VIDEO: Jerry Meyers

OMAHA, Neb. -- Pitching and defense earned South Carolina two straight national championships.

On Thursday, they combined to put the No. 7 Gamecocks one win from playing for a third.

Freshman Jordan Montgomery officially arrived on Thursday as he threw eight strong innings to pitch the No. 7 Gamecocks into a College World Series winner-take-all game on Friday, blanking Arkansas 2-0. USC (48-18) will play the Razorbacks again at 9 p.m. on Friday, with the winner going to the national championship series.

"For the second time today, we got an absolute wonderful game out of our lefty," coach Ray Tanner said. "He's had some good games for us this year, but this was the best one."

When left-hander Michael Roth threw a two-hit complete game on Thursday afternoon to set up the Thursday evening elimination game, Montgomery was feeling the pressure. He wanted to mimic one of the veterans who had guided him at USC, but knew that his freshman-year games had been filled with long stretches of perfect pitching, only to see one bad inning pop.

He took some inspiration from what Roth had been inspired by, during his coming-out moment at the 2010 CWS.

"He did something Steve Bondurant did to him back when he pitched against Clemson," Montgomery said. "Obviously, it worked."

Bondurant, who threw a complete game against Clemson in the 2002 CWS, approached Roth before he pitched against Clemson in 2010, gave him two quick shoulder rubs and said, "How do you feel?" Roth did the same to Montgomery.

Something must have worked.

The kid that was nicknamed "Gumby" before he attended his first practice at USC was untouchable through eight innings, scattering three hits and striking out six. He only walked one batter, but kept benefiting from a defense that was there for him.

"We had some big double plays behind us, but Jordan was very, very special tonight," Tanner said.

Arkansas (46-21) could get runners on but couldn't get them in. A one-out single in the first was wiped when Grayson Greiner threw out Joe Serrano trying to steal second base. Montgomery then sat down 12 straight batters before plunking Bo Bigham with two outs in the fifth.

Thought to be the start of something bad for USC, the Gamecocks' defense took over. Derrick Bleeker singled to shallow left field and Bigham tore around second. Tanner English scooped up the ball and fired to third base to nail him and end the inning.

"It two-hopped me and I didn't think he was going to third," English said.

"I came up and kind of let it go."

A leadoff single in the sixth became a double play when Jake Wise lined to Joey Pankake, who then fired to first. That paled to a double play in the eighth, when Brian Anderson led off with a walk, only to see Bigham rip a shot down the first-base line.

Christian Walker fell on it, recovered and stepped on the bag before firing to second base. That was Montgomery's last spot of trouble, as he left after the eighth to a hearty round of applause.

Montgomery said he was a bit nervous before the game, warming up in the bullpen before "20,000-plus people" (TD Ameritrade Park actually holds 35,000). He compared it to the feeling he got before pitching Game 1 of the state championship series in 2011, but not the one before Game 3 of the same series.

"Not nearly as much as this," he grinned. "Definitely when you make those big plays, it keeps the momentum going. I knew I could get the next guy out."

English and Chase Vergason supplied the offense with RBI hits in the second inning, and Montgomery was on cruise control. The Sumter native handed off to a fellow Sumter native, Matt Price, for the ninth, and Price worked around a one-out walk to record his 13th save.

USC lived to fight another day, and is one win away from its third straight national championship series. The Gamecocks survived a grueling day on the strength of near-perfect games from two left-handers.

"I've learned a lot from Roth and (Tyler) Webb and (Logan) Munson, all those lefties," Montgomery said. "I knew I needed to go out here and put up zeroes for the team. I definitely did a big part, because this is such a big stage. People don't really do that much. They needed me and I just kind of stepped up."

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