Oral Roberts Advances to Regional Championship Game With 6-0 Win Over Coll. of Charleston

June 5, 2005

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) – Dennis Bigley drove in three runs and Oral Roberts starter Nick Jones handed College of Charleston its second straight NCAA shutout as the Golden Eagles advanced to the regional championship with a 6-0 victory Sunday.

Oral Roberts (42-19) faces Clemson later Sunday. Should the Golden Eagles win, they’d play the Tigers again Monday night to see who moves on to an NCAA super regional series. The Cougars were eliminated.

Charleston, which came into the regional batting .364, continued its NCAA struggles at the plate. The Cougars (48-15) had only four hits against Jones (8-2) and 11 in their three tournament games.

Clemson’s Josh Cribb shut down Charleston on two hits in a 6-0 win Saturday night, the first time the Cougars were held scoreless in more than two seasons.

And Jones’ performance piled on Charleston’s woe. The Cougars had not had back-to-back shutouts in more than 10 years since falling to Charleston Southern (2-0) and Florida Atlantic (6-0) on April 26 and April 28, 1995 – a span of 574 games.

Oral Roberts had made seven straight NCAA tournaments before this one without moving on. Facing Clemson at home, it will be difficult for the Golden Eagles to keep that from growing to eight.

Bigley and Jones made sure Oral Roberts would at least get the chance to try.

Bigley, who’ll likely pitch Monday if the Golden Eagles remain alive, had a sacrifice fly to right in a three-run third inning. He sealed the game in the seventh with a two-run double to the base of the fence in left center to bring in Brian Aguailar and Michael Hollimon.

Jones, who notched his third complete game, was as masterful as Clemson’s Cribb was against the Cougars. He struck out seven and needed only 114 pitches for his third complete game of the season.

It was more than enough to shut down the Cougars.

Charleston’s Brett Gardner entered the regional leading the nation with 121 hits and had a 25-game hitting streak that Cribb ended Saturday night. Gardner finished the NCAAs 2 of 10 and did not score a run.

D.J. Wabick, who had has 108 hits this year, ended the regional 2 of 11. Chris Campbell had 100 hits during the season, but went 2 of 11 in three NCAA games.

Even when Charleston got on base, things didn’t work out for them. Gardner’s lone hit Sunday came with two outs in the third. But Jones caught Gardner leaning at first to end the inning.

Wes Braden (4-1), a spot starter for Charleston who pitches with a false right eye from a childhood accident, went only 2 1-3 innings and took his first loss of the season.