Florida destroys LSU by 20 runs, forces winner take all game 3 for title

The Tigers will need to rely on all their powers of collective erasure after what happened to them Sunday in game two vs. Florida of the College World Series finals in Omaha.

LSU’s pitching staff, which had allowed 1.61 earned runs in its first seven CWS games, got hammered by the Gators for 23 hits including six homers and four doubles in a 24-4 beatdown of the Tigers to force a decisive game three Monday night at 6 p.m.

After LSU left the bases loaded in the first three innings – a disturbing trend on the heels of the Tigers stranding a season-high 17 runners in their 4-3 game one win Saturday in 11 innings – the Gators scored 23 consecutive runs after LSU led 3-1 through two innings.

“I feel like everybody in the locker room already forgot about it really,” LSU center fielder Dylan Crews said afterward. “We do a pretty good job of that. I think we've only lost back-to-back games twice this year.”

Six LSU pitchers, including four bottom-of-the-barrel relievers who have seen little or no action in the last months, were abused by the Gators. Florida (54-16) scored the most runs ever in a CWS game and the Tigers (53-17) suffered the worst margin of defeat in the Tigers’ 74-game CWS history.

“It is what it is,” LSU second-year head coach Jay Johnson said. “I've had a Super Regional game (when he coached at Arizona) relatively similar to this, and then we turn the score around on the team in game three.

“It happens all the time in our league, in a two-out-of-three series, which is like Super Regional or College World Series game. It's obvious. The two best teams are playing. And I won't give it any thought.

“Would I have liked it to have been different? Yeah. I think we were prepared to play at the beginning of the game.”

Florida All-America center fielder Wyatt Langford had two fewer hits than LSU’s entire batting lineup, going 5 for 5 with six RBIS, four runs scored, a homer and a double. First baseman Jac Caglianone drove in five runs with two homers. Right fielder Ty Evans drove in five runs on two homers, including a wind-blown grand slam in that flipped game momentum.

"We did exactly what we said we were going to do – flush last night and come in today ready to play,” Langford said. “The balls were falling for us today. And that's just kind of how it went.”

The beginning of the end for the Tigers came in the Gators’ six-run third inning.

After Florida tied the game with three straight hits including RBI singles by Caglianone and shortstop Josh Rivera off LSU starting pitcher Nate Ackenhausen, he induced designated hitter Luke Heyman into a potential one-out double-play grounder to LSU shortstop Jordan Thompson.

Thompson bobbled the ball to load the bases, followed by Tigers’ freshman reliever Gavin Guidry replacing Ackenhausen. Guidry got the Gators’ second out by striking out left fielder Tyler Shelnut.

Evans, Florida’s eight-hole hitter who an inning earlier got the Gators on the scoreboard with a solo homer, then hit Guidry’s first pitch high into the air down the left field line.

It appeared to be drifting foul, but the whipping wind in Charles Schwab Field blew the ball back fair just inside the foul pole for a grand slam.

“I honestly thought it was foul off the bat probably just like everybody else,” Evans said. "I just started jogging it out and I looked up at (designated hitter) Luke (Heyman) and he was spinning around in circles. I didn't see the ball. I just knew it was out when he started doing that.”

When Florida finally pulled ineffective starting pitcher Hurston Waldrep, who gave four hits and three runs and walked six of the 19 batters he faced in 2.1 innings, LSU was done.

“We swung the bats really good today,” said Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan, now one win away from beating LSU again for the national title as he did in 2017 in a two-game sweep. "And the wind was in our favor.

“We're excited about the opportunity to play tomorrow. Obviously, we can't take any of these runs into tomorrow. We'll have to reset, reboot. But awfully proud of the way they responded from last night's tough loss.”

Relievers Blake Purnell and Nick Ficarrotta shut out LSU for six straight innings before Ficarrota gave up a ninth-inning solo homer to LSU first baseman Brayden Jobert.

LSU led 1-0 after second baseman Gavin Dugas’ first-inning RBI double scored center field Dylan Crews who had singled.

But after Waldrep issued a pair of two-out walks to load the bases, he forced Jobert into a rally-killing ground out

Evans hit a two-out solo homer off Ackenhausen in the top of the second. LSU’s response in the bottom of the inning was a third baseman Tommy White RBI single scoring right fielder Josh Pearson who walked with one out and moved to second on a Crews single.

Crews then scored on first baseman Tre’ Morgan’s sacrifice fly RBI. Dugas was hit by a pitch and designated Cade Beloso walked, but catcher Hayden Travinski’s grounder to third led to a force out of Dugas.

After Florida’s explosion in the top of the third, LSU loaded the bases with one out against Waldrep. Purnell entered in relief and got White to hit a double-play grounder.

The Tigers didn’t make a peep offensively until they had been thoroughly embarrassed. Florida scored in every inning but the second and fifth and scored five runs or more in the third, sixth and ninth innings.

Florida, deep on pitching talent, already knows it will start in game three Caglianone, the talented two-way sophomore who was a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award won by Crews before Sunday’s game.

“I'm really excited,” Caglianone said. “I'd give anything for this team to win. I said it earlier in the year, my biggest goal is just to get a ring on these guys that have been here a while. That's the whole game plan for tomorrow.”

LSU’s pitching plan is up in the air. Johnson will likely try to string together short stints from pitchers who have had success in this CWS, such Riley Cooper (three saves and a win in four CWS appearances), Thatcher Hurd (six innings, no runs allowed in two CWS games), Griffin Herring (4.2 innings, 0 runs allowed in one CWS game) and Javen Coleman (1,1 innings, 2 runs allowed).

The big question is if the Tigers can squeeze any more innings out of staff ace Paul Skenes, college baseball’s pitcher of the year.

Skenes has thrown 243 pitches in 15.2 innings in wins over Tennessee last Saturday and No. 1 seed Wake Forest Thursday.

“We do a process to figure that out,” Johnson said. “And that doesn't take place until the day of game. So, we have to do that with all of them. You're going on game eight in 10 days. So we have to be mindful of all of that, and we will be. And we'll see who is available.”