LINCOLN REGIONAL:

LINCOLN, Neb. — The parting words from some of the Nebraska employees and fans to the UC Irvine traveling party that was exiting Haymaker Park Sunday after the Anteaters swept three games to win the NCAA Lincoln Regional, were telling.

“See you in a couple weeks,” was the familiar sendoff, referring to a potential UCI return to Omaha, about an hour drive from Lincoln, where the final eight teams in the country, all Super Regional winners, will convene for the College World Series, June 14-25, at Rosenblatt Stadium.

The Anteaters (41-16) will need to conquer yet another road challenge by winning a best-of-three Super Regional series at No. 7 national seed LSU (46-16-1), which happens to own a Southeastern Conference-record and national-best 23-game winning streak.

The ’Eaters and the Tigers begin their Super Regional Saturday at 3 p.m. at Alex Box Stadium, which lists its capacity at 7,760. Sunday’s game is scheduled for 1 p.m. and Monday’s contest, if necessary, is slated for a 4 p.m. start.

LSU has led the NCAA baseball ranks in total attendance each of the previous 12 seasons. But when it comes to UCI’s baseball road warriors the last two postseasons, the more adversarial spectators the better.

UCI, which resurrected its baseball program after a nine-season hiatus for the 2002 campaign, extended its winning streak in regional and super regional play — all on the road — to eight games by stifling Oral Roberts, 8-0, behind sophomore starter Bryce Stowell and two relievers Sunday in the championship game of the Lincoln Regional.

In that stretch — including last year’s Round Rock (Texas) Regional hosted by the University of Texas, and the Super Regional at Wichita State — UCI has played before an average crowd of 6,080.

The Anteaters, of course, didn’t fare too poorly in Omaha last season, splitting four games to earn a third-place finish, in front of an average of 23,694 spectators per game.

Veterans such as junior All-American pitcher Scott Gorgen, junior center fielder Ollie Linton and junior shortstop Ben Orloff, have been among the UCI players who have said they feed off the energy that a big crowd brings to a ballpark.

The largest home crowd UCI has played before was 3,176 this season in the opener of a three-game Big West Conference series with Cal State Fullerton, where last year’s coach, Dave Serrano, is now running the show.

So, UCI should be right at home as the last visiting team to play at 70-year-old Alex Box Stadium, which will be replaced by a new stadium scheduled to open next year. Some 7,164 mostly gold-clad fans [the Tigers have played exclusively in their gold jerseys since beginning their current win streak], saw the Tigers top Southern Mississippi, 11-4, Saturday to clinch the school’s 17th regional title.

LSU hit nine homers in the regional, three of which came from Regional MVP Blake Dean, who also whacked a three-run triple in the clincher to finish the regional with nine RBIs.

The ’Eaters clearly felt at home at Haymarket Park, particularly on the mound, where Stowell produced his most impressive performance of the season Sunday.

“Bryce Stowell was spectacular,” UCI Coach Mike Gillespie said. “He had a premier, elite, spectacular day.”

Stowell, in only his second start in 22 days, struck out a career-high 13, allowing just five hits (all singles) and walking none in 7 2/3 innings. He did not allow a runner past second base, struck out the side in the fourth and sixth innings, and retired the final eight he faced, before being pulled after 121 pitches.

Tom Calahan got the final out of the eighth and Christian Bergman worked a perfect ninth to spark a UCI dogpile on the mound.

It was the first time Oral Roberts (48-14) was shut out since April 5, 2007, a span of 90 games. The Golden Eagles, who were beaten by UCI, 9-7, in Friday’s opening round, were fanned 27 times in 18 innings against UCI pitching.

And, including the final 6 1/3 against Nebraska on Saturday, UCI pitchers put up zeroes for the final 15 1/3 innings.

“We think we beat, arguably, the best hitting club we saw all year,” Gillespie said of ORU.

ORU, which scored 23 runs in its three previous games, including an 8-0 thumping of Nebraska in Sunday’s afternoon elimination game, came into the week ranked 10th nationally in runs and 13th in team batting average (.330).

Offensively, UCI came up equally big, collecting 12 hits off four ORU hurlers, including starter Carlos Luna, who came in with a pristine 13-0 record (tied for the NCAA lead in wins), but absorbed the first loss of his Division I career.

Sophomore right fielder Sean Madigan went three for five with five RBIs, while sophomore second baseman Casey Stevenson went three for four with two RBIs to improve to seven of nine in the regional.

Sophomore first baseman Jeff Cusick went two for three for the ’Eaters, who scored single runs in the first and third, then opened it up with four in the seventh.

“[Stowell, who was named Most Outstanding Player of the regional] was special,” Oral Roberts Coach Rob Walton said. “He had really good velocity and a good breaking ball and that’s the only guy all year who has really shut us down. We’ve seen a bunch of good arms, but that was the best performance somebody has had against our lineup.

“[Stowell] just kept making pitcher’s pitches,” Walton said. “At some point, you figure the guy is going to make a mistake. But, honestly, I only think he made about two or three. This guy was just flat on.”

Stowell, who had surrendered 11 earned runs in 12 innings spanning his previous two starts, said his limited duty lately [he missed his May 17 start at UC Davis due to food poisoning] had no effect on his outing.

“Coming into [Saturday], everyone knew what was on the line,” Stowell said. “We were all really fired up and pumped to be out here. Once the first pitch took place, we all had the same vision in mind and that just took over.”

Stowell, whose earned-run average dipped to 2.77, said he was on his game more than any other time in his career.

“I felt like I could put the ball wherever I wanted to,” Stowell said. “I had all three pitches. When that happens, it’s just something you hold onto, because it doesn’t happen every time.”

Madigan, Linton, sophomore lefty Danny Bibona who got the win Saturday against Nebraska before an overflow Red Sea crowd of 8,646, and Orloff joined Stowell on the 11-player All-Regional team.

NCAA Regional

Championship game

UC Irvine 8, Oral Roberts 0

SCORE BY INNINGS

Stowell, Calahan (8), Bergman (9) and Larson; Luna, Jarmen (7), Serrano (7), Kelly (9) and Genao; W – Stowell, 8-2. L – Luna, 13-1. 2B – Orloff (UCI), Stevenson (UCI), Minisalle (ORU).