KEVIN KLAUS/Arizona Summer Wildcat Sophomore pitcher John Meloan provided 8 1/3 innings in the 'Cats' long charge to an 11th-inning win Long Beach State, 4-3. Arizona will advance to the College World Series in Omaha, NE for the first time since 1986.

Wildcats upset Long Beach to advance furthest since 1986 national champ team

Consider the torch officially passed.

It is fitting that former Wildcat head coach Jerry Kindall, serving as a color commentator on ESPN2, announced the game that brought the Arizona baseball team back into the Men's College World Series.

Arizona's 2-1 Super Regional win means that with 15 appearances, the UA is tied with Stanford for the seventh-most CWS appearances.

Head coach Andy Lopez is now only the third coach to lead three different schools to Omaha, and is the fastest coach in school history to get there. Kindall accomplished the same feat during his fifth year.

In his first Division I head coaching stint at Pepperdine, during which he won a national championship in 1992, Lopez often used Arizona as an example.

KEVIN B. KLAUS/Arizona Summer Wildcat Sophomore catcher Nick Hundley hits a sacrifice fly to center field in the bottom of the 11th inning to score the winning run for Arizona. UA defeated Long Beach State in Long Beach, CA by a score of 4-3 and took the three- game series 2-1 to advance to the College World Series in Omaha.

"I used to use it a lot; Arizona was the program and I'm hoping we can get it back to where it was," Lopez said. "It has been our goal since we got here and we'd like it to happen as quickly as possible and looks like we are on the right track."

The Wildcats (35-25-1) advanced with a Super Regional win against Long Beach State (40-21), ranked No. 6 in the country at the time, with Kindall working each game. Arizona won the opener 6-5, rallying after being down five runs, lost the second game 9-4 and won the rubber match 4-3 in 11 innings.

"It is just an absolute thrill," said Kindall about Arizona's return to the CWS. "It's been a long time and now this ball club is going to carry the torch back there. Arizona baseball is back into the national picture."

Kindall led the Wildcats to three College World Series titles in 1976, 1980 and 1986, and Sancet led Arizona to three second-place finishes in 1956, 1959 and 1963.

Senior second baseman/ third baseman Moises Duran, who scored the clinching run, said it hasn't really sunken in yet. Sophomore catcher Nick Hundley drove Duran in on a walk-off sacrifice fly to short center field.

KEVIN B. KLAUS/Arizona Summer Wildcat Senior infielder Moises Duran dives safely into third base on a wild pitch thrown by Neil Jamison in the bottom of the 11th inning in Long Beach, CA. Duran would eventually become the winning run for the Wildcats.

"(It won't sink in) until I see Omaha and I see all the fans and I see everything that has to do with Omaha, but right now we are still on our high and ready to practice," Duran said.

Friday's win came in a game in which national player of the year Jered Weaver started. Weaver struck out 12 for the Dirtbags.

With a sell-out each game, the attendance set a three-game series record for Long Beach State of 8,972. In the third game, Arizona trailed several times, nearly giving up a run in the 10th with the bases loaded.

"This was a real upset," Kindall said. "To come into Long Beach and play on their home field and overcome the crowd influence - it was energetic. I am not saying it was a bad crowd, they were solidly behind their home team and to over come that in a tough, tough game."

Freshman pitcher Mark Melancon (6-4) got the UA out of the jam when he walked out to the mound in the 10th inning.

Melancon got the win in the game on Sunday and recorded a save on Friday.

"When Hundley came out there to talk to me it was kind of strange- I didn't feel that nervous out there," Melancon said. "Usually I'm pretty pumped up in that situation and Hundley came down there to calm me down. But I was pretty calm at that point and something in me just told me that we were going to get it done. Along with coach, I had been praying quite a bit. I just thought we would get it done."

The UA opens the CWS with Georgia (43-21) on Friday at 11 a.m. Arizona time on ESPN2. The Wildcats' next game will be on Sunday, and all the games of the World Series are on either ESPN or ESPN2.

The College World Series is double elimination, with the winner of each bracket playing a three-game series for the national championship. The other two teams on the Wildcats' side of the bracket are Texas (55-13) and Arkansas (44-22).

Lopez said that while it is very rewarding to get to the Mecca of college baseball, the Wildcats want more.

"It is just a situation where they should enjoy it, but it is time to go to work and do the things they need to do," Lopez said. "It is also a situation where it is a reward, but there is work to be done too. We don't want to go and play like we are happy to be there, we want to go there and be very effective and continue our intensity."

Lopez knows all about surprises in Omaha, saying anything can happen in the World Series and he likes the UA's chances.

"Well, these guys have never experienced it and they are going to have a great time in the College World Series," said Lopez. "I went in as the seventh seed in an eight team Omaha series in 1992 and walked away with a national championship, and went in with the number one team in the nation and number one seed in 1998 and left in two games. It really just comes down to who is playing well."