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Gators spoil Nebraska's party

OMAHA, Neb. - Florida's Jeff Corsaletti and Adam Davis found a quick way to silence Nebraska's red-clad legion of cheering fans at Rosenblatt Stadium.

They didn't use ear plugs to shut out the roar of 26,813. They used some instant offense.

Corsaletti led off the game with the first of his three straight doubles and Davis homered off freshman ace Johnny Dorn, who hadn't lost since early March.

Just like that, in a matter of five pitches, the Gators had a two-run lead and were rolling.

"We couldn't have scripted it any better," said Corsaletti.

The Gators (47-20) added four more runs in the fifth Sunday night to beat the Cornhuskers 7-4 and stay unbeaten through two games of the College World Series.

"It's a nice situation, but we still got be on our toes," Davis said. "Anybody could take this, there are some great teams out there."

So far, the Gators have been as good as any of them. By winning the first two games in their bracket, they've also earned two days off, not playing again until Wednesday.

Florida owns a seven-game winning streak and needs just one more victory to reach the best-of-three championship series beginning Saturday.

"We took a step tonight, but there is a lot of ahead of us," Gators coach Pat McMahon said. "In essence it's two four-team tournaments in Omaha. There is still a lot left in our bracket."

Nebraska (57-14), hurt by a big error in the fifth, had its 11-game winning streak snapped and now faces an elimination game against Arizona State (40-24) on Tuesday.

Travis Buck had four hits and the Sun Devils rallied for three eighth-inning runs Sunday to beat Tennessee, 4-2, making the Vols the first team ousted from the tournament.

In an another elimination game Monday, Oregon State (46-11) went up against Baylor (44-24). On Monday night, first-round winners Tulane (56-10), the top seed, and perennial participant Texas (52-16) square off.

The Gators' four-run fifth started with an error on first baseman Curtis Ledbetter for dropping a throw. Third baseman Alex Gordon, the No. 2 overall pick in the recent draft, then couldn't hold a high chopper from Stephen Barton that went for an infield single.

Corsaletti followed with a two-run double and, after an intentional walk to Matt LaPorta, Brian Jeroloman hit another two-run double.

"There is still life in this team," Cornhuskers coach Mike Anderson said. "We had a nice little winning streak. Let's get another one started."

Sidearming reliever Darren O'Day (8-3) earned the win, limiting Nebraska to two singles over the final 4 1-3 innings.

Arizona State staved off elimination in the subregional against Cal State Fullerton after losing the first game of a best-of-three and then winning two straight.

The Sun Devils stayed alive again.

Blanked for six innings Sunday by Tennessee freshman lefty James Adkins and trailing 2-0, Arizona State rallied.

"The first couple of innings he (Adkins) was real sharp and toward the end of the game we started taking more pitches and the guys just started hitting the ball where it was pitched," Buck said.

Buck had an RBI single in the seventh to make it 2-1, and then Seth Dhaenens, who didn't start, doubled in the go-ahead run in the three-run eighth.

"Once we got one on the board, we weren't going to stop," Buck added.

Tuffy Gosewisch and Zechry Zinicola opened the seventh with opposite-field singles, and Joey Hooft chopped a ball over first baseman Alex Suarez's head for a double that tied it at 2.

Dhaenens doubled to left center to put the Sun Devils ahead, and J.J. Sferra hit a sacrifice fly for a 4-2 cushion.

Adkins (10-5) threw 125 pitches. The lanky 6-foot-5 freshman gave up eight hits and four runs in 7 1-3 innings.

Tennessee coach Rod Delmonico decided to stick with his young pitcher even after he'd surrendered a run in the seventh and was over 100 pitches.

"He's pretty much been at 125 or 127. They only hit one ball hard that inning (the eighth) and got three hits where they just found holes. He was still throwing well," Delmonico said.

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