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Gauchos’ 5-3 victory brings rare early exit for Miami at CWS

Sports

June 20th, 2016 by Ric Hanson

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Pinch hitter Ryan Cumberland’s two-run single broke a tie and Noah Davis and Kyle Nelson combined to hold down No. 3 national seed Miami’s offense in UC Santa Barbara’s 5-3 victory in a College World Series elimination game Monday. The Gauchos (43-19-1) kept their first CWS appearance going and will play Wednesday against the loser of Monday night’s game between Oklahoma State and Arizona. The Hurricanes (50-14) went 0-2 for only the second time in their 25 CWS appearances. Their other two-and-out was in 1979.

Santa Barbara struck for four runs after a 1-hour, 2-minute rain delay in the sixth inning. Cumberland made it 3-1 with his one-out single down the first-base line, and the Gauchos used back-to-back squeeze plays for two more runs. Miami opened the scoring on Zack Collins’ 16th homer of the season in the first inning off Davis (7-4), and the Gauchos’ JJ Muno singled in the tying run in the bottom half off Danny Garcia (9-5).