Tulane pinch hitter comes through

OMAHA, Neb. — The lone holdover from Tulane's last College World Series trip four years ago, Scott Madden, knew what to expect Saturday in Omaha, Neb., when he was summoned to pinch-hit.

The noise and the atmosphere at Rosenblatt Stadium were part of his previous experience as a starting catcher for the Green Wave in 2001.

"Coming up in the situation that I did today, it kind took the edge off the emotion having played here already," Madden said after his two-out, two-run double helped the top-seeded Green Wave beat Oregon State 3-1 in the first round.

"You can get away from the spectacle of the thing and just get down to playing baseball," Madden said. "In that sense, it has helped."

Tulane is attempting to become the first No. 1 national seed to win the CWS since Miami in 1999, when the NCAA expanded the tournament field to 64 teams.

Shut out for six innings by Jonah Nickerson and trailing 1-0, Tulane broke through in the seventh for its 56th victory and spoiled Oregon State's first trip to the CWS since 1952.

"It was a heck of a game. We had to play as well as we could," Tulane coach Rick Jones said.

The Green Wave (56-10) got another strong pitching performance from Micah Owings, who was also involved in a controversial play at second base that kept the seventh-inning rally from being doused.

Tulane also got a great catch from right fielder Brian Bogusevic that kept Oregon State from expanding an early 1-0 lead.

Owings started the rally with a leadoff single in the seventh.

The Beavers then nearly turned a double play on Mark Hamilton's bunt to third baseman Shea McFeely, getting a hard-sliding Owings at second.

But the relay to first from shortstop Darwin Barney wasn't in time. Oregon State questioned the play, asking if there was interference on Owings' slide, but it was denied after the umpires conferred.

"The explanation was that there was no contact and nobody saw any contact," Oregon State coach Pat Casey said, adding that he hadn't seen a TV replay.

"If there was contact, he should have been called out and obviously we're out of the inning with no runs. If there was contact and it wasn't called, it was a big part of the game. Those things happen."

Owings said he didn't grab Barney but that his hand touched him as he was going into second.

"You are taught when you slide to throw your hands up," Owings said. "I know my hand did kind of nicked him a little bit. I wasn't intentionally tying to grab him at all because I'm not that type of player."

After a fly out, Bogusevic singled to put runners at first and second.