Housed in the same hotel since the College World Series began, the Wildcats and Gamecocks haven't played each other yet because they've been in opposite brackets in the eight-team event.
But each club won its bracket, and now they're the only teams left. When the best-of-three championship series starts tonight, two-time defending champ Carolina will be trying to become the first team to win three in a row since 1970-74 when Southern California won five.
Arizona has won three titles, but none since 1986.
South Carolina's left-handed ace Michael Roth is calling the series, the "Hilton Hotel Battle Royale." And it matches up a Gamecocks mound staff, paced by Roth, which has given up only three runs in the past three games against an Arizona batting brigade that's averaging 9.9 runs a game in the NCAA tournament and has seven regulars hitting .324 or better.
"There are no easy outs in that lineup," Gamecocks coach Ray Tanner said after looking over a Wildcats stat sheet that includes five players - Johnny Field, Alex Mejia, Seth Mejias-Brean, Robert Refsnyder and Bobby Brown - hitting at least .353. "I started going through the (lineup), and didn't get much sleep after that.
"Most of the time, I'll get a pitcher or two that kind of gets to me and says, 'I really want the ball.' 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."
The Wildcats have won nine games in a row, including three in the CWS. They had an easier time reaching the championship series than South Carolina (49-18), who had to win three elimination games in a span of 36 hours in the losers bracket after falling to Arkansas.
It's heady stuff for a group of Wildcats who always viewed Omaha as the ultimate destination but wound up seeing somebody else play for the gold trophy.
"Omaha sometimes felt like an unattainable goal," said Refsnyder. "Especially when you're in six o'clock weight (training) and running and saying, 'Boy, I hope we get there, because this (work) might be for nothing.'
"It's an unbelievable feeling. I couldn't imagine anyone being here three years in a row."
That a sentiment that South Carolina's Roth had two years ago when he and the Gamecocks began their string of appearances in the CWS.
"They tell you it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Roth, who will close out his standout college career in the next couple of days. "And I was out here blowing meal money like it was nothing (figuring) we're probably never going to come back.
"It's so tough to get here, a tough road. There's no way we would have thought we would have been here three years in a row."
Arizona coach Andy Lopez has been here. Twenty years ago, he won the national championship, leading Pepperdine to an unlikely title. He recalls with a laugh that he was so unknown then that he was introduced at a pre-series banquet as "Al" Lopez.
He quickly made his name with the title that season, two other trips to the CWS with Florida and now, a second appearance with Arizona (46-17).
He's now as close to his second title as Tanner is to his third.
"Ray and I, we're not going to play. If we do, it's going to be a nightmare," Lopez said with a laugh. "These young guys are going to go out and hopefully execute good baseball. And if you play good baseball, you usually end up with good results. That's what we'll continue to talk about, and that's what we've talked about since the day we got here."
Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomCollegeSports-TopStories/~3/7Rq86IpHGOc/1
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