WICHITA, Kan.-? Preston Guilmet and Jason Stoffel combined for a season-high 16 strikeouts as Arizona edged Oral Roberts, 4-3, in game one of the NCAA Wichita Regional.

Arizona starter, Guilmet, got out of a no out, bases loaded jam in the top of the second. ORU's Chad Rothford and Stephen Pearson started the inning with consecutive singles and Pat Warfle juiced the bags with a hit-by-pitch. Guilmet sat down Brian Van Kirk on strikes, then speared a line drive from Carter McQuigg and caught Warfle off of first for a double play that ended the threat.

The Wildcats led off the bottom half with back-to-back hits to get on the board. T.J. Steele singled to shallow left field and stole second to get into scoring position before a Jon Gaston double fired down the right field line drove the run in.

Arizona manufactured two runs in the third to take a 3-0 advantage over Oral Roberts. Colt Sedbrook was plunked with a pitch and C.J. Zeigler singled to the shallow outfield. Right fielder Brendan Duffy overran the ball and the runners moved up to second and third. A sacrifice fly from Bill Rhinehart brought in Sedbrook and a ground out by Brad Glenn was enough to cross Zeigler.

Oral Roberts slowly chipped away at the lead, roughing up Guilmet with five hits and three runs over the next two innings. Rothford sent a double sailing into the left-center gap and an infield single by Warfle placed runners at the corners. McQuigg sent Robert Abel diving to his right, but the hit squeezed by the shortstop and got to left field for and RBI single.

A right field double by Kelly Minissale placed two runners in scoring position with no outs in the top of the fifth. Groundouts by Jake Kahaulelio and Rothford drove in the runs to even the score, 3-3.

The rain had started coming at 2 pm, but the game wasn't delayed until the middle of the seventh when lightning was spotted in the area. The game resumed one hour and 17 minutes later with Eric Chricton on the mound for Oral Roberts and Stoffel taking over for Arizona.

Chapman finished with two earned runs on three hits, two walks and six strikeouts in six innings of work. Guilmet threw seven complete innings, giving up three earned runs on seven hits, three walks and 11 strikeouts to improve to 12-2 on the season.

The Wildcats jumped on Chricton after the delay, stringing together singles by Sedbrook, Zeigler and Rhinehart with two outs to go ahead of the Golden Eagles, 4-3.

Stoffel was sharp, holding ORU by retiring all six batters he faced and hurling five strikeouts in two innings to earn freshman's fourth save of the year. Chricton fell to 4-5 with one earned run on four hits over two innings.

Ziegler and Steele each had two hits and one run, while Rhinehart collected two RBI for Arizona. Rothford was the only Golden Eagle with a multiple-hit game, going 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI.

Arizona plays the winner of Wichita State and New Orleans at 7 p.m. Saturday night. Oral Roberts will face off in the loser's bracket at 1 p.m.

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-Wichita State-

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