The Anteaters deserve the writing on this night. Think of the road they took to get here. They traveled on the road for the Regional to Texas and knocked off the Longhorns, then traveled on the road once again to Wichita State and knocked them off in one heck of a tough enviornment.

Now they showed fans and media across the country that they did belong here in Omaha. They belonged right up there with the Arizona States and the Oregon States and the Fullertons of the world. The Anteaters picking up two wins out here is something that no one could have imagined when the program went under 15 years ago.

First of all, who would have thought that the team would even be brought back in the first place! Let along make it to college baseball's grandest stage.

Not only did they play good baseball, but they played a very exciting brand of baseball. The Anteaters seemed to win over the hearts of not only the 29,000-plus fans that seemed to embrace this team, and not to mention the media that seemed to as well (I won't say any names).

The thing I love about coach Serrano after the game was that he said next year they will even try to do better. That finishing in the top four is great, and is something that they'll love all summer, but come next season, it's on to strive for bigger and better things. Next year, that goal will be to win that national championship, something that they fell just four wins shy of here in 2007.

"These guys have put UC Irvine baseball on the map, and even though it may be a while until we get a group of young men that are as close and committed as these guys were," Serrano said.

"A magical ride has come to an end unfortunately. I don't think I'll really understand what this program has achieved until the emotions wear off from the loss today," Serrano said after the game.

As far as Oregon State goes, who would have thunk these guys would be back in this situation when the regular season came to an end, and the Beavers were sitting No. 6 in the Pac-10. They finished 10-14 in the conference, but one has to remember they lost only four games the rest of the year against non-coneference opponents. That's ridiculous.

That certainly bodes well considering the fact that the two other teams left aren't from the Pac-10.

Give a game ball to Daniel Turpen, who went eight innings, allowing just five hits, and one run, while striking out five. Turpen threw 112 pitches, and as Pat Casey said after the game, "it was basically deja vu from last year when Turp went out there and won us that ballgame."

Mitch Canham and Darwin Barney get game balls as well for their offensive output, as they capitalized on that one error of the game, by third baseman Tyler Vaughn that opened the scoring in the bottom of the third inning. Canham hit a two-run homer later in the inning, as OSU never looked back.

Canham finished 3-for-5 with three RBI, while Barney also went 3-for-5 with two RBI. Leftfielder John Wallace added an RBI as well.

So now the Beavers wait to see who they face, as the winner of Rice and North Carolina on Thursday will face Oregon State on Saturday in the first game of the best-of-three championship series.

Our attendance tonight was 29,921, the second largest in CWS history.

Turpen after the game commented about the crowd, as he has now pitched in front of the two largest crowds ever here, with the top crowd coming in last year's CWS.

"I like going out there and pitching in front of 29,921 people," Turpen said.

Which drew a lot of laughter in the Hall of Fame room after the ballgame.

Another record was broken as well. UC Irvine will now be in the record book for not only the longest game in CWS history, but they are in there for the most HBP by a team in a CWS, as they were hit 12 times in their four games.

That'll do it from Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium as we have one piece of our two piece championship series puzzle in place, as we are down to only three teams remaining.

We'll see you tomorrow night at 6:00 central when North Carolina and Rice will meet for the right to advance to the championship series. Of course if the Tar Heels win, we're looking at a rematch of last year's best two-of-three.

Good night everybody, and see you Thursday from Omaha, where for one final time, your final score, Oregon State 7, and UC Irvine 1.