LSU remains alive after 3-1 triumph
Tops Oregon State to set up bracket finale Saturday
OMAHA, Neb. — Alex Lange limited top-seeded Oregon State to two hits over 7⅓ innings, and LSU ended the Beavers’ 23-game winning streak with a 3-1 victory Friday to set up a winnertake-all Bracket 1 final at the College World Series.
The teams will meet again Saturday, with the winner going to the best-of-three final beginning Monday against Florida or TCU.
The Tigers (51-18), who avenged a 13-1 loss Monday to the Beavers (56-5) Monday, became the first team to knock off the Beavers since Southern California April 29.
They did all of their scoring against national wins leader Jake Thompson (14-1). Max Engelbrekt relieved in the seventh after Josh Smith hit Thompson’s first pitch of the inning into the right-field seats for a two-run lead.
Lange (10-5), a Chicago Cubs first-round draft pick, ran into trouble in the third when he walked three batters and gave up a double. Only one more batter advanced past first against him, and he retired eight in a row before he turned the game over to closer Zack Hess with one out in the eighth. Hess retired the final five batters, four by strikeout, for his fourth save.
LSU opened the second inning with a double and two singles and led, 2-0, when Beau Jordan’s safetysqueeze bunt scored Zach Watson. The Beavers got a run back in the third on a bases-loaded walk.
They should have had another run score earlier in the inning when, with runners on first and second, Steven Kwan sliced a ball down the left-field line that bounced off the wall and was ruled foul. TV replays indicated it was a fair ball.
Oregon State did not protest, but national coordinator of umpires George Drouches said through an NCAA spokesperson that crew chief Danny Collins should have called for a video review. Collins, who was working third base, made the original foul call. Kwan ended up popping out to shortstop.
The Beavers’ two hits were their fewest since they had four in their season opener against Indiana.
LSU’s Zach Watson had three hits for the second game in a row, the first player to do that in the CWS since Florida’s Richie Martin in 2015. Watson is 8 for his past 12 after going 0 for 4 a week ago in the Tigers’ CWS opener.