OMAHA, Neb. (WACH, AP) -- Colby Holmes, John Taylor and Matt Price combined on a five-hitter and defending national champion South Carolina tied the record for consecutive NCAA tournament wins with a 7-1 victory over Virginia at the College World Series on Tuesday night.
Adrian Morales and Brady Thomas had three hits apiece for the Gamecocks, who won their 13th straight national tournament game to match the record held by Southern California (1972-74) and LSU (1997-98).
"We played probably one of our better games of the year tonight and we certainly needed it playing a team the quality of Virginia," said South Carolina head coach Ray Tanner. "We pitched extremely well. We played real tough defense, had some timely hitting. Really, probably can’t play any better than that."
The Gamecocks (52-14) are off until Friday and would have to be beaten twice by Virginia or California to not return to the best-of-three finals next week. No. 1 national seed Virginia (55-11) plays California in a Thursday elimination game.
South Carolina scored three unearned runs in the first inning against Will Roberts (11-2), and five of its 13 hits went for extra bases.
Taylor (11-2) got the win with one-hit relief over a season-high 4 1-3 innings.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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