Unbeaten Tyler Wilson took a shutout into the eighth inning, and Virginia used a four-run sixth to break open a close game and eliminate California from the College World Series with an 8-1 victory on Thursday night.
Virginia (56-11), the No. 1 seed, will face defending national champion South Carolina in the Bracket 2 final. The Cavs would need to beat the Gamecocks today and again Saturday to reach next week's best-of-3 finals.
Kenny Swab, a former East Forsyth star, singled and came around to score on a three-base error to start Virginia's big sixth inning.
Wilson (10-0) allowed five hits over his career-high 7 2/3 innings. Cal starter Dixon Anderson (4-4) took the loss, failing to get past the third inning for the third time in five starts.
Virginia, which batted .246 with just three extra-base hits in its first two CWS games, got 11 hits off five pitchers. Five of those hits came as the Cavaliers extended their lead to 6-0 in the sixth.
Swab scored after Darrel Matthews misplayed the bounce on his hard drive into center field and the ball rolled to the wall. The play was scored a single and three-base error. It was Matthews' first error in 50 games this season.
Keith Werman and John Barr followed with RBI singles and Chris Taylor with a run-scoring double.
The loss ends an improbable postseason run for California (38-23), which started the year with its program scheduled to be dropped in 2012 for budgetary reasons. A $9 million fund-raising effort saved the program.
Anderson, a ninth-round pick of the Washington Nationals, had a rough night in his first outing since June 5.
He hit Taylor with the first pitch of the game. His wild pitch in the third let Jared King score the first run. Anderson's throw to first on Werman's sacrifice bunt pulled Devon Rodriguez off the bag, and Werman scored on a sacrifice fly.
Kevin Miller relieved Anderson to start the fourth and held the Cavaliers in check until Swab's run around the bases in the sixth inning.
Cal had rallied from a 7-1 sixth-inning deficit to beat Baylor in the regional finals.
There would be no comeback against Wilson, the Baltimore Orioles' 10th-round draft pick, who retired 11 in a row from the second to sixth innings.
The Cavaliers will send No. 2 overall draft pick Danny Hultzen to the mound today to face South Carolina, which has not announced its starter.
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