Georgia Tech, Clemson win CWS openers

OMAHA, June 14 (UPI) -- Jeff Baker's single in the bottom of the ninth drove in David Slevin as the winning run Friday night, finishing off Clemson's comeback from a five-run deficit to an 11-10 victory over Nebraska that completed the opening day of action in the College World Series.

In the opener, hometown hero Kyle Bakker combined on the first College World Series shutout in seven years and Georgia Tech pounded out 19 hits in rolling rolled to an 11-0 win over South Carolina.

A 6-foot-9 lefthander, Bakker (13-2) allowed just six hits in eight innings, struck out nine and walked one.

Clemson will face Atlantic Coast Conference rival Georgia Tech in a winner's bracket contest on Sunday. Nebraska will take on South Carolina Sunday in an elimination game.

Slevin led off the 10th with a walk off Nebraska reliever Phil Shirek (4-2). Lefthander Jeremy Becker relieved and Zane Green sacrificed before Khalil Greene was intentionally walked.

The Tigers went to their seventh and final pitcher when Jeff Blaesing entered to face Baker, who was hitless in three at bats with a pair of walks. He lined a hit into the gap in right-center field to give Clemson the win.

The Cornhuskers built a 7-2 lead after four innings, highlighted by Jed Morris' two-run homer in the fourth inning.

Clemson got a three-run homer from Green3 in the sixth that sliced its deficit to 7-6.

Greene, who was named the winner of the Dick Howser Award earlier in the day, gave the Tigers their first lead at 10-8 with a three-run homer in the seventh. Greene went three for five with five RBI and has 91 RBI on the season.

Bakker was dominating in the day's first game in front of hometown fans.

"It is great to pitch where people know you," said Bakker, who attended Omaha's Millard West High School. "It was fun to have a standing ovation from the home crowd. I have been to every CWS since I was in first grade."

Brian Burks pitched a hitless ninth to complete the first CWS shutout since Mark Chavez and Tim Dixon of Fullerton State blanked Tennessee, 11-0 in 1995.

"Even in my wildest dreams I would not have envisioned a shutout," said Georgia Tech coach Danny Hall. "The runs early were the key because it gave him (Bakker) some breathing room."

Victor Menocal and Matt Murton each had four hits and an RBI and Wes Rynders homered and drove in three runs for Georgia Tech (52-14).

South Carolina ace Gary Bell (10-3) lasted just four innings and yielded five runs and nine hits.

"I came out and felt fine," Bell said. "But they scored some early runs and we did not play well."

Menocal tripled home the first run and scored on a single by Jeremy Slayden in the first inning.

Brandon Boggs had an RBI double in the fourth inning before the Yellow Jackets erupted for five runs in the fifth. Rynders had a two-run double and Matthew Boggs added a two-run single to highlight the fifth.

Rynders hit a solo homer in the seventh off reliever Steven Bondurant and Jason Perry added a two-run single in the eighth.

South Carolina leadoff hitter Drew Meyer, the 10th overall pick by the Texas Rangers in the first-year players' draft, went none for four with two strikeouts.

The Gamecocks had just one runner get as far as third base.