OMAHA, Neb. ? Arizona came to the College World Series as one of the hottest teams in the nation and swept three straight games to reach the championship round.
Yet coach Andy Lopez and his players know few outside their fan base are paying much attention to them as the best-of-three series starts Sunday.
That?s because South Carolina (49-18) has completed an improbable run to the finals, where it will try to become the first team in 40 years to win a third straight title.
?We?re just excited to be invited to the Ray Tanner Invitational,? Lopez said Saturday.
At that, Tanner, the Gamecocks? 16th-year coach, playfully punched Lopez to open their pre-finals news conference.
?We?ve got a pretty good team,? Tanner said, ?but we?re not the ?27 Yankees. We?ve had 28 one-run games. We know that every at-bat is crucial for us.
?We?ve got the chance to play in the finals a third time in a row. It?s hard to wrap your arms around that. You just have to have some good luck and fortune along the way, a couple clutch performances along the way.?
Sophomore right-hander Konner Wade (10-3), who threw a complete-game five-hit shutout against UCLA last Sunday, will be the Game 1 starter for Arizona (46-17).
Tanner was undecided on which pitcher will face an Arizona team that is fourth in the nation in batting (.330) and sixth in scoring (7.4 runs a game).
?Most of the time I?ll get a guy or two that kind of gets to me and says I really want the ball,? Tanner said with a smile. ?But since they?ve watched these guys hit, I?m not getting those guys. They?re avoiding me. All the pitchers are going in a different direction.?
Few would have expected the Gamecocks to even return to Omaha this year after they had to replace five regulars in the lineup from the team that beat Florida in the 2011 finals. They had to develop chemistry in an infield that had three new faces and bounce back from losses in five of their first six Southeastern Conference games.
At the CWS, their streak of 22 straight wins in NCAA tournament games ended with a 2-1 loss to Arkansas last Monday. They staved off elimination three times thanks to stellar pitching. They beat Kent State once and the Razorbacks twice in a span of 36 hours because of a Wednesday rainout.
?The whole story of a three-peat, as a fan I definitely would be rooting for that because that?s an unbelievable feat,? Arizona right fielder Robert Refsnyder said. ?The weird, quirky fan who wants to see Arizona win, I?ll take that fan.?
The last program to show as much dominance as the Gamecocks was Southern California, which won five straight championships from 1970-74.
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