All-America Gabe Alvarez had a record-tying five hits and three RBIs Friday night to lead Southern Cal past Miami 7-3 and into the College World Series championship game.
Though Alvarez committed an error in the second inning that led to three runs, sixth-seeded Southern Cal (49-20) advanced to Saturday's title game against top-seeded Cal State Fullerton (56-9).The Trojans, with a record 11 titles, will try to match their 1970 championship season when they lost their first tournament game then won the rest for the first of five straight CWS championships.
Southern Cal has won titles in its last seven straight trips to Omaha, but the last of those was in 1978. USC has won 11 of 12 championship games, losing only to Minnesota 2-1 in 10 innings in 1960.
Second-seeded Miami (48-17) goes home with its second loss to USC in three games at the tournament. The Hurricanes won the CWS opener 15-10 last Friday, then lost 7-5 Wednesday.
USC will meet Fullerton for the third time this season. The Titans won 10-9 in Fullerton, while USC won 7-4 at home.
Alvarez hit his 13th homer of the season with two outs in the first off Miami All-American J.D. Arteaga (11-3), before he let Eddie Rivero's ground ball skip past him into center field to score one run in Miami's second. Rivero scored one out later on Michael Torti's sixth home run of the season.
The Trojans tied the game in the fifth on RBI doubles by Walter Dawkins and Alvarez, who set the USC career record with his 58th double.
In the seventh, Alvarez singled home the go-ahead run, and Geoff Jenkins added an RBI single.
Miami loaded the bases in the sixth and seventh with two outs but Alex Cora grounded out to end the threat in the sixth and Jack Krawczyk, who came on in relief of Randy Flores (13-3), struck out Rivero in the seventh. Krawczyk picked up his second save of the series and third of the season.
The Trojans extended their lead in the eighth when Chad Moeller and Greg Walbridge hit back-to-back homers leading off. That gave USC 11 home runs for the series to break the team record of nine by Arizona State in 1981 and LSU in 1991.
Alvarez's fifth hit of the game, a single in the ninth, tied the CWS record of five in a game shared by a number of players. The last of those was Arizona State's Barry Bonds in 1984.