One to go! Tigers edge Gators in 11 innings to win CWS finals game 1
Three miraculous things happened for LSU vs. Florida Saturday night in game one of the College World Series finals.
Tigers’ junior pitcher Ty Floyd set a new school CWS record and tied the CWS record for most strikeouts in nine innings by striking out 17 Gators.
“With as many people as were here tonight, the adrenaline felt good and stuff,” Floyd said.
Even more unbelievable was despite leaving a season-high 17 runners on base, the Tigers found a way to win by socking three solo homers including designated hitter Cade Beloso’s game-winner in the top of the 11th inning for a 4-3 victory in Omaha before a Charles Schwab Field record crowd of 25,258.
“Finally got one that I was supposed to swing at and put a good swing on it,” Beloso said.
Just as astounding was LSU reliever Riley Cooper getting the win with 3.2 shutout innings, running his CWS scoreless innings total to 8.2 and throwing 128 pitches in four games.
“That's what I'm talking about with just filling up the strike zone and trusting my defense,” Cooper said.,
The never-say-die Tigers (53-16) are a win away from capturing their seventh national championship. Game two against the Gators (53-16) starts at 2 p.m. Sunday.
“Great college baseball game,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said. “Two of the best teams in the country, a ton of execution by both teams from the mound. Great defensive plays. Really good, quality at-bats.”
Florida, which won three consecutive one-games to advance to the finals, came back from a 2-0 deficit to the Tigers and took a 3-2 lead on catcher BJ Riopelle’s two-out solo homer in the bottom of the sixth.
The Gators didn’t score again.
“We got outplayed tonight and we didn't play our best baseball,” Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “The message is we've got nothing to lose at this point. We're in the College World Series and playing in the finals. We lost by a run. Everybody's disappointed, but we can't let this leak into tomorrow.”
With LSU’s ace starter Paul Skenes likely done for the series after throwing 243 pitches in 15.2 innings in wins over Tennessee last Saturday and No. 1 seed Wake Forest Thursday, the Tigers needed a solid performance from Floyd.
What he gave them was stunning – a career-high in strikeouts and in pitches (122). He and Cooper combined for 20 strikeouts and allowed six hits.
“He's (Floyd) a great pitcher who threw it really well tonight,” Riopelle said.“What more could you ask for a guy in the World Series giving you a bunch of innings and limiting their bullpen use?”
Floyd struck six of the last seven batters he retired. He concluded the night at the end of eight innings with the score deadlocked 3-3 after LSU third baseman Tommy White cracked a solo homer in the top of the eighth.
Cooper entered in the bottom of the ninth and wiggled out of jams in the ninth and 10th innings twice leaving Florida’s potential game-winning run at second base.
The way LSU followed its game plan, the Tigers’ second consecutive CWS extra-innings win shouldn’t have been a nail-biter.
While Floyd was pitching the game of his life, LSU’s batting order inflated Florida starting pitcher Brandon Sproat’s pitch count from the jump.
The Tigers forced him to throw 107 pitches in the first four innings, yet LSU led just 2-1 on Beloso’s first-inning RBI single and second baseman Gavin Dugas’ leadoff solo homer in the third.
Sproat gave up six hits, walked four batters and hit another. He struck out seven, including inning-ending whiffs by LSU right fielder Brayden Jobert in the first, first baseman Tre’ Morgan in the second, catcher Alex Milazzo in the third and Jobert again in the fourth as LSU left two, three, two and three runners on base respectively.
It started a maddening trend of LSU stranding runners in all but two innings with multiple runners left on base six times.
It's not that LSU didn’t get hits. It’s just that 10 of LSU’s 11 hits came from four players – 2-hole hitter White (2 for 5, 1 RBI, scored a run and had a solo homer), 3-hole hitter Morgan (2 for 6), cleanup hitter Dugas (3 for 5, 1 RBI, scored and run and had a homer and a double) and 5-hole hitter Beloso (3 fo 5, 2 RBIs, scored a run with a solo homer).
The rest of LSU’s batters went 1 for 24 at the plate.
The Tigers hit .160 (4 for 25) with runners on base and .083 (1-12) with runners in scoring position. Florida hit .182 (2 for 11) with runners on base and .000 (0 for 8) with runners in scoring position.
“Baseball is a tough game,” said Beloso, who’s batting .400 (8 for 20) in the CWS with six RBIs and two homers. “When runners get on that's when pitchers tend to make their best pitches. That's when they rise to the occasion.
“But in terms of not getting the job done, no one's freaking out about it. We've got to just keep playing the game and keep putting ourselves in those opportunities. And you just know eventually we're going to come through and provide pitchers with run support.”
With the Tigers leading 2-0, Florida got its first run in the bottom of the third.
After Floyd retired the Gators’ first seven of nine batters allowing two hits and striking out five, he walked Gators’ second baseman Cade Kurland who advanced to third on center fielder Wyatt Langford’s double off the right field wall.
Langford then scored on first baseman Jac Caglianone’s ground ball out that caromed off Morgan’s glove to Dugas who threw to Floyd who raced to cover first base.
Floyd snuffed the Gators’ rally by striking out shortstop Josh Rivera swinging for a second time.
Sproat’s 111-pitch wild ride ended when he walked LSU shortstop Jordan Thompson to open the top of the fifth inning.
Florida lefty freshman Cade Fisher, one of the Gators’ most trusted relievers with a 6-0 record, entered and threw 10 strikes in his first 11 pitches to record three straight outs including strikeouts by left fielder Josh Pearson and Crews to end the inning.
The Gators tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth when right fielder Ty Evans led off with a double down the left field line. He moved to second on third baseman Toby Halter’s ground out to third base and scored on Kurland’s grounder to second. Langford grounded out to end the inning.
After LSU again got two hits and again left two runners on base in the top of the sixth, Floyd struck out three of the four batters he faced in the bottom of the sixth.
But the batter he didn’t strike out -- Riopelle -- hit Floyd’s 1-0 pitch into the right field stands for a 3-2 lead.
LSU's White returned the favor in the top of the eighth. He hopped on Fisher’s 0-2 pitch and launched it well over the left-field fence for a solo homer that tied the game.
When Morgan followed with a single, Florida’s O’Sullivan immediately pulled Fisher and inserter closer Brandon Neely who had 13 saves this season.
Neely got Dugas to pop out to center field and struck out Beloso to strand LSU’s 14th runner of the night.
Floyd finished off his historic performance in the bottom of the eighth striking out two of three hitters.
Neely retired LSU three up, three down in the top of the ninth, followed by Tigers’ reliever Cooper entering the battle.
He got through the bottom of the ninth by striking out substitute right fielder Richie Schiekofer with the potential game-winning run on second base.
The top of the 10th looked like most of LSU’s innings at the plate to that point. Crews and White drew one-out walks and didn’t get any farther as Morgan popped out to second base and Dugas flied out to center.
Florida center fielder Michael Robertson flied out to open the bottom of the 10th. Third baseman Colby Halter was hit a pitch – LSU lost a replay review of the play – and Kurland had infield single when Cooper couldn’t glove Kurland’s line drive.
LSU’s Pearson then produced the Tigers’ game-saving defensive play when he jumped while retreating and speared Langford’s 112 miles per hour line drive for the second out.
“Josh was standing where he needed to be,” Johnson said. “Broke back and made a heck of a play. And he's a good defender.”
Then Caglianone, a Golden Spikes Award finalist along with Crews and LSU pitcher Paul Skenes, pounded his bat into the ground in frustration after he popped out to end the inning with runners on first and second.
Neely, who hadn’t pitched more than three innings in a game this season, opened his fourth inning vs. the Tigers in the top of the 11th by serving an 0-1 pitch to leadoff hitter Beloso who parked it in the right-field stands for a solo homer.
“My prior at-bat he struck me out on three straight heaters,” Beloso said of Neely. “I figured he was going to go back to that. It was not pretty. And then the first pitch blew by me again. So, I knew he was coming back with it. They weren't going to switch anything up.
LSU got nothing else and it didn’t matter. Cooper struck out two of Florida’s last three batters to call it a night.
While Johnson won’t reveal the Tigers’ game two starting pitcher until he’s required to turn in his lineup – the guess is lefty Nate Ackenhausen who started in Tuesday's 5-0 win over Tennessee threw six scoreless innings – the Gators will start staff ace Hurston Waldrep.
“Anytime that guy gets on the mound is a great advantage for us,” Riopelle said of Waldrep, who’s 10-3 with a 3.99 ERA in 106.1 innings.
LSU has seen Waldrep before. He transferred to Florida from Southern Miss where he faced the Tigers in last season’s Hattiesburg Regional.
Waldrep threw 6.2 innings in a start vs. LSU, allowing five hits and two earned runs while striking out 11 and walking two. He left the game, which the Tigers won 7-6, with the score tied at 2-2.