Box Score

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Blake Cooper declined South Carolina coach Ray Tanner's invitation to take Monday night off.

Are the Gamecocks ever glad he did.

Cooper wanted the ball when South Carolina squared off against UCLA in the opening game of the College World Series championship series. By the time he gave it up, the 53-16 Gamecocks were within three outs of securing a 7-1 victory that leaves them one victory shy of the national championship.

Cooper took a one-hit shutout into the ninth before the Bruins (51-16) used two singles and a walk to load the bases. After Tanner went to the mound to bring in reliever John Taylor, Cooper left the field to a serenade of “Coop'' chants from the South Carolina fans in the crowd of 23,181 at Rosenblatt Stadium.

“I thought he was extra special tonight,'' Tanner said.

Cooper relied on breaking pitches and his changeup to keep the UCLA hitters off stride in outdueling Gerrit Cole, the Bruins' fireballing ace who had been so dominant in a second-round win over TCU. Cole, a first-round draft pick by the New York Yankees out of high school, had struck out 13 Horned Frogs in pitching eight innings of a 5-3 win on June 21.

Monday, South Carolina had 11 hits and a 6-0 lead by the time Cole registered his first strikeout in the sixth inning. The Gamecocks used a combination of dinks, dunks and — as Tanner put it — duck snorts in building their lead against Cole.

And Cooper, pitching for the third time in Omaha and the second on three days' rest, did everything to protect the precious runs his teammates had scored for him.

Cooper had thrown 67 pitches in five innings in the Gamecocks' June 20 opener against Oklahoma before leaving when rain delayed the game. He came back to throw 97 more in last Thursday's rematch with the Sooners, allowing just four hits and a run in 5 2⁄3 innings.

Those pitches had taken their toll on his fastball, and he knew it while warming up before Monday's game.

“I could tell I wasn't going to have enough giddy-up on my fastball like coach Tanner said,'' said Cooper, whose best deliveries topped out in the mid-80s. “I really wanted to rely on the sinker and throw curveballs and sliders and strikes.

“I was able to do that early in the count, get some ground-ball outs and strikeouts when I needed them.''

Cooper, a senior right-hander, finished with 10 strikeouts. His only walk came in the ninth. He threw 136 pitches, 89 for strikes, in winning for the 13th time in 15 decisions this season.

Not a bad night for a guy who Tanner thought might benefit from another day of rest.

“I certainly wanted to pitch him today, but I encouraged him to take another day, if he felt that it would be in his best interests,'' Tanner said. “And he just looked at me for a few minutes and said, ‘I'll be as good today as I'll be tomorrow. What's the difference?'

“I said it's another day's rest. And he said, ‘It ain't going to matter to me. I'll do the best I can.'''

Cooper's best mesmerized the batters on a UCLA offense that had scored six runs or more in eight of the team's 10 NCAA tournament games. The Bruins' only hit prior to the ninth came when catcher Steve Rodriguez looped a single into right field with one out in the fifth.

“Cooper mixed it up well tonight,'' Rodriguez said. “He kept us off balance, and we didn't make enough adjustments at the plate, obviously, with only three hits.''

Cooper also benefited from an early lead. The Gamecocks used a bunt, a bloop single and a check-swing single by Brady Thomas with two outs in the first to score their first run. An error by second baseman Cody Regis put South Carolina up 2-0 before Cole got out of the first.

South Carolina loaded the bases in the third without getting the ball out of the infield. With two outs, Bobby Haney laced a single to right to make it 5-0.

“They had a great approach,'' Cole said. “I don't know what the approach was, but whatever it was, it worked.

“I jumped ahead of a lot of batters, had a lot of guys 0-1, 1-2. Then they touched the ball. They didn't chase a lot of fastballs up. They just did a very good job.''

Cole lasted seven innings, surrendering 11 hits and six runs — four earned — in falling to 11-4. He struck out just two, which matched his season low, and walked one.

“Tonight they had our number,'' UCLA coach John Savage said. “You have to give them a ton of credit.''

South Carolina tacked a run on in the fifth and another in the eighth. When Cooper took the mound to start the ninth, he was within three outs of throwing the first CWS one-hitter since 1983.

A single by Regis, a walk to pinch-hitter Marc Navarro and a single by Jeff Gelalich loaded the bases and brought in reliever John Taylor.

He got Dean Espy to hit into a double play, scoring Regis, before retiring Justin Uribe on a fly ball to right to give the Gamecocks the first-game win.

“I just can't say enough good things about our effort,'' Tanner said. “We had a tremendous game against one of the best pitchers in the country.''

Thing was, his own pitcher was mighty good, too.

Contact the writer:

679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com

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