College World Series 2016: Wednesday Winners, Scores, Bracket Results

With their season on the line, the Arizona Wildcats put their faith in JC Cloney. He rewarded them with one of the finest performances of his career on Wednesday.  

The starter threw seven scoreless innings, and Jared Oliva hit a two-run home run as Arizona carried a three-run third inning on its way to a 3-0 win over UC Santa Barbara.

Ari Alexander of KVOA commented on the success of Arizona's pitching staff:

"

Arizona starting pitchers (Bannister, Dalbec, Cloney) through 3 CWS games:
23 IP
2 ER
0.78 ERA

— Ari Alexander (@AriA1exander) June 23, 2016"

For Cloney, it was a confirmation of his own internal faith. All season long, he'd been Arizona's second-best starter behind Nathan Bannister. Yet time and again, the Wildcats passed over him to start during their NCAA tournament run. He hadn't pitched since June 5.

But with one game separating the Wildcats between a semifinals berth and going home, Cloney didn't miss a beat. He gave up five hits and walked two, relying on his defense as UC Santa Barbara struggled to make solid contact. 

The Gauchos had only one extra-base hit, a Clay Fisher double in the ninth inning. They never had a runner move past second base and were almost never in scoring position. Arizona's Cameron Ming got himself in a little bit of trouble in the top of the ninth, but he struck out three straight batters after allowing Fisher's double and a walk to Devon Gradford.

On the other side, UC Santa Barbara starting pitcher Justin Kelly was out of the game after three innings. The Wildcats pasted him for seven hits and had eight total baserunners. They squandered a scoring chance in the second before breaking the game open in the third, with Ryan Aguilar driving in the first run of the night on a sacrifice fly and Oliva hitting a two-run shot in his second at bat.

SB Nation's AZ Desert Swarm offered its thoughts, while NCAA Baseball offered a look at Oliva:

Oliva ranks as one of the unlikeliest heroes of this tournament for Arizona. This was only his fourth home run of the season, and the center fielder has the worst batting average (.239) and on-base percentage (.288) of any Wildcats starter.

Yet the unproductive outfielder and the starter no one seemed to believe in were carrying Arizona even closer to a national championship.

The Wildcats move on to play Oklahoma State, the same team that shut them out in the second round and forced them into an elimination game. The Cowboys are yet to give up a single run since making the trip to Omaha, Nebraska, winning a pair of 1-0 nail-biters. 

With a three-game head-to-head series, Arizona might stand a better chance of taking down Oklahoma State's scoring staff. Given the way the Wildcats' own starters have been firing, the first team to one may wind up winning all three games.

A full bracket is available at NCAA.com.