College baseball World Series: UCLA tops Mississippi St. for championship

Omaha, Neb. • UCLA's offense showed up this time, which meant Mississippi State never had a chance.

Eric Filia drove in a career-high five runs, Nick Vander Tuig limited Mississippi State to five hits in eight innings, and UCLA won its first national championship in baseball with an 8-0 victory Tuesday night.

The Bruins (49-17) completed a two-game sweep in the College World Series finals and ended the season with 11 straight wins. The national title is UCLA's NCAA-record 109th in team sports.

"They had a great year," UCLA coach John Savage said, "and it was one of those situations where it was our time."

Adam Plutko, the Bruins' No. 1 starter, was named the CWS' Most Outstanding Player. He beat LSU in the Bruins' first game and was the winner in Game 1 of the finals. He allowed two runs in 13 innings.

Vander Tuig held off the Bulldogs (51-20) when they threatened in the fourth, fifth and eighth innings and recorded his fourth win in the tournament. Vander Tuig (14-4) struck out six and walked one. David Berg pitched the ninth.

Filia produced runs with a sacrifice fly, squeeze bunt and two base hits as the Bruins collected 12 hits and scored their most runs in 18 games.

"I thrive on this, absolutely," Filia said. "We just stayed with our approach. We stayed small and barreled balls up."

Bulldogs starter Luis Pollorena (6-4) lasted one inning. Jonathan Holder came on with one out in the fourth inning and went the rest of the way.

UCLA allowed four runs in five games to set a CWS record for fewest in the metal-bat era that started in 1974.

The Bruins' .227 batting average in the CWS also was the lowest since teams went away from wood bats. The Bruins' 19 runs in five games were the fewest by a champion since the CWS went to eight teams in 1950. —

Storylines UCLA 8, Miss. St. 0

R The Bruins' Nick Vander Tuig holds UCLA to five hits in eight innings.