Omaha, Neb. ? When it comes to in-state rival Clemson, South Carolina considers any win over the Tigers to be a great win.

South Carolina’s Evan Marzilli, left, and Whit Merrifield (5) celebrate after beating Clemson. South Carolina won, 4-3, Saturday in Omaha, Neb., to advance to the College World Series championship round.

This one was greater yet.

South Carolina beat the Tigers for the second night in a row Saturday, staving off elimination from the College World Series a fourth straight time with a 4-3 victory that sends the Gamecocks to the best-of-three finals against UCLA starting Monday.

Christian Walker homered and singled in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning for South Carolina, and he made a big defensive play at first base to end the game.

“A couple days ago we were down to one strike and planning a trip home,” Gamecocks coach Ray Tanner said. “Now we’re going to have a chance to play for a national championship. That’s incredible. It’s a never-say-die team.”

Only 130 miles separate the campuses of Clemson and South Carolina, and they’ve met 292 times on the baseball field since 1899. No matter the sport, it is one of the fiercest rivalries in the nation.

Not much separated the teams Saturday. Clemson (45-25) had eight hits and South Carolina (52-16) nine. Clemson left nine runners on base, South Carolina left 10. Each starting pitchers went into the seventh inning and had similar numbers.

Clemson beat the Gamecocks two out of three games in the regular season and came to Omaha as the only non-No. 1 regional seed.

“I don’t think it matters who we lose to to end our season,” second baseman Mike Freeman said. “We lost to a really good opponent, that’s the bottom line. Regardless of who it is, it’s never fun to lose. So it doesn’t make it any worse. They’re going to represent our region, represent our state well. All we can do now is cheer for them in the end and hope they bring it back for South Carolina.”

The Gamecocks, three-time national runners-up, last played for the title in 2002 after knocking Clemson out of the CWS.

“I said from the beginning it was nice to get to Omaha, but we wanted to do something here,” right fielder Whit Merrifield said. “We’re in position to do something this program never accomplished. We know we have to play well to beat UCLA, and we’re looking forward to two more big games and scrapping across two more big wins.”