Florida plays an ace in shutout of TCU
OMAHA, Neb. — Alex Faedo limited TCU to two singles and struck out 11 in seven innings, and Florida posted its first College World Series shutout since 1991 with a 3-0 win Sunday night.
Faedo, the Detroit Tigers’ first-round draft pick this month, had at least one strikeout each inning and retired 10 in a row before turning the game over to closer Michael Byrne to start the eighth.
Faedo, who mixed his slider with a mid-90s fastball during a dominant 106-pitch performance, has been part of seven of the Gators’ nine shutouts this season. This shutout was Florida’s second in its 36 all-time CWS games and first in Omaha since a 5-0 win over Florida State 26 years ago.
Jared Janczak (9-1) struggled in his four innings and lost for the first time this season. Byrne worked out of two mini jams and earned his 17th save.
JJ Schwarz, Christian Hicks and Nelson Maldonado each drove in runs for the Gators (48-18).
Florida is in the CWS for the sixth time in eight years and TCU for the fourth year in a row. This was the first time they’ve met.
The Gators came in having lost three straight one-run CWS games, and six of their eight losses in Omaha since 2011 have been by one run.
Last year, Faedo was a hard-luck loser in an elimination game against Texas Tech, allowing two runs, walking none and striking out nine. Sunday, he walked two in addition to giving up an infield single and base hit to left.
The Frogs squandered their few chances. Catcher Mike Rivera threw out Cam Warner twice, picking him off at first in the second inning and when he tried to take second on a ball in the dirt in the fourth. Zach Humphreys and Evan Skoug, the Frogs’ leading home run hitter, both struck out with the bases loaded in the third. Faedo picked off Nolan Brown at first to end the fourth.
TCU didn’t have another batter reach base until Connor Wanhanen bunted for a hit to open the eighth against Byrne.
Janczak lost for the second time in three career CWS starts. The sophomore entered the game having allowed a total of three runs over four starts covering 221⁄3 innings since he missed a month because of shoulder soreness.
Florida will play Louisville in a Bracket 2 winners’ game Tuesday night. The Horned Frogs play Texas A&M in an elimination game Tuesday.
LSU 5, FLORIDA ST. 4
LSU coach Paul Mainieri said his team wasn’t very sharp in its College World Series opener. It turned out the Tigers really didn’t need to be, not with the Florida State follies in the field.
The Tigers scored their first run Saturday night when Antoine Duplantis came around all the way from first on a third strike wild pitch, and they tied it in the eighth when the Seminoles committed three errors on the same play.
Greg Deichmann followed with the go-ahead single in the victory, LSU’s 17th in a row.
“It was a little bit of a bizarre game,” Mainieri said.