Bannister strikes out 11, Arizona beats Miami 5-1 at CWS

OMAHA, Neb. — Nathan Bannister matched his career high with 11 strikeouts in seven innings and Arizona capitalized on Miami starter Michael Mediavilla’s rocky first inning a 5-1 victory Saturday night in the College World Series.

The Wildcats (45-21), in the CWS for the first time since winning the 2012 national title, will play Oklahoma State on Monday night in a Bracket 1 winners’ game. The No. 3 national seed Hurricanes (50-13) will face UC Santa Barbara in an elimination game that afternoon.

Mediavilla hit two of Arizona’s first five batters and issued a bases-loaded walk before Jared Oliva’s two-run single made it 3-0. Zach Gibbons’ two-run double in the fifth increased the lead to 5-1.

Bannister, who made his 13th straight start of at least six innings, confounded Miami batters mixing in his curveball with an upper 80s fastball.

Miami, which has come from behind to win 23 games, couldn’t sustain its offense against the Seattle Mariners’ 28th-round draft pick. The Hurricanes had runners in scoring position in the second, third, fourth, fifth and seventh innings against Bannister and again in the eighth against Cameron Ming but could push across just one run.

Bannister (12-2) struck out Edgar Michelangeli all three times he faced him. Michelangeli was the hero of Miami’s super-regional clinching win over Boston College for hitting a three-run homer and grand slam. Zach Collins, the No. 10 overall draft pick, struck out twice and was doubled off in the fifth when second baseman Cody Ramer caught a line drive and beat him back to the bag.

Bannister allowed eight hits and walked three. Ming pitched two innings of one-hit relief.

Mediavilla (11-2), who made three relief appearances at last year’s CWS, had his worst outing since he gave up eight runs in 1 2/3 innings against Duke on April 16.