hit into rightcenter. Brown brought in two more runs with a double.

Arizona and UCLA, which shared the Pac-12 championship, faced each other for the first time in the CWS.

FLORIDA STATE 12, STONY BROOK 2

OMAHA, Neb. — Florida State capitalized on a throwing error to score six runs in the third inning, and the Seminoles ended Stony Brook’s surprise appearance in the College World Series.

Justin Gonzalez and Devon Travis homered to help the Seminoles build an early 9-0 lead against the College World Series first-timers from Long Island.

Florida State (49-16) rebounded from a 4-3, 12-inning loss to Arizona on Friday and scored at least 12 runs for the third time in four games.

Stony Brook (52-15) stunned the college baseball world by upsetting six-time national champion LSU in a three-game super regional to reach the College World Series. But the Seawolves were beaten 9-1 by UCLA on Friday and outscored 21-3 in their two games in Omaha.

Florida State starter Mike Compton (12-2) allowed 2 runs and 6 hits in 6 innings.