June 17, 2012

CWS Game 6 Notes

Wade pitches Arizona past UCLA

By Phil Stanton

CollegeBaseballInsider.com Co-Founder

@roadtoomaha

OMAHA, Neb. – Wade finished what he started.

Sophomore right-hander Konner Wade tossed a five-hit shutout as Arizona defeated No. 2 UCLA 4-0 Sunday in the 2012 College World Series in front of 19,198 fans at TD Ameritrade Park.

The Bruins (48-15) will face No. 3 Florida State on Tuesday at 7 p.m. CT in an elimination contest. The winner will have to beat the Wildcats (45-17) on both Thursday and Friday to reach the championship series.

Wade (10-3) gave up five singles, did not walk a batter and fanned four, facing just four over the minimum. He did not allow leadoff hitter to reach in any inning. Wade retired the first 14 Bruins before consecutive singles by Pat Valaika, Cody Regis and Kevin Kramer loaded the bases in the fifth. Wade got Kevin Williams to fly out to left to end the threat. He surrendered a two-out single to Cody Keefer in the sixth and a one-out base hit by pinch-hitter Chris Keck in the eighth. Wade got 15 outs by ground balls in registering his fifth complete game.

“I felt good the past three weeks or so,” Wade said. “I felt comfortable with the movement I've had. I feel like I'm starting to get more of a bearing how much it is moving. And I just tried to work out of harm's way, let it work back over the plate.”
 

It was Wade’s second start of the season against UCLA. On April 14 in Tucson, Wade lasted only three innings with 10 hits, six runs (five earned), one walk and one strikeout as the Bruins posted a 15-3 win.

“It's an understatement for me to say he was outstanding,” Arizona head coach Andy Lopez said. “I thought it was a great match-up. We were fortunate enough to get one inning where we got some offense, and when you have two good clubs getting together like that, that was the difference.”
 

Arizona scored all its runs in the fourth. After the first 10 Wildcats were retired by sophomore right-hander Nick Vander Tuig, the next five all had hits. Field, Mejia and Refsnyder had one-out singles in the bottom of the fourth to load the bases. Mejias-Brean delivered a two-run single and Bobby Brown knocked in a pair with a double as Arizona took a 4-0 lead.

Vander Tuig (10-4) lasted 6.1 innings with six hits, four runs, one walk and eight strikeouts. He fanned the leadoff hitter in each of the first six innings.

“I thought Nick threw the ball extremely well,” said UCLA head coach John Savage. “You’ve got to give Wade and you’ve got to give our guy a ton of credit, because they really both came out and performed at a very high level. But their guy was the best guy, and he was better than us tonight.
 

“So we'll move on. It's all about taking blows at the College World Series. It's not a dagger, it's a blow. And we'll move on and we'll be ready to play on Tuesday night.”