June 22, 2005
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OMAHA, Neb. -- Arizona State junior left-hander Erik Averill threw a complete-game, five hitter and the Sun Devils kept up their remarkable run in the College World Series, beating Florida 6-1 Wednesday at Rosenblatt Stadium to move within a win of the championship round.
Averill, working on two days' rest, threw a five-hitter in 92-degree heat and retired the last eight batters he faced in his fifth complete game of the season. He struck out seven and did not walk a batter to improve to 11-4 on the season.
The Sun Devils (42-24), who came into the CWS with the fewest wins of any team in the field, have won three straight after losing in the first round and are 5-0 in NCAA tournament elimination games.
They have to beat the seventh-seeded Gators (47-21) again Thursday to advance to the best-of-three championship series that starts Saturday against Texas or Baylor.
The game was played less than 24 hours after Arizona State's dramatic 11-inning win over Nebraska, highlighted by Jeff Larish's CWS record-tying three home runs. Larish went 1-for-3 with a double and a run score and also recorded his 200th career walk.
Unlike that game, the Sun Devils led from start to finish against the Gators.
Junior right fielder Travis Buck, the Oakland Athletics' first-round supplemental draft pick, homered deep into the right-field seats off Bryan Ball in the first inning for his sixth home run of the season.
Ball (7-5), who hadn't pitched since June 4 in the regional opener against Stetson, went six innings, allowing four hits and four runs. He walked three and struck out one.
Arizona State added to its lead on Seth Dhaenens' RBI groundout in the fourth.
Jared Kubin's run-scoring groundout pulled Florida to 2-1 in the fifth, but the Sun Devils got that run back the next inning on an RBI single by Sophomore left fielder Colin Curtis.
Freshman center fielder J.J. Sferra made it 5-1 in the seventh with a two-run single off reliever Mike Pete that closely resembled the blooper to center that won Tuesday's game against Nebraska.
The top five batters in Florida's lineup, including NCAA home run leader Matt LaPorta, went a combined 1-for-20 against Averill, who had thrown 76 pitches in 5 2-3 innings against Tennessee on Sunday.
Sun Devil freshman shortstop Andrew Romine played with eight stitches in his right cheek. Romine was cut after a ball deflected off his hands into his face while he was batting against Nebraska on Tuesday.
ASU out-hit the Gators 9-5 and received multi-hit games from Curtis (3-for-3) and senior second baseman Joey Hooft. Over his last two games, Curtis is 6-for-8 (.750) and is hitting .378 (14-fro-37) in 10 games in the NCAA Tournament.
Arizona State 6, Florida 1 (Jun 22, 2005 at Omaha, Neb.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Florida............. 000 010 000 - 1 5 0 (47-21) Arizona State....... 100 101 21X - 6 9 0 (42-24) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pitchers: Florida - Ball; Pete(7); Falkenbach(8). Arizona State - Averill. Win-Averill(11-4) Loss-Ball(7-5) T-2:53 A-14000 HR ASU - Buck (6).