Gilbert, LSU oust top-seeded Beavers

Oregon State suffers back-to-back losses for first time all season

OMAHA, Neb. — Caleb Gilbert held No. 1 national seed Oregon State to two hits in 7⅓ innings, Michael Papierski homered from both sides of the plate and LSU beat the Beavers 6-1 on Saturday to reach the College World Series finals.

The Tigers (52-18) will face No. 3 national seed Florida (5019) — a 3-0 winner over TCU on Saturday night — in the best-of-three finals beginning Monday night.

LSU won its third straight elimination game, including back-to-back victories over Oregon State. The Beavers (56-6) had a pair of 23-game winning streaks and finished the season with a .903 winning percentage — the best since Texas’ mark of .908 in 1982.

The Tigers beat the Beavers 3-1 on Friday to force the second game.

Gilbert allowed only an infield single and walk before Michael Gretler homered in the seventh. He struck out a career-high seven in his longest outing in his two seasons at LSU. Zack Hess allowed one hit the rest of the way.

Papierski became the first player to homer twice in a CWS game since TCU’s Bryan Holaday in 2010. He went deep from the left side off Bryce Fehmel in the second and the right side off Brandon Eisert in the fourth.

Before Saturday, Oregon State hadn’t lost consecutive games since a five-game losing streak from May 6-13, 2016, and hadn’t been shut out since April 30, 2016.

Fourth-seeded LSU reached the championship round for the first time since winning the national title in 2009.

FLORIDA 3, TCU 0: Alex Faedo pitched three-hit ball 4 for 7⅓ shutout innings in a 2 2 second straight strong performance 1 against TCU, and 2 Florida advanced to the finals. 3

2 TCU (50-18) had beaten the 0 Gators 9-2 on Friday to force the winner-take-all bracket final and the teams’ third meeting in a week. Faedo (9-2) struck out 11, just as he did last Sunday in a 3-0 win over the Horned Frogs. Michael Byrne finished for his 18th save.

The Gators had struggled on offense since they arrived in Omaha, but with Faedo holding down the Frogs they were able to muster enough against Jared Janczak (9-2).

Christian Hicks doubled in a run in the fifth, and he tripled and scored in the seventh for Florida.