Omaha, Neb. ? Texas is going back to the championship round of the College World Series, thanks to a ninth-inning homer from sore-shouldered Chance Wheeless.

Wheeless hit one over the fence, one inning after teammate Nick Peoples ran over Baylor catcher Josh Ford to score the tying run in an emotional 4-3 victory Wednesday night that eliminated the Bears.

“I’m shocked a little bit,” Wheeless said. “It all turned around with one swing. This is unbelievable for me.”

Texas, unbeaten in three CWS games, will play either Arizona State or Florida in the best-of-three championship series beginning Saturday at Rosenblatt Stadium.

In his sixth-inning at-bat, Wheeless was in so much pain from his shoulder popping out that he didn’t run out his grounder to second base.

But Wheeless urged Texas coach Augie Garrido to let him bat in the ninth after Garrido told him he was thinking about using a pinch-hitter.

“He said, ‘I hit this guy hard, I’ll be OK,”‘ Garrido said.

“When he hit the home run, I thanked him and his mother and father and their mothers and fathers and anybody who had anything to do with Chance being on this planet.”

But Wheeless never would have been in position to hit the game winner off Ryan LaMotta if Peoples hadn’t bowled over Ford in a violent collision to score on a sacrifice fly.

In the eighth with Texas trailing 3-2, Peoples went from first to third when LaMotta made an errant pickoff throw.

Peoples raced home on Drew Stubbs’ sacrifice fly to right, beating Seth Fortenberry’s strong throw by barreling over Ford, who was to the left of the plate before the ball arrived.

With the ball loose, Peoples crawled and touched the plate and then slammed down his helmet.

“The umpire told me I interfered,” Ford said. “I thought the play was closer than he thought. He hit me and the ball popped loose.”

Baylor coach Steve Smith came out of the dugout for an explanation.

“I didn’t argue that call. It’s a tough call,” Smith said.

“I did think the non-slide was flagrant because he came in high. It’s a must-slide rule, so I thought there should have been an ejection.”

Baylor (46-24), making its first CWS appearance since 1978, had reached Wednesday’s play with a thrilling comeback victory over Tulane on Tuesday night, rallying from a 7-0 deficit for an 8-7 victory.

This time it was the Bears who were eliminated by way of a crushing defeat.

Arizona St. 6, Florida 1

Omaha, Neb. – Arizona State kept up its remarkable run in the College World Series, getting a great performance from pitcher Erik Averill and beating Florida to move within a victory of the championship round.

Averill (11-4), working on two days of rest, threw a five-hitter in 92-degree heat and retired the last eight batters.

The Sun Devils (42-24), who came into the CWS with the fewest wins of any team in the field, have won three straight after losing in the first round and are 5-0 in NCAA tournament elimination games.

They have to beat the Gators again today to advance to play Texas.

The game was played less than 24 hours after Arizona State’s dramatic 11-inning victory over Nebraska, highlighted by Jeff Larish’s CWS record-tying three home runs.