Arizona inches closer to CWS title with Game 1 win
— -- OMAHA, Neb.-- The College World Series is all about history. After nearly seven decades of ballgames, its official record book is thicker than an old family bible. And it too is filled with names and tales that, to the college baseball community, are considered the scripture of the sport. Even the most casual CWS observers know about the achievements of USC, Texas, LSU, Miami and Arizona State.
They might not realize that the other school from the Grand Canyon State, that state's namesake university, has also written a huge part of that history. The Arizona Wildcats have spent the last week and a half climbing the charts in every statistical category from CWS games won to all-time winning percentage. Now they are one win away from joining archrival Arizona State as a five-time College World Series champion.
"I preach all the time to kids to appreciate the history of this program," explained head coach Jay Johnson, in his first year at the wheel of that program. "Every win for us is a chance to write another page of that history."
On Monday night, in the opening game of the best-of-three finals against Coastal Carolina, Arizona dipped its pen in the quill and went to work. Their hands were guided by an historic pitching performance, a masterpiece that proved to be the lone tipping point in a contest packed with sharply played defense, very much a literal game of inches.
"[JC] Cloney was very good," Coastal Carolina coach Gary Gilmore admitted after the 3-0 loss, throwing his hands up as he talked about it. "He was moving the ball both sides of the plate, throwing cuts, breaking balls, you name it ... and locating. I don't think we hit a ball square the whole entire first six innings."
Cloney, a junior lefty, dinked and dunked and cut the corner of the plate all night, carving his way onto some rare lists when it comes to College World Series hurlers, one forced grounder at a time. He posted the first complete-game shutout since the Series went to a best-of-three championship format (titled the CWS Finals). He flirted with a one-hitter all the way into the eighth inning, sending CWS historians scrambling for comparisons. Even when a pair of late hits ran his total to four it still ranked second all-time in CWS Finals history. He allowed six Chanticleers to reach base, but only one ever made it off first.
It wasn't without drama. In the eighth inning, a long drive from Coastal Carolina shortstop Michael Paez was snagged off the top of the right center-field wall by outfielder Zach Gibbons, robbing a would-be two-run homer. That moment was indicative of the entire three-hour game, which started with a ground-rule double from Arizona leadoff hitter Cody Ramer, spurring a first inning 1-0 lead. From there, Cloney traded 1-2-3 punches with Coastal Carolina starter Zack Hopeck.
Recalled Gilmore: "For about four innings we were out there for a while on defense and the rhythm of the game and things like that, it started eluding us."
Truthfully, it only eluded them for about 10 minutes in the seventh inning. That was enough. When Hopeck allowed a single to start the inning and that runner was moved over via sacrifice, Gilmore replaced his starter with Cole Schaefer, a former member of the starting rotation, but who hadn't played since mid-April. The junior righty was visibly nervous, immediately throwing a wild pitch and walking Ramer. Just two pitches later, a sacrifice fly made the score 2-0. Then came a huge mental error from the middle infield as no one covered second on the sacrifice and then the throw from the outfield was inexplicably cut off while Ramer was inbound from first.
"I wasn't the most ideal thing," Ramer said to the media following the game, a sly smile showing from beneath his gratuitous eye-black. "But I saw a little opportunity when both infielders vacated the bag."
As he explained the play, his head coach nodded with the look of a pleased parent. Later, the first-time CWS coach said of the play, "That's the kind of game this was. All of that defense. All of that smart baseball being played. There were so many baseballs tonight that were one inch left or one inch right of being completely different plays. That's how close this was. So when a little crack shows itself, you have to run through it to daylight."
"Yeah, Cole [Schaefer] hadn't been out there in a while ... and I had a second baseman [Tyler Chadwick] who's not played there in four years and those two guys hadn't played together," Gilmore explained of his relief pitcher and the middle infield of Chadwick and Paez. Also a first-time CWS coach, Gilmore drew his lips in a little as he dissected the seventh inning. "It could have been potentially a lot different if [we] just had made one simple play right there."
But he added later, in the tunnel outside of the media room, "Yes, the seventh was rough. But we also jumped right back into that rhythm again. That fly ball goes six inches further ... you know, it was all just that close ... it's a game of inches, right?"
It is indeed. A game when "that close" wasn't close enough. As for those inches, that might be the difference between winning a national championship or not. Inches traveled by baseballs, inches bent out those baseballs by an all-time pitching performance, and perhaps one more column inch added to that College World Series record book.
"There's still work to do and we know that," Cloney added before heading to the Arizona team bus. "Tomorrow night I'll be able to sit back and watch them do it."
Related Stories
ABC News Live